Ace is right that what Christie allegedly said today about limiting exemptions from antidiscimination laws in gay marriage cases to religious institutions is more important than this silliness, but I don’t want to hammer him for that without a direct transcript and I can’t find one anywhere. If he said what he’s claimed to have said, he’ll say it again in a more visible forum eventually. In the meantime we’re left with the clip below, which I want to call a palate cleanser except … I don’t feel cleansed.

He promised to “tell it like it is,” so here “it” is, in all its glory. In fairness to him, this wasn’t a random TMI but something offered in service to a larger point about policy. A questioner stood up and cited Bible verses to support environmentalism and a less warlike foreign policy. Christie’s reply: We don’t always follow religion as best practices, do we?

“We should all acquit ourselves in a way that we believe is consistent with the teachings that we follow, if we follow certain teachings from a religious perspective,” Christie said. “That’s what I’ll always continue to try to do. Me for instance, I’m a Catholic, but I’ve used birth control, and not just the rhythm method, ok. So, you know, my church has a teaching against birth control. Does that make me an awful Catholic because I believed and practiced that function during part of my life? I don’t think so.”

You need to watch it for the full experience, and by “full experience” I mean the guy in the foreground who instinctively covers his eyes in horror at Christie’s mention of the rhythm method. Anyway, I may be just a simple atheist caveman but I don’t follow how he gets from saying he tries to behave in ways that are consistent with the teachings of his church to shrugging off using birth control even though the Church discourages it. The traditional line on why the president needn’t follow religious teachings is that he’s duty-bound to do what’s best for the country in his opinion even if, as in cases of war, his faith discourages it. It’s a momentous obligation, so Christie naturally illustrates with … his preference for condoms over the rhythm method? Huh? Isn’t he competing for socially conservative voters who like the Church’s teachings on abstinence in lieu of contraception?

Ah well. He’ll still make a fine VP for President Trump.