The GOP Tryouts, Self-Absorption Edition

Posted on by

Apparently Chris Christie thinks the world owes him a presidential nomination.

He does not return phone calls. He does not ask for support. He arrives late for meetings. And he acts as if he has all the time in the world.

The complaints have piled up for weeks, dismaying many longtime supporters of Gov.Chris Christie of New Jersey and sending others into the arms of his rivals for the presidential nomination, according to interviews with more than two dozen Republican donors and strategists. …

…

“He’s a very popular figure, but he’s made a mistake by not creating the necessary momentum for the kind of national organization you need to be successful,” said Anthony Scaramucci, a New York hedge fund manager who is now backing Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. “He’s not touching enough people. And I think this is a classic rookie mistake.”

Friends say Mr. Christie is both understaffed and too controlling. They also say he is convinced that his raw talent and charisma can overcome the political obstacles in his way. Thomas H. Kean, a former governor of New Jersey and Mr. Christie’s onetime mentor, with whom he mended fences after a public break, said Mr. Christie had “gotten in the habit of kind of doing everything himself.”

“You can’t do that in a presidential campaign,” Mr. Kean said.

Especially since Christie would be challenged to win his own state in a presidential general election, his overconfidence would be puzzling. Would be, that is, until you consider his competition.

According to a CNN/ORC Poll taken February 12-15, the Republican field currently ranks in this order, top to bottom: Mike Huckabee (seriously?), Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Rand Paul, Ben Carson, Chris Christie or None (tie), Marco Rubio, and Someone Else. Then there’s a four-way tie among Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and Unsure. Then comes John Kasich, and finally scraping the bottom at 1 percent each are Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham and Carly Fiorina. Note that Bush and Christie were numbers one and two a month ago. Make of that what you will.

Speaking of mutts, Charles Pierce comments on Scott Walker:

By his works shall ye know him, and by his budget shall ye know Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, and current frontrunner in the Premature Nonsense Primary portion of the 2016 Republican nominating process. Where it is not actively hostile to the interests of anyone except his state’s plutocrats and out-of-state mining interests, there is in the budget a low-running contempt for the concept of the government’s obligation to do much of anything except protect the wealth of the wealthy and throw the right people in jail. His idea of “going big and bold” is to be petty and small-minded. His budget is a melange of childish vandalism, cut-rate empire building, and the construction of a Potemkin record for the consumption of oligarchical moneybags and hayshaking god-botherers in Iowa and elsewhere.

Pierce has the details.

14 thoughts on “The GOP Tryouts, Self-Absorption Edition”

  1. Chris Christie is acting like the tubby bully in the school yard, who thinks his crap doesn’t stink, because he thinks he poops out roses.

    And as for Scottie Wanker, he’s an @$$-kissing sycophant, who thinks the harder he beats and works the galley-slaves, and the less rest and food he gives them, the more his bosses will reward him.

    But, sadly for America, these “leaders” of the “New Know-Nothing Party,” reflect the hopes, aspirations, hatred, fear, and bigotry, of their base.
    FSM help us all if one of these @$$clowns wins…

  2. Chris Christie is acting like the tubby bully in the school yard, who thinks his crap doesn’t stink, because he thinks he poops out roses.

    And as for Scottie Wanker, he’s an @$$-kissing sycophant, who thinks the harder he beats and works the galley-slaves, and the less rest and food he gives them, the more his bosses will reward him.

    But, sadly for America, these “leaders” of the “New Know-Nothing Party,” reflect the hopes, aspirations, hatred, fear, and bigotry, of their base.
    FSM help us all if one of these @$$clowns wins…

  3. Gulag – Echidne of the Snakes was so right on when she first referred to Walker as a Ringwraith. I’ve concluded that that is what the capital R satands for, as I’ve been unable to think of any R the description doesn’t fit.

  4. Stella,
    Good point!

    I used to read her every day, but somehow or other, got out of the habit a few years ago.

    I need to start reading her again – she’s SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SMART!!!

  5. The Charles Pierce article has some good comments on Walker:

    “I am currently reading Rick Perlstein’s The Invisible Bridge and having already read the prior two books, Walker is very scary. He reminds me of Reagan. While not as charismatic a speaker, he is completely in thrall to the Plutocrats and lets them attack across the board as can be seen in the budget, the union busting (another Reagan favorite) and the attack on the Wisconsin idea. He tells totally false “anecdotes” and continues telling them because there is no price for lying. He will take half a loaf and blame Democrats for not giving in. Very scary.”

    “CPP recently compared him to Nixon. Venal & corrupt.”

    “Nixon had more principles. Probably more innate honesty as well. Certainly smarter. Actually, now that I think about it, Nixon was a better man in almost every possible way. I don’t suppose it’s possible to make a more left-handed compliment than that.”

    “Nixon had his own vision for the nation, however poorly his implementation, but Walker is just a corporate conduit in a suit.”

    “He’s as petty and vindictive as Christie, and even slimier, because at least Christie makes it no secret if he is out to ratfuck someone.”

  6. moonbat,
    Wanker has all of Nixon’s butthurt, evil and bad traits, without any of Nixon’s smarts.

    Plus, Nixon at least served in WWII – not in any active war zone, but the man did serve!

    Hopefully, the MSM won’t treat Wanker with kid gloves.
    But then, it’s all OKIYAR!!!

    I tremble at the alternatives to even the very worst Democratic candidate…

  7. I think the core problem is that our press does horse race reporting, not issues and ideas reporting. (This has been the case for quite a few years now and if anything is getting worse.) There is one requirement for horse race reporting, and that’s that there be at least two horses. So you need someone on the GOP side who can be said to be a viable horse. But if you looked at the