Tag Archives: Chris Christie

national news

So long, Chris Christie

Well … there goes my favorite Republican Party presidential candidate.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie today announced he has “no path toward the nomination,” and declared he is “suspending” his presidential campaign. I am going to ask one thing of the two-time presidential candidate: Keep up your relentless attacks on Donald Trump, and seek to remind the Trump cultists what the rest of us know … that Trump is “unfit for public office.”

Christie’s message simply had the reverse effect on the Trump base. It energized the MAGA cult, made ’em even more intent on working to ensure the crook’s nomination. Christie, I am sad to observe, simply never got out of single digits in polling data.

What, then, was the point, he asked today while speaking to a gathering of supporters in New Hampshire.

He said he won’t endorse President Biden. I get that. He continues to have a valuable message that is worth heeding. It is that Trump presents an existential threat to the nation.

Sorry your campaign never gained traction, governor. Stay vocal … and stay strong.

national news, political news

This guy’s the worst of ’em

OK, I’ve already established that Chris Christie has emerged as my favorite Republican contender for the party’s presidential nomination in 2024.

The former New Jersey governor has shed the gloves and has donned the brass knuckles in taking on Donald J. Trump. For that I give him high marks.

Now … I want to say a few words about the worst Republican running for this nomination. Step up, Vivek Ramaswamy and take your licks.

I am unclear what his credentials are for seeking the presidency. I understand he’s a successful businessman. He has no public service in his background.

However, he is managing to become the most obnoxious, disgusting, disgraceful bunch among the candidates still standing. Good grief — and I can’t believe I am going to say this — this guy might be worse than Trump! I’ll need to avoid being struck by a lightning bolt.

Ramaswamy is brusque, loud, abrasive and mostly incoherent in his rants. What in the world is this guy’s hallmark, his defining issue?

He has managed to make a complete ass of himself during most of the four GOP joint appearances.

Ramaswamy won’t win the nomination. Perhaps he’s vying for a spot on a ticket led by — gulp! — I can’t say his name any longer.

Believe me when I say this: I am trying to give the remaining GOP candidates a careful examination. I detest Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, so he’s out. Meanwhile, former South Carolina Gov. and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley is a possibility; she’s certainly smarter than Ramaswamy, who insulted her intelligence the other evening.

My interest in the Republican field is predicated somewhat on the bizarre notion — which I hope doesn’t materialize — that President Biden will not be the Democratic nominee for president.

So, there you have it. Chris Christie is my GOP favorite; Vivek Ramaswamy is the GOP pits.

And the frontrunner? Enough about who former secretary of state Rex Tillerson once called a “fu**ing moron.”

national news, political news

Christie earns praise

Chris Christie likely doesn’t give a crap that a blogger from North Texas is going to say something nice about him.

But … here goes anyway.

I didn’t watch the four-person GOP presidential primary “debate” the other night. I have seen plenty of clips from it, such as the former New Jersey governor’s tirade against the one Republican candidate who was missing from the joint appearance: Donald J. Trump.

He spoke the unvarnished truth about Trump. He called him “unfit” for public office, said he is a “bully” and a “tyrant,” and predicted he would be ineligible to vote for president in November next year because he’ll be a convicted felon.

If only Christie could generate enough interest and support among GOP primary voters. He’s going to likely languish in the middle of a shrinking gaggle of candidates seeking to stave off Trump’s assault on our government.

I am not yet clear on what I think of Christie’s policy positions. I am crystal clear, though, in supporting his effort to hold Trump accountable for the dastardly things he has muttered about “everyone.” The supposed GOP frontrunner has vowed to sic the Justice Department on all the critics who have dared speak ill of him … and that includes members of the media!

What the hell are Republican primary voters buying here by supporting this tinhorn autocrat?

Gov. Christie is calling him out. He’s also calling out his GOP foes for refusing to join him in calling Trump what he is: a lying, slandering, crooked fraud.

I applaud Chris Christie.

national news

Chris Christie: the Terminator

What gives with Chris Christie? The former New Jersey governor is turning into a one-man wrecking crew as he campaigns for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2024.

He has taken on one by one, in order, Donald J. Trump (the GOP frontrunner … supposedly), Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and now South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott.

He’s ripping them a new one as he seeks to show the GOP primary voting bloc how tough he is. Hey, make no mistake about Christie. He is a former federal prosecutor who wears his legal chops like a badge of honor. That’s fine.

He’s also exhibiting a level of fearlessness we haven’t seen among many of the GOP contenders, particularly as it relates to Trump. Most of ’em seem afraid of the twice-impeached, twice (for now)- indicted former POTUS.

Christie is beginning to stand out as the sole non-coward in this bizarre contest for the GOP presidential nomination.

He reminds me of the Terminator.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Christie gives up ‘favorite’ status

Chris Christie nearly had me … then he nearly lost me.

I was prepared to anoint the former New Jersey governor as my favorite Republican running for president in 2024. Then he popped off with a statement on TV this weekend in which he declared Joe Biden to be the “most incompetent president since Jimmy Carter.”

Ouch, man!

OK, let me try to clear a couple of things up. First, President Carter was far from an incompetent chief executive. He scored a couple of huge foreign-policy triumphs, starting with the Israel-Egypt peace treaty as well as turning over the Panama Canal to the Panamanians. Carter has gotten a bum rap for the past 40-plus years and I am one American who is sick of it.

Second, I am still trying to determine where in the world these GOP pretenders keep seeing “incompetence” on the part of President Biden.

Joe Biden has managed, while facing the MAGA-led caucus in Congress, to do a number of memorable deeds. With the help of Democrats, we have an infrastructure improvement bill enacted; Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act that saves jobs and cuts the deficit by billions of bucks; we have policies aimed directly at battling climate change; the president and the GOP speaker of the House cobbled together a package that takes the debt ceiling non-crisis off the table for two years; the jobless rate has dropped to historic lows.

On Biden’s watch, we are adding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month; we are aiding Ukraine in its war against naked aggression by Russia; our European alliances are stronger than ever.

To be clear, Biden’s term hasn’t been perfect. I have never said it has been.

Chris Christie is repeating the MAGA mantra about presidential incompetence because it plays well with the slobbering GOP base that buys into issues such as The Big Lie and goofy QAnon conspiracies.

I will give Christie credit for taking on directly the immense personal and political failures of the 45th POTUS. It doesn’t give him license, though, to repeat the lies about POTUS No. 46, Joseph R. Biden Jr.

C’mon, Gov. Christie. If you expect many of us to take you seriously, you need to stick with the facts. Here is one fact worth remembering: Joe Biden has gotten more done in the first half of a term than any president in history.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

My favorite Republican is … ?

Eight years ago I took up for a man I labeled my favorite Republican running for president of the United States.

He is John Kasich, a former Ohio governor and a former chair of the U.S. House Budget Committee who, working with President Clinton, helped the nation achieve its first budget surplus since the 1960s.

Kasich had an impressive resume of accomplishment and I declared during the 2016 GOP primary campaign that were he to emerge as the party’s presidential nominee I just might cast my vote for him that fall.

It didn’t happen. The nomination instead went to a serial liar/philanderer/bomb thrower.

It was a large GOP field, as you recall. Too bad Gov. Kasich didn’t make the grade.

Another large field of Republicans is gathering to run for the party’s nomination in 2024. I am going to stick with the Democratic incumbent, Joe Biden, this time around … but I do have a favorite GOP contender emerging from the field.

It’s Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, who is the only GOP candidate willing to speak clearly, unequivocally and without hesitation against the party’s seeming frontrunner, the guy who got elected in 2016.

Christie ran against the field in 2016, along with Kasich. He got drummed out. He then became a sycophant for the guy who would be elected. Christie led the transition team for a time before he got pushed aside.

I am not yet clear on what kind of policies Christie would adopt were he nominated next year to run against President Biden. If he adheres to a more moderate tone than the MAGA cult’s wishes, then I just could consider him as a recipient of my ballot-box support.

I need to hear more. For now, though, I am delighted to hear him peel the bark off the GOP frontrunner. We’ll see how he holds up when the Big Dog bites back.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

GOP hotshot speaks for other GOPers

Chris Christie said something the other day that other distinguished Republicans reportedly think in private but are too chicken to say it out loud.

Christie, a former New Jersey governor, ex-presidential candidate and former confidant of Donald Trump, said this to radio gabber Hugh Hewitt:

“January 6 was a riot that was incited by Donald Trump in an effort to intimidate Mike Pence and the Congress into doing exactly what he said in his own words last week: overturn the election. He wanted the election to be overturned.”

