With Gov. Chris Christie emerging as Mitt Romney's most effective surrogate and potentially a consideration for running mate should he get the GOP nomination, it matters more and more who runs President Barack Obama's re-election campaign in New Jersey. And how it's run.
Today, we learn that Jackie Cornell-Bechelli has been named the President's State Director for NJ. Jackie put time into Organizing for America (OFA) as NJ State Director after Obama's campaign morphed into the OFA structure. I'm not a fan of OFA, which always struck me as trying hard to look like a bottom-up organizing effort when it was actually quite the opposite. And not a fan of curtailing DNC's wildly-successful 50-State Strategy (under which we took the White House, and both Houses of Congress, and many state & local offices) in favor of OFA's expensive concentration on the fortunes of just one candidate, the President. That said, it makes sense that Obama's re-election campaign rely on somebody already "in the family" who is both known and appreciated by the Obama campaign structure.
Plus, Jackie Cornell-Bechelli also spent a year as New Jersey Citizen Action's Political Director, a well-staffed citizen watchdog organization I admire. She leaves that job for the Obama position. For 7 years, she also worked for Planned Parenthood, for which organization every woman I know is grateful.
It's a struggle to suppress my dissatisfaction with the President's first term. Well, until I look at the GOP alternatives, particularly the clown car passenger who nearly won the Iowa caucuses last night. And Romney hisself, who has yet to rise above platitude and the reciting of patriotic song lyrics (as one @BlueJersey Twitter follower pointed out, bet we won't hear 'ole Mittens recite Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land on the stump).
Congratulations to Jackie Cornell-Bechelli. We'll be interested to see how she intends to wean New Jersey away from Chris Christie's idea of the best direction.
President Obama's remarks today announcing a drawdown - to zero - of American troop presence in Iraq is not directly New Jersey news.
But more than 100 people with ties to New Jersey have died in the allied wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And at least 539 New Jerseyans died at the World Trade Center attack tied to both wars. For them, for NJ soldiers deployed in Iraq and veterans of 2 wars there, and for the $40 billion spent by NJ on the Iraq War, here is the speech ostensibly ending it, from the President:
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON ENDING THE WAR IN IRAQ
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
12:49 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. As a candidate for President, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end -- for the sake of our national security and to strengthen American leadership around the world. After taking office, I announced a new strategy that would end our combat mission in Iraq and remove all of our troops by the end of 2011.
Now, Palin's an attention-hog. But I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that her announcement took up less oxygen, and less time than Gov. Chris Christie's announcement yesterday - which clocked in at an astonishing 54 minutes.
Political operative Joshua Henne, who speaks for One New Jersey, the advocacy organization whose non-disclosure (similar in structure to non-disclosure groups serving Christie) I've expressed issue with as has Sen. Loretta Weinberg here, drew up a comparison between the Christie marathon and some other critical events in world history:
Shorter Than Christie's 54-Minute Vanity Press Conference
1. 17 minutes: Barack Obama's Inaugural Address
2. 44 minutes: Ronald Reagan's final State of the Union
3. 5 minutes, 16 sec: Lyndon Johnson tells America he won't seeking re-election
4. 2 minutes: Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
5. 10 seconds: Time it took Christie to veto millionaire's tax
6. 22 minutes: Time it takes to steam 5 lb. lobster (which multi-millionaires will be able to eat a lot more of since Christie vetoed the millionaire's tax)
OK, Christie is out, in what felt like a six week presser. So what's the impact of this on the GOP Presidential nomination race? Some ideas below, but looking for your ideas in the comments. Have at it!
1) Christie endorses Romney, and it's all over for the others. Just to note, Romney leads national polls again (with Cain in second place!) and Perry is dying a slow death Christie decided to avoid, so why not get on the bandwagon quickly like he did in 1999 with Bush? Since there are a lot of donors out there urging Christie to get in, their money has to go somewhere, and with Perry collapsing and Christie out Romney looks to gain.
