Fox News featured as a headline news story Tuesday evening that several Iowan GOP contributors were having dinner with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to discuss a presidential campaign. I haven't seen anything yet on the outcome, as I write this on Wednesday afternoon. However, upon hearing of the dinner, several images came to mind regarding a Christie run for the White House.
First, of course, there would be Christie having to explain and defend his sudden about-face on the issue. If he lost the nomination, or, if nominated, lost the general election, good luck getting re-elected as governor.
Then there's the expected comparisons with and to Sarah Palin. You can just hear the Democratic wags saying the GOP moved downscale. Last time a half-term governor was running as VP. Now they've moved a partial-term governor up to the top of the ticket.
Then, fair or not, there's the visual of Christie on a stage with Wonderboy. After many nasty jokes about Bob Taft, Christie's going to look like a beached whale next to the black, comparatively-trimmer current president.
Finally, there's the issue of how the GOP can most successfully unseat the First Rookie. Since he came to office with so little life and no executive experience, it's unlikely that the best approach to defeat him is to offer someone with only slightly more executive and government experience.
Why run a first-term governor, no matter how popular, when you have Tim Pawlenty, who was re-elected in a blue state?
I hope Christie continues to ignore the cries for his candidacy, and shuns any effort to draft him. Much as I like him and think he's doing fairly good work here in NJ, I don't think he's the Republicans' best hope for 2012.
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