Obama to tour New Jersey hurricane damage — with Chris Christie
posted at 9:27 pm on October 30, 2012 by Allahpundit
Pains me to say it but this is awfully smart retail politics by The One. He got an unexpected political opportunity (and challenge) from the storm to show leadership and compassion in the aftermath. What better way to do both than by coopting one of Romney’s most visible surrogates, the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention, into a “message: I care” photo op in New Jersey? It’s a way to show centrists that he’s bipartisan when he needs to be. The alpha-male optics of having Christie forced to stand behind him while he’s at the podium would alone be worth it.
President Obama will join Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, in viewing damage from the storm on Wednesday, the White House announced on Tuesday as Mr. Obama praised relief efforts at a Red Cross headquarters in Washington…
Mr. Christie had been one of the president’s most ardent critics until the storm’s arrival. In the last 24 hours, he has praised Mr. Obama’s leadership and the administration’s actions to speed relief resources to New Jersey.
At the Red Cross, Mr. Obama said his message to officials in the federal government was “no bureaucracy, no red tape.” And he said federal officials were “going to continue to push as hard as we can” to provide resources to places like Newark, where there were major losses of electricity.
I wonder who gets more out of this deal — Obama for the reasons stated above (plus a contact high from appearing with a guy who’s earning praise for his storm performance) or Christie for getting to share the spotlight with a Democrat who’s going to win his very blue state easily next week? Whether you think Christie’s working a political angle here depends, I guess, on how much you like him personally: In fairness, it’d look petty if he denied The One a visit at a moment when he’s on official business, although there are ways to do it that can be framed as apolitical. The Christie-skeptic theory would be that (a) at a minimum, he’s prioritizing his own reelection bid as governor over Romney’s campaign and (b) that just maybe he secretly hopes Romney loses because it’d clear the way for his own 2016 candidacy. (Remember that Christie’s convention speech was lighter than expected for the nominee.) The Christie-phile theory is that he really truly doesn’t give a damn about presidential politics right now. He’s not a robot; he spent the last day being briefed on massive destruction in his state and spent the days before that bracing for landfall from the storm of the century. He’s probably too busy thinking about Atlantic City being underwater to care much about the election. And if you asked Romney whether his reaction is inappropriate, no doubt he’d say that it is. Exit question: Which theory is correct?
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As I just posted HotairLib has their whole head up their six o clock.
hamradio on May 24, 2013 at 2:43 PM
Who wrote the speech? Or are you just praising the messenger?
mixplix on May 24, 2013 at 2:57 PM
Connect the dots: journolist meeting by invitation only at the White House on, what Tuesday?, “big”speech by Obama on Thursday, lame stream media fawning over speech on Friday. Who would have seen that coming, huh?
parke on May 24, 2013 at 2:58 PM
They need the “war on terror” in order to further erode our Constitutional freedoms and to deflect criticism from the administration’s and Federal government’s ongoing corruption.
They are just trying to massage it so that they don’t offend the Muslims, international Libtards and their own sensibilities anymore than necessary.
A few Muslim terrorists here and there are quite expendable to this Administration despite their sympathies for them. These drone attacks also do much deflect any potential criticism that the Administration is weak in dealing with such matters.
Dr. ZhivBlago on May 24, 2013 at 2:59 PM
MSNBC is nothing but a left wing propaganda machine serving their master, Obama.
rplat on May 24, 2013 at 3:07 PM
I believe that he was officially nominated 10 days after he was sworn in. Wow! The WON really worked long hours that week and a half to earn that POS medal. During those ten days he ordered NO DRONE STRIKES to keep his peaceful record clean.
fred5678 on May 24, 2013 at 3:22 PM
Obama: Don’t worry about that Ben Ghazi guy. I killed Bin Laden, and Bush didn’t!
And Obummer still wants to close Gitmo? Good luck with that–not even Upchuck Schumer was willing to hold trials in New York!
Steve Z on May 24, 2013 at 3:24 PM
They just changed the definition of terrorist. They used to be jihadis from the Middle East–now they’re Minutemen in Arizona and Tea Partiers in Ohio.
Steve Z on May 24, 2013 at 3:29 PM
Erika, sometimes your writing shows signs of rivaling even the Master of Snark himself, Allahpundit. Good work!
KS Rex on May 24, 2013 at 3:45 PM
I love how crazy Al invoked the Nobel Peace Prize in praise of a speech that spoke about dropping bombs on people’s head. Maybe it was the “fewer” bombs than before that raised this to historic levels.
Do they even know or care that they are morons.
marnes on May 24, 2013 at 3:46 PM
His speech made less sense than Bluto’s Animal House Speech and was far less entertaining. Nothing less than base rallying time. Never thought I would say this, but Code Pink was the best part.
DDay on May 24, 2013 at 4:01 PM
Sperling posted this at the Examiner on May 23 about this “historic speech of Obysmal’s:
You see, we are just not working hard enough to “work with the Muslim American community” who are a “fundamental part of the American family.” Watch out, too, because Obysmal is again trying to limit the impact of the Internet.
onlineanalyst on May 24, 2013 at 4:22 PM
That Chris Hayes is a bit of a twink, isn’t he?
onlineanalyst on May 24, 2013 at 4:25 PM
Obama apparently gave two speeches yesterday and I watched the other one.
myiq2xu on May 24, 2013 at 5:03 PM
Nah. I’d detest the little pissant s.o.b. if he was white…or Asian…or any one of the myriad of made-up racial divisions.
Solaratov on May 24, 2013 at 11:00 PM
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