 Gov. Christie speaking at Fair Lawn town hall meeting(When it's interrupted by LaRouche supporters, and the guest of honor comes and goes by helicopter? h/t JRBoh)
I had the pleasure of being inside the governor's town hall meeting in Fair Lawn yesterday. And although I'll probably never be a restaurant or movie critic, I'm going to take a stab at a political review of the event. (You can go back and read my question-by-question livetweet of the event on Twitter.)
So, here goes: For starters, as someone who had never before seen Governor Christie in person, but had seen a few too many YouTube videos of him, I have to say it was somewhat surreal.
The setting was a large and packed gymnasium with a definite mix of friendlies and unfriendlies, among a crowd that seemed unusually white, if I'm being honest. However, critics who accuse the Governor of hand-selecting the audience or the topics would have been hardpressed to make that case yesterday, as he basically went 0 for 8 in search of a friendly question.
Unfortunately, I was not one of the 8, although I had wormed my way to the front of the room (hence, the upclose pic w/my blackberry), and thought I might just get called on if I raised my hand high enough. No such luck. My question was going to be about transparency - along the lines of today's piece on Philly.com about Christie's refusal to reveal who funded his national political barnstorming tour last year, much as he's refusing to reveal information about the taxpayer-funded helicopter junkets he's been taking? So I was going to ask:
Where is it you've been traveling? Who is it you've been traveling with? And why is it that the taxpayers who have been footing the bill aren't being given these answers?
Maybe someday we'll find out. But, it was not to be yesterday. Meanwhile - the rest of my review, and the final grade, is on the flip side. :) |
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