The Post notes Christie is battling for position, especially in New Hampshire, with three other center-right GOP presidential contenders: Rubio, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
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‘Showtime is over, ‘ the New Jersey governor told the crowd gathered at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.
Given Trump’s inexplicable ability to deflect political scandals, candidates hesitate to target him, said Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire. Also: “Mr. Obama will hire more personnel to process background checks in a timely manner, direct officials to conduct more gun research, improve the information in the background check system, encourage more domestic violence prosecutions and order better tracking of lost guns”. “They’re not going to throw away their votes”, he told the Times, perhaps with his fingers crossed. Ted Cruz, who is No. 2 nationally? “Instead of attacking the leader, Christie is going after those who threaten his chances of being the runner-up”. Christie admits he was pro-choice back then but says his views began to change during his wife’s pregnancy in 1995 when he heard a beating heart. “In today’s politics, anything is fair game”, Christie said during interview on Fox News’s “Hannity”.
Marco Rubio’s backers recently put $1 million into anti-Christie advertising, filings with federal election regulators show. In those last six elections, only one Northeast state has backed a Republican for president: New Hampshire, in 2000.
The New Jersey governor’s campaign, which was once on life support, could get a ticket out of the Granite State, especially if he bites off Rubio’s establishment support.
It’s “fair game” to bring up former President Bill Clinton’s past infidelities on the campaign trail, Christie said Tuesday, though he argued there are more effective ways to attack Hillary Clinton. He’s “back on the radar screen all across the country”, Luntz said.
But it’s a selective rage: The New Jersey governor has barely laid a glove on Jeb Bush, for instance, and is reluctant to knock frontrunner Donald Trump’s controversial policy proposals. “It’s game time”, he said during a town hall meeting at a grade school in Concord on Monday evening.
The new commercial will replace an ad the PAC had run contrasting Kasich with Christie, Rubio, Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“Other campaigns have started to attack us online, on TV and in your mailbox. Why?”
But Rubio was at his most animated when denouncing the foreign policy failures of the Obama administration. Christie compared Obama’s actions to how parents know what’s better for their children when they’re raising them. “If he thinks that’s a worthless job, which he has basically said before, he should resign it…I work everyday for the people of New Jersey as governor, happy to have this conversation with Senator Rubio anytime”. Rubio responded quickly by pointing out the Christie has spent more than half the year outside New Jersey.
In late September, Trump said he supported Putin’s plan to partner with the United States in order to fight ISIS. He continues that approach in his newest ad, airing in the New Hampshire television market and titled “We need to keep our eye on the ball”.
If there’s one thing the political press agreed on, it was that Chris Christie was toast, washed up, had missed his moment.
“One high-tax, Common Core, liberal energy-loving, Obamacare Medicaid-expanding president is enough”, the ad says.
The group also launched a website, christierecord.com, featuring the same messages.
The ad wars have ramped up in the final weeks before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, two contests that will likely narrow the Republican field.
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Bykowicz reported from Washington.
