Increasingly, Chris Christie is talking only to right-wing audiences. They're the most likely to see his nastiness as plain talk, his self-satisfied swagger as bravery, his defunding public education and family planning as welcome, and his hunger for a national audience as more interesting than the crap presidential field the GOP actually has. We saw this way back at the beginning of his sham "Town Hall" meetings carefully stacked with Republican loyalists who cheered on cue, a Greek chorus for his taxpayer-funded, self-serving YouTube moments that give every impression that the New Jersey governor is wildly popular in New Jersey, and should take on the world.
That is, if you're not paying too much attention, don't read polling, don't ask too many questions, and are satisfied doing personality journalism because real analysis is harder. That, sadly, is how the once-better Meet the Press fails to think critically in discussing Christie's speech to right-wing think tank American Enterprise Institute last week. That's how you get people like host David Gregory fluttering around with excitement over Christie without paying too much attention to what Christie actually said and why the well-heeled audience at AEI, and Gregory's panel, have the luxury to laugh right along with Christie.
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