I don’t mean to pile on Romney today, but his and Chris Christie’s statements are begging for responses.
Asked if he would consider being the vice presidential candidate on a Romney ticket, Christie said he anticipated finishing out his term as governor of New Jersey, which ends in 2013. “Now is the time for me to help fix the problems in New Jersey,” he remarked. He does plan to help Romney as much as he is able to on the campaign trail.
Speaking about what a President Romney would do, Christie strongly asserted that Romney was a “a man of his word.”
Which “word” would that be? The one who declared he was pro-choice because a close relative died of an “illegal abortion?” Or the one who contradicted himself in the space of about 10 seconds on the Boy Scouts? Or the one who declared that he was an “independent” during the years of Reagan-Bush?
Or the one who has been on both sides of just about every major issue of the past few decades?
Here’s the rub. Mitt Romney’s selling point is not intellectual consistency. Never was. I recognized that when I backed Romney in the 2008 primaries. Romney’s selling point, and it’s a strong one, is competence. He has a strong business background. He saved the Olympics. Etc. Stick to that and Romney is still a better choice than Obama, who is by turns incompetent when we need competence and hyper-competent when it comes to enacting destructive policies. Of course, Romney isn’t the only, or probably even most, competent competitor in the primary. Cases can be made that both Cain and Perry are more competent in business and government, respectively, and both are more intellectually consistent.
Christie has chosen to back Romney, which is fine. But between this “man of his word” line and the “intellectually dishonest” line regarding fairly comparing ObamaCare to RomneyCare, Christie is insulting the intelligence of anyone who is paying the slightest attention.
Why did Christie endorse anyone now? He has rendered himself irrelevant. I think there is a long way to go in the nominating process.
I’m with you, LeighB-1, why endorse anyone all? Dumb move, Chris.
Oh, wait, Romney wants to scoop up any lose cash Christie lovers haven’t yet committed. Smart move, Mitt.
I agree with Christie he is a man of his word and his word is big government.
Bryan – Spot-on. To paraphrase another ‘great man,’ it all depends on what the meaning of word is.
Why is Romney even a candidate still in anyone’s eyes, when the first words to pop into my and likely most people’s minds when they see the title here, is “which words”?
This endorsement will do little for Romney, but it will hurt Christie’s future prospects severely. Whether or not Romney gets the nomination — please, God, let not this disaster fall upon the good people of the United States of America! — his objective record is one of relentlessly pursuing power, and saying anything he thinks will win him a few more votes from whatever audience he’s facing at the moment.
It isn’t mainly about RomneyCare. It’s mainly about the character of the man we’d like to put in the Oval Office. Romney’s character is that of a power-worshipper. Think twice, Republicans.
Christie could never have won the Republican nomination.
The moment he steps onto the national stage he’s revealed for what he is: a moderate-liberal that’s strong only on the one issue of teacher’s unions.