In previous columns, we’ve covered the pros and cons of Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, who eventually took himself out of consideration, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, and Glenn Youngkin. This week, we turn to another former governor – New Jersey’s Chris Christie.

We’ll get to the criticisms of Governor Christie in a little bit, and there are plenty if you talk to hard core conservatives. But there are a lot of reasons he’d make a pretty good president, and yes, there’s about an 80% chance he runs. Virtually every move he’s been making, almost every media appearance he’s done, he’s strongly suggested he’s leaning towards a run. My job here, as with every one of these columns, is to objectively give you the case for and against, without fear or favor, so that when the debates come, you’ll have a collection of these columns to see what will probably come up in the conversations between the candidates.

The case for Chris Christie

1. Electability – Let’s forget about the primaries for a minute. Those will be addressed later. He got elected as a Republican governor twice from the state of New Jersey. In case you haven’t checked recently, New Jersey isn’t exactly what you would consider a purple or red state. It’s been deep blue for a very long time, and Christie demonstrated that a fiscal conservative can win in a blue state, and then get reelected.

2. Here come the judges – He’s got a tremendous legal background. His judicial picks would most likely be stellar. He also would prioritize the reformation of the Justice Department, which has become wildly political under two of the last three administrations. He also oversaw the Redistricting Trust Commission with Mike Pompeo and brought successful lawsuits that turned what would have been a gerrymandered Congressional map in states like New York that would have made it all but impossible for any Republican to compete to a map that saw the GOP gain four seats in the 2022 midterms. And by the way, the GOP advantage in the House in 2023? It’s four seats. Chris Christie, along with Pompeo and Kevin McCarthy and a few others, can be thanked for that.

3. Communication – Even though the Fort Lee Bridge lane closure scandal hurt him politically at the time, Christie conducted one of the most amazing press conferences of all time. He stood there and took every tough question from an incredibly hostile press corps, and answered forcefully and directly until everyone in the room exhausted their list of questions. On ABC’s This Week program, Christie often appears as the token conservative on the panel and consistently articulates a reasonable conservative position to any moderates that might be watching. We’ve seen with Joe Biden that media relations is not doing Biden or his administration any favors. Christie would be as good a Republican communicator in the White House as anyone since Reagan.

4. The big three – economics, crime, energy – The next president will most likely inherit a Biden-caused recession, and one of the only ways out of it is to cut government spending, something Christie did in New Jersey as governor. The next president will also have to reverse the damage done by Joe Biden to our energy production sector. Christie is a supporter of fracking, worked to cut regulation on energy permitting, yet simultaneously holding energy companies accountable for environmental contamination in New Jersey. As for crime, Christie’s work as U.S. Attorney saw cases brought both in white collar corporate corruption as well as taking on high-profile criminal cases on both sides of the aisle. He’s always been regarded as a straight shooter when it comes to applying the law.

5. Education reform – Christie is a big proponent of vouchers and school choice, which was very controversial in New Jersey. Underperforming schools were taken over by the state, and funding of underperforming schools was held back. Christie also oversaw the creation of 23 new charter schools while governor. This will play well for him in the debates.

6. Retail politics – In 2016, I was flying home from Miami’s GOP debate and ran into Chris Christie on the street outside the airport terminal. I introduced myself, and he stopped what he was doing and we talked for 10 minutes. He is very charming in person, and ever since that day, whenever he’s come on the radio show, he remembers me by name and that conversation we had, which is one of thousands of similar conversations I’m sure he’s had. He has a tremendous memory and is a very likeable guy in person.

The case against Chris Christie

1. The primary gauntlet – Regardless of the attraction of winning general elections in blue states, Christie is too much a moderate on social issues to have a chance to win in the primaries. His biggest challenge will be to convince primary voters that he’s viable in the fall, and acceptable enough on the core issues like guns, life, marriage, et cetera that social conservatives care about.

2. Weight – Christie had lap-band surgery in 2013 and lost a lot of weight, but still is very heavy. His health and weight will be an issue for him. Maybe not spoken aloud, but with voters, he’ll have to lose more to look healthier.

3. Bridgegate – Even though the second-term scandal all but destroyed his immediate future political aspirations at the time, it turned out that Christie had nothing to do with staff creating intentional traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge as retribution to the Fort Lee Democratic Mayor for not endorsing Christie’s reelection for governor. The staff involved were immediately fired, but the damage to Christie was immense, and it remains to be seen if enough time has passed to make him viable again, because by the time 2016’s cycle hit New Hampshire, Christie was done, and Bridgegate was largely the reason why.

4. Hit the beach – In an optics nightmare, during a budget shutdown in 2017 that forced the closures of a lot of places, including Island Beach State Park, Christie and his family were photographed alone on the beach vacationing. Christie in an interview asking about whether he had anything to say to people who were upset that he got to go to the beach and they couldn’t, he replied flippantly, “I’m sorry that they’re not the governor.” I’m sure he’s sorry he made that statement.

5. Attorney General Christie? – For reasons I will state in a bit, there is some speculation among 2024 primary watchers that a Christie candidacy would really just be a run to go at Donald Trump and take him out of contention, and that whomever wins the primary, and whenever the next Republican becomes president, Chris Christie will be well-positioned to become the next Attorney General, something he has shown a desire to do, and was considered to be in the running for in the Trump administration until Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions inexplicably got the nod.

I’ll add one point that could be taken as good or bad, depending on your view of former President Trump. Chris Christie has known Donald Trump for decades. Christie was Trump’s debate prep, standing in both as Hillary Clinton and as Joe Biden. Chris Christie knows every move Trump will make on a debate stage, whereas Trump only knows Christie’s debating skills in character. You saw what Christie did to Marco Rubio’s presidential aspirations in 2016, all but vaporizing them within a matter of 2 minutes at a time when Rubio was a perceived frontrunner.

The point here is if you are a supporter of Trump, you should be very nervous about Christie on stage. Donald Trump is. You’ll notice that in the long litany of obnoxious nicknames Trump hands out to political opponents, regardless of which side of the aisle they’re on, Trump has never given one to Christie, even though Christie has publicly criticized Trump at length over the January 6th stuff. The reason why is Trump is concerned about what Christie would do or say on stage in a debate, something he’s seemingly unconcerned about with anyone else that might get in. If you are someone who wants to turn the page from Trump, you want Chris Christie on that debate stage as early and as often as possible, because if anyone in the GOP has the skill set in a debate to do some damage and end a candidacy, Christie’s the leading candidate to do it.

I may take an operational pause from these columns for a bit until we see how the next few months shake out. There’s still the specter of Tim Scott out there, as well as outgoing Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. But at the Republican Jewish Coalition gathering in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago, former South Carolina Governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley strongly hinted she’s about to get in, and I guess talk, we must about the Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson fever about to sweet the nation. If either of them get in, or some other surprise announcements occur, you’ll see the case for and against them right here.