A Bridge to Nowhere

I guess a traffic jam to nowhere is more appropriate. I haven’t posted anything on the Chris Christie imbroglio because well it just makes no sense to me. How would causing a traffic jam get people angry at the mayor of a town near where the traffic jam took place? How is this punishing this mayor? It just makes no sense.

If there are problems on the Metro I’m not going to end up blaming the mayor of DC. No I’m going to blame the people who run Metro (which by my previous post people know I have no problems of venting about). I’m not going to think badly of the DC mayor. I’m going to think badly of the guys running Metro.

So what exactly was the point of this. And how small and petty and stupid this all is. As if people would not somehow find out what was going on and what they did. Also why was it necessary to punish this recalcitrant mayor. This guy who wouldn’t support Christie for re-election. It’s not like the race was close. Christie won by over 20 points. Thus the “punishment” was completely unnecessary. And that to me is the dumbest thing of all; there was no reason for this to be done at all.

And now all sorts of other charges coming out of the wood work. It’s too early to tell if this finishes Christie off as some on the left have said it does. I will say the evening talk shows on MSNBC are just wall to wall about this. Some of the coverage is just a little over the top. Their speculation on very few facts is just running wild. It is just possible that Christie didn’t know what was going on. However that’s a problem too with his take charge persona. The question then to be asked why didn’t he know this was going on in his office.

Other pundits don’t see this yet as a huge problem for Christie (no pun intended). They don’t see how, if Christie runs for president, people will remember this in a year and a half in Iowa or New Hampshire. I think, if this is the only thing that Christie has to deal with, then come primary time he will be fine. But if there are more of these (and they seem to be coming out of the woodwork now) he will have a perception problem. If the stories of intimidation of mayors to support projects turn out to be true then the bully label will start to take hold in people’s mind. People may not be able to point to a specific event but they will get an overall impression. And that won’t be a good one.

People want someone to fight for them. To shake things up and get things working for them. To get things done. A take charge kind of guy. These have been Christie’s strong points. But there is a thin line between the above things and intimidating people and bullying them to get your way. That people don’t and won’t like.