Whether or not you’re a Chris Christie fan, his impressive win in deep blue New Jersey this week has set off alarm bells for Democrats and they’re getting ready to do their usual thing.  If they see a potential political rival from GOP, they begin an immediate campaign to destroy his or her political credibility.   Squarely in the Democrat cross-hairs then is Gov. Chris Christie, who has made no secret about his aspirations for national office.

Top Democratic officials launched a concerted offensive Wednesday to define New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in a negative light, believing that he has emerged from his reelection landslide as the Republican Party’s strongest potential presidential contender for 2016.

Some Democratic strategists said the party made a mistake by not spending more money to attack Christie during the gubernatorial campaign, which might have suppressed his margin of victory and denied the Republican a sweeping mandate in a blue state. In the months to come, Democrats say, they plan to chip away at Christie’s moderate image and present him nationally as a hard-edged conservative

Christie is hardly what one would describe as a “hard-edged conservative”.  In fact, he’s a pretty run-of-the-mill North-East Republican.  But in order to demonize him, the Democrats must convince the public that Christie tends to be what the Democrats have taught them to hate:

“His policy set in New Jersey is ‘Bush-Romney,’ ” Murphy said. “By comparison to the tea party, he seems moderate, but he’s not. And Democrats would do well to expose that reality.”

The Washington Post isn’t sure that strategy is all that smart for Democrats:

But that strategy would also be risky for Democrats, since casting Christie as a die-hard conservative could help him survive the Republican primaries.

Certainly possible. Democrats are convinced that most of Christie’s appeal is in what one of them likens to a “vaudeville routine”:

“What’s worked for [Christie] has been to make sure that nobody talks about the issues, that people just get consumed with his personality-driven late-show entertainment,” O’Comartun said. “People will see past the bluster and the vaudeville routine that is the Chris Christie show. They’ll focus in on the issues.”

Pretty funny coming from a crew that somehow sold an empty suit twice.   Not enough seemed to see through the act and focus on the issues then.  Of course, the issues might be a double-edged sword in the 2016 election, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane ObamaCare.  Regardless, the personal and political destruction of Chris Christie is now high on the Democrat agenda.

~McQ