New Jersey Governor Chris Christie gave his keynote address Tuesday
night before the Party faithful. Let’s
just say for the sake of argument that about the only thing bigger than the
Governor’s waste size was his ego, which if unleashed would’ve easily filled
every square inch of the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
What struck me as interesting was that some of the biggest
critics of the speech were from the Right. David Frum called it a “poorly planned mess.”
An opposition party in hard times needs to offer
hope. Such hope was notably absent from a speech that talked more about hard
truths and unpleasant realities. Nor was it wise to talk so much about shared
sacrifices when the centerpiece of the Romney campaign is a big tax cut for
upper-income earners. Argue the case for the tax cut on growth grounds, but
don't generate a clip that can appear in an Obama attack ad alongside a
debunking quote from the Tax Foundation.
Chris Wallace of Fox News, who every once in a while allows
his inner journalist to come out, called it “off-key” and noted that Christie
used the word “I” 37 times, “Romney” seven times and “jobs” once.
“It seemed sometimes as if he was promoting his
own candidacy more than he was Mitt Romney's. People liked the speech, but not
nearly the kind of intense reaction to it and intense listening to it that
there was for Ann Romney.”
Of course for those of us living in the New York metro area,
who’ve had the “privilege” of listening to this gasbag, this was hardly
newsworthy. Since his election as
governor three years ago, Christie has had one thing – and one thing only – on his
mind: himself. Everything about the man
reeks of self-importance. He dominates
every conversation, bullies everyone who dares disagree with him and, above all
else, must be the center of the universe everywhere he goes.
You want to know the real reason that Chris Christie removed
himself from VP consideration? You saw
it on that stage. If he couldn’t even lower
himself to share the spotlight with his Party’s presumptive nominee, how in the
world could he ever be expected to play second fiddle to him? Why should it be a surprise to anyone that he
would use a platform like the Republican National Convention to further his
agenda?
In case you weren’t paying attention, what you heard Tuesday
night wasn’t the keynote address for Mitt Romney; it was Chris Christie’s 2016 acceptance
speech. I’m sure he’ll dust it off and
freshen it up some. By then, hopefully,
his state’s unemployment rate will be lower than what it is now, which is about
one and a half points above the national average.
I guess he forgot to mention that little tidbit of information while he was bragging about all those
hard choices he had to make. Oops.
Way to go, Gov!
Links: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/28/ann-wins-christie-flat.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/chris-christie-fox-news_n_1839972.html
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