2) With no bombastic screamer in the race (at least not to GOP levels now that Bachmann can't get on TV), Sarah Palin could decide to jump in just for shits and giggles. Suddenly the Tea Partiers who were holding their noses in support of Romney turn to Palin, and Romney's numbers cater. Now it is wide open again giving anyone a chance. Of course, as a result of this there's a Draft Christie movement again and we have to go through all this crap again.
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3) Palin gets in, caters Romney with her attacks, and suddenly Ron Paul looks like a rational maverick. Paul is up in the double digits now, and has been slowly growing his support. He loses Iowa, but wins in good ol' libertarian New Hampshire and suddenly everything is up for grabs. No one has the nomination sown up by convention time, so Christie is drafted to run.
No matter how you look at this (even if Chrisite gets in) it's fricking terrifying.
In all of the ego stroking, "messiah worship" of the Republican Party and their right wing financiers when it comes to the courting of Governor Christie to run for President - for lack of confidence in all of the prior anointed messiahs of the Republican Party, I have given Christie credit for being honest and consistent in his denials and refusal to throw his hat in the ring for President.
I don't believe in my heart and my mind that I am ready
It's much too big a job
In my heart I know I am not ready
I want us to have the best possible candidate but it is not me
I just don't want to do it.
All of this was over the past year or two, and there have been consistent denials, refusals and candid comments about Christie not wanting to run, not feeling it in his heart, not feeling it in his head, not being ready to run, not being ready to govern this country.....
So why is he reconsidering?
Could it be the promises of hundreds of millions in donations from right wing financiers like David Koch to push their radical agenda? Could it be ego because flavors of the month Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann fell on their faces? Could it be to please those who clearly haven't been following his history of cronyism and favors for donations? Could it be to continue a pattern of quid pro quo on a much larger and profitable level?
Clearly it isn't because he feels he is ready to run or to govern. Whatever the other reasons are, they certainly aren't genuine, most likely have some sort of selfish or ulterior motive for the Republican Party, and should be aggressively questioned.
If he doesn't want to run and doesn't feel he is ready to run or govern, and yet he still runs - that is a tremendous disservice to this country.
Chris Christie is not running for President, according to a new report from Fox News citing unnamed sources close to Christie.
Earlier in the day, Todd Christie, the Governor's brother and his ticket to US Attorney-dom back when he raised serious money for Bush II's first presidential run, told the Ledger that Christie was not running.
It's increasingly looking like this was all a play to get more money into the state Republican Party coffers - and not a serious exploration. But who is to say that this is the end - the next awful Republican Presidential debate could start the game all over again...
Stanley Druckenmiller is one of the wealthiest people in the country - and also a big philanthropist, who seems like he might actually be a decent guy. He recently retired from managing another big hedge fund.
These men - and again, it's all men, and all white men - want to build a bridge to the 19th century - where they can keep all their money, treat their employees how they want, and have a proper man who wears jackets running the show. They are turning to Chris Christie to oversee building the bridge with their money. It's a lot cheaper to pay him then to pay for a fair tax on their income and their employees' health insurance.
We'll see soon whether Christie accepts the job offer.
This evening, the President addressed a joint session of Congress to deliver a major speech on job creation. If you missed it, here's the video. After the jump, I'll post the full remarks as released to press before the speech. I'm catching up to the speech myself, so it's posted here without comment.
Today's Quote of the Day is a two-fer, coming in at just under 140 characters each from the twitter feed of columnist Jonathan Alter at The Daily Beast:
@JonathanAlter: BREAKING: My sources say NJ Gov. Chris Christie is conducting focus groups in preparation for a possible run for president in 2012.
...followed within an hour by...
@JonathanAlter: Another source, close to Christie and v-reliable, says there are no Christie focus groups and nothing has changed. I trust him.
Or, put another way: Prepare to get nailed and screwed.
Mike Allen's Playbook column at Politico is reporting that Gov. Christie is meeting, this afternoon, with a collection of big-money Republicans in Manhattan who will again try to romance him to run for president in 2012.
The GOP bigwigs - some will be there in person, some shopped in by phone - will be convened by one Ken Langone, billionaire co-founder of Home Depot.
Last year, Langone wrote a guest op-ed for Wall Street Journal that claimed if he had to start Home Depot today, with current business climate, it's 'stone cold certainty' it couldn't be done. And that, he blames on Barack Obama - the post is titled Stop Bashing Business, Mr. President. Clearly, this is a guy who wants Obama gone. Clearly, another billionaire out to convince us his class is victimized.
Christie's made it easy to map out how he would run for president, if he runs for president in 2012. Witness:
If Christie does run for president - now or in 2016 - all of this will make him immediately attractive to big donors who know that few GOP candidates will be inclined or able to carry them back into the White House with Christie's speed and determination.
And - as WSJ correctly points out - Christie's sagging at-home poll numbers may make re-election here difficult. Will that be a factor in Christie's decision? Personally, I doubt it. The governor strikes me as a guy so supremely self-confident that he would assume that won't be an obstacle for him, like it might be for lesser mortals. But there's a lot of wooing going on. And the promise of GOP big money and self-interested capacity to drive election might indeed appeal to that same outsized ego. All eyes on New Jersey.
"If the Obama campaign doesn't believe I'm not running, I just am glad that I'm helping whoever the opp researcher that they're actually paying to get opp research that they're never be gonna be able to use."
-- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by Fox News Insider, responding to reports that Democrats are "digging up dirt" on him.
As gas prices slide upwards almost by the hour, even here in low-gas tax New Jersey, it's a good week for President Barack Obama to be opening his mail.
The president just got a letter in support of the "homegrown clean energy source" the signers say offshore wind off the Atlantic Seaboard is. The signers - politicians, environmental groups and others - are from nearly 3 dozen environmental, conservation, research and health organizations, plus electeds from up & down the East Coast. The letter asks for a "bold goal" for wind development, and standards to protect marine & offshore ecosystems. From NJ, 8 politicians signed; 7 prominent Dems, and a lone Republican.
How we harness the vast power to be found in, above and under the sea is in great flux. Following BP's Deepwater Horizon massive oil spill, President Obama reversed himself and put a 7-year ban on offshore drilling for the East & West coasts, and eastern Gulf (it's allowed in the western Gulf). Now, the GOP Drill, Baby, Drill crowd wants to meet rising oil prices with more and faster drilling back in the western Gulf. NJ politicians including Gov. Christie oppose off-shore drilling off/near New Jersey's shores.
NJ's Energy Master Plan calls for a minimum of 1000 megawatts of off shore wind capacity to be developed by 2012 with 3000 MW of off-shore wind by 2020. But Sierra Club's Jeff Tittel said this week Gov. Christie's cuts to clean energy may impact solar or offshore wind goals. Renewable energy money gets cut by the governor at the same time he finds billions to spend to subsidice a natural gas plant which they say will encourage fracking and drilling in the Marcellus Shale that will pollute the Delaware River basin. Both the NJ and national Sierra Clubs signed the letter to the president.
A survey plopped into my Inbox today. You probably got it too. I filled mine out, because as usual, I had a few things to say. (hmm, does this get you there?)
I'm on record here as a non-fan of the deconstruction of 50-State Strategy, and its replacement Organizing for America, which looks grassroots but isn't, and seems to take a cookie-cutter approach, with a prime directive of protecting President Obama's position, no matter whether it's right or wrong. Problem is, I've learned to expect more of my Party. Don't get me wrong. People who come running when OFA calls an action are awesome; I'm sure state leaders are too. My issues are with whether OFA empowers people for change, or just uses their power for aims that don't reflect those folks. Nevertheless, this survey came via OFA. I was glad to get it.
It never asked where on the spectrum my politics lie. On the first page (takes less than 5 min. from soup to nuts) it wants you to self identify: Are you African-American? Native American or Alaskan? Entrepreneur? LGBT? Student? Educator? Labor? Vet? All well and good, but I'm a progressive. That's my prime directive, but thanks. Also asked: How you feel about OFA? Were your expectations of OFA high or low? Were they met?
Also - what resources you'd have liked to see OFA provide that you didn't already have, what new goals OFA should tackle, your comments how OFA should go about achieving the goals you suggest. All good questions. I said I hoped to see a return to better uses of the national voter file, that if local organizers no longer had access, they couldn't feed new info in, keeping it fresh, with more detail about what voters are concerned with.
Asked for an overall assessment, I said this:
DNC (via White House) made a poor decision dismantling 50-State Strategy and putting in its place the fake-grassroots, top-down organizational structure which has as its main goal protecting the President's position. The party should be doing much more than that.
Click SUBMIT and you land on a page asking for money. But I don't have a problem with that. It's what the national party should be doing, and I like the fact that an amount as low as $10 is suggested. The great power of the tubes makes requests like that possible without the investment of a direct mail or farmed-out dialing-for-dollars company that has to generate a certain level of raising just to stay afloat. Yay, internet.
Chris Christie has been actively pursuing a Reform Agenda that will set the Garden State on the path to fiscal and economic prosperity. And while the job is not done, there is a bigger, more important job that awaits: cleaning up the mess that has become Washington.
Don Sico, former New Jersey Republican Assembly Executive Director, launched yesterday a website to draft Christie for President - a movement gaining nation-wide attention and one which next year would divert much of Christie's attention to non-New Jersey matters. Saying "We have precious little time to convince him," Sico solicits individuals to register their names as supporters, hoping to collect thousands of signatures throughout the U.S.
Tonight, there are a series of house parties across the country to watch a broadcast live from George Washington University, the president talking to and encouraging the involvement of some of the first-time voters that pushed him to victory in 2008. The feed is from DNC:
Just a few weeks ago Chris Christie dismissed any talk about running for President or even Vice President, but there have been plenty of rumblings along the right wing of the country that he should consider it.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of the GOP's most-sought after stars following his 2009 victory, is hitting the road to unveil a string of endorsements in the coming weeks, POLITICO has learned. ...
There, he'll boost gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad - a trip that is sure to amplify the Christie-for-president buzz, although he's emphatically insisted that he is not making a White House run.
The trip marks a new phase in the nine-month tenure of the former federal prosecutor who won a solid victory over incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in November 2009, a victory that presaged a significant change in GOP fortunes.
Rate comments, so you can judge the quality of comments! -- huntsu
Evening, Blue Jersey. Can't sleep either? Well, please roll over, pass the remote, and watch the debate with me.
Some of my best memories on Blue Jersey are from liveblogging various important political events: Andrews vs. Lautenberg in the primary, Corzine's state of the union addresses, and so forth.
Anyone up for contributing to a liveblog of Obama and McSame this evening? I'll contribute some thoughts as I watch. You know the time: 9:00 p.m. on many t.v. channels, local and cable.
We have one hundred days for the Presidential election, so it's worth considering how the campaign has shaped up here in New Jersey. Monmouth (48-34),Strategic Vision (47-38), Rasmussen (47-44), Farleigh Dickinson (49-33), and Quinnipiac (46-39) all have found Obama leading since the end of the primary process. The average of the these five polls gives Obama 47.4 tp McCain 37.6, a comfortable and solid lead. The local Super-Tuesday battle, the April Pennsylvania primary, and the coverage of the long national primary mean that Barack Obama is familiar, well-known figure, so these numbers are not likely to change easily.
As in recent Presidential elections, our neighbors New York and Delaware are not competitive, but recent polls show a significant Obama (+8.3) lead in Pennsylvania. If the Pennsylvania results hold up, the nearest battleground states for New Jerseyans willing to travel will be Virginia and Ohio.
Over at FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver is simulating the November election. Taking into account the New Jersey polls, the nationa polls, and demographic models, New Jersey has a 91% chance of voting for Obama in November. (This is a recent improvement after staying in 80s for most of the summer.) The simulation also says we are not worth investing in, and have virtually no chance of being the key 270th electoral vote for either candidate.
Overall, despite New Jersey voters' preference for Hillary Clinton and John McCain in the primaries, our state seems to have become even more solidly "blue" for Barack Obama. I wonder if we will even see the usual scare when polls seem offer a brief hope for the Republican.
