New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie didn’t waste much time hitting the campaign trail after declaring his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination Tuesday morning.
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This week the Christie Tracker podcast, from WNYC and New Jersey Public Radio, headed to Livingston High School for analysis on the announcement.
Currently, Christie’s approval ratings from the people in New Jersey ranks amongst the lowest of all governors in the United Sates. In his speech he said: “he is now ready to fight for the people of the United States of America”.
“We need strength and decision-making and authority back in the Oval Office”, he said.
The 52-year-old governor criticised the leaders of both parties and derided what he called Democratic president Barack Obama’s “hand-wringing and indecisiveness and weakness in the Oval Office”.
Christie further argued that, “we already have too many firearms in our communities”, and vowed to halt the “weakening” of gun regulations.
From the beginning of his rise, Mr. Christie has cultivated a frank – even rude – persona, scolding people in town-hall meetings.
“He’s not gonna be a politician and talk out of both sides of his mouth”, LePage said, speaking at a hastily arranged press event under a leaking tent on the deck of Becky’s Diner in Portland, Maine.
The governor also tied for 10 place overall among likely Republican candidates in a new CNN/ORC worldwide Poll, in which just 3 percent of voters said they would support Christie for the party’s nomination. What is clear now is that Christie’s mojo was mostly lost over the years running the state of New Jersey.
The governor, however, insisted in the “Today” interview that he has become more reflective in the aftermath of the Bridgegate scandal, which several of his ex- aides and allies were allegedly involved in.
He placed himself ahead of other Republican contenders like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, saying they had never run a state government, unlike him.
With two pillars of his presidential run – his record and his judgment – looking wobblier than ever, Christie must build a campaign around his most raw and prodigious asset: his personality.
Christie’s campaign slogan, “Telling it like it is”, embodies what he says is his view ‘”not [to] worry about what is popular but what is right”. Outside the school, teachers and other Christie opponents gathered to denounce the very idea of a President Christie.
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