There you have it. The truth spills out, again … this time from a Republican of some note.

Chris Christie said what a lot of Republican are thinking about January 6 (msn.com)

Perhaps the ex-governor is trying to restore his reputation as a tough talker who doesn’t give a damn about the consequences. Or perhaps — and this is likely a stretch — Christie is just plain fed up to his eyeballs with the incessance of The Big Lie that Trump keeps repeating, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Good grief! It was the most secure election in history. The guy Trump hired to ensure its security said so — and then got fired for telling us the truth.

I am glad to hear Gov. Christie say out loud what he should have said all along. If only other Republicans — and that includes the voters out here in the cheap seats — would agree with the words of wisdom.

And then act on them.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national security

Party of ‘truth’?

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Chris Christie might run for president in 2024. He also has written a book on how he believes the Republican Party, of which he is a member, can redeem itself.

The former New Jersey governor says the GOP must become “the party of truth.” And the “party of solutions.” He has written a book that explains why he believes what he does.

Wow! How can I plow through this.

The once-Grand Old Party has become the party of lies, deception, conspiracy theories. How it reverts itself, or squirms out of the grip of the 45th POTUS is beyond me. Yet that is what Chris Christie wants to see happen.

Good luck, governor, with that tall task.

Donald Trump has so perverted the party, it might take a generation or three to get itself back on track. The biggest obstacle to that occurring happens to be that most Republicans have bought into the Big Lie that Trump has been telling about the 2020 election, that it was “stolen” from him through “widespread voter fraud.” Umm, no. It wasn’t stolen.

I wish Gov. Christie well on his effort. I don’t plan to switch allegiances if he succeeds. I just want the GOP to rid itself of the cult following that has developed with POTUS 45. I want there to be two viable political parties arguing policy, philosophy and what is good for the nation we all love.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

No truer words, Gov. Christie

“No man, no woman, no matter what office they’ve held or wealth they’ve acquired, are worthy of blind faith or obedience.”

Do you know who said that? If not, I’ll tell you.

Those words come from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a one-time foe of the 45th president of the United States, who became an ally of his during  his term in office, and who now seems to be reverting to his former truth-telling self.

Christie spoke Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, site of a symposium on the future of the Republican Party.

Of course he is right about blind fealty to an individual. No political organization can survive if it attaches itself to the whims and wishes of one person, which the GOP has done as it gloms onto the dictates of the twice-impeached former POTUS.

Sadly, given the climate in which we now are living, the Kool-Aid swilling cabal of loyalists are winning the argument within the once-great Republican Party.

Christie also said this at the Reagan Library: “Pretending we won when we lost is a waste of time, and energy and credibility.” Ah, yes. Credibility. That’s the biggest and most important “waste” cited by the former New Jersey governor.

Christie Decries Focus on Lying, Conspiracies in Stinging Rebuke of GOP (msn.com)

Then again, the former Liar in Chief, the chief purveyor of the Big Lie, has zero credibility anyway … at least among us who saw him for what he was when he entered presidential politics in the summer of 2015. We saw him as a phony and a fraud, but someone quite capable of hijacking a political party — which he continues to do.

I fear Gov. Christie is piddling into the wind while trying to persuade the GOP of the dire need to change course. My bigger fear is that the truth he is telling will be translated into another lie that the cultists who adhere to POTUS 45 will use to their perverted advantage.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Chris Christie tells is like it is?

I suppose you could surmise that former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is still angry at getting canned as Donald Trump’s presidential transition boss.

Christie once campaigned against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, saying some mighty unkind things about the eventual GOP nominee along the way. Then once Trump vanquished him, he lined up behind the nominee. He worked hard for his election. Then the president-elect asked him to lead the transition into the Oval Office.

Oops! Then the newly elected president replaced him with Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

Christie now has written a book titled “Let Me Finish” in which he says that Trump has surrounded himself with “amateurs” and “grifters” and “weaklings” and “convicted and unconvicted felons.”

Wow, man!

But wait! Didn’t Trump tell us he would hire only the “best people” who, as he does, know the “best words”? Gov. Christie doesn’t think that’s the case.

He writes that the people Trump has hired have “set loose toxic forces that may have made Trump’s presidency far less effective than it otherwise would have been. If this tragedy is ever going to be reversed, it is vital that everyone know exactly how it occurred.”

Well, so much for political alliances.