It’s time to have a serious discussion about Chris Christie’s presidential prospects – or lack thereof.
He’s been running a deeply unserious presidential campaign for a while now. Christie has never been a legitimate contender for the presidency, he was never going to be and he’s probably known that the entire time. A cynic might say that he were just in it for his next book deal, or to grab a time slot on CNBC or CNN, but let’s take him at his word. Let’s presume that, after helping him get the nomination four years ago and then endorsing him in the general, he really has had a change of heart about Donald Trump and really believes he’s a threat to democracy who must be stopped.
Quite apart from his flip-flop on the subject, it’s hard to take Christie seriously as a messenger. Let’s not forget that a big part of the reason Christie fizzled out so spectacularly in 2016 was that he had his own ethical lapses as governor.
While Christie escaped indictment over the “Bridgegate” scandal, a few of his top aides didn’t; at any rate, that’s not exactly the highest ethical standard for a potential commander-in-chief. The remaining anti-Trump forces in the Republican Party, such as they are these days, should have found a truly credible candidate to carry that torch. Instead, the best they could find was a shady former governor whose main accomplishment during his time in office was simply getting reelected, thereby keeping the Democrats from screwing up the state even more. And that’s not much of a record.
Christie confirmed his ineptitude as a presidential candidate when he failed to make the primary ballot in Maine earlier this month. It’s not easy to run a presidential campaign; every state has different ballot access requirements that must all be managed. Still, it’s not so difficult. Even minor candidates – people you likely haven’t even heard of – can manage to follow the rules and make the ballot in each state. If they could do it, surely Christie, a former U.S. attorney and governor, should have been able to do it. He didn’t because he lacked a competent organization to back him up.
With the strong tradition of local control in Maine and New England, it should come as no surprise that signatures need to be verified by the towns first before being submitted to the secretary of state. This isn’t some new requirement, either; it’s been a part of how we’ve run elections in this state for many years. Somehow, Christie’s supposed presidential campaign wasn’t competent enough to figure that out, even though local candidates, from school board to the Legislature, manage to keep separate sheets of paper for each town. It’s astonishing that whomever was running Christie’s efforts in Maine was able to overlook this basic, simple requirement, one that didn’t prove to be a hurdle for any other candidates.
If you’re running for president of the United States – all 50 of them – you ought to be on the ballot in all 50 states, in both the primaries and the general. That’s one of the criteria that separates serious candidates from fringe candidates who are simply wasting everybody’s time and money to stroke their own egos. For his failure to make the ballot in Maine alone, Christie ought to drop out of the presidential race, though I believe there are other reasons he should throw in the towel.
If we are to believe Christie’s stated reason for running – stopping Trump – it seems his campaign is only harming that effort. To have any hope of defeating Trump, Republicans need to unify behind a single alternative. It’s not quite clear yet who that may be; we’ll see once voting gets underway whether Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley proves the more formidable. Still, it’s been clear for months now that it won’t be Christie.
If Christie is serious about stopping Trump, the best thing he can do is drop out of the race right now, before any votes are cast. If he continues his quixotic quest, it’s going to be hard to take his mission statement at face value – and easier than ever to believe that his motive is self-promotion rather than patriotism.
Jim Fossel, a conservative activist from Gardiner, worked for Sen. Susan Collins. He can be contacted at:
jwfossel@gmail.com
Twitter: @jimfossel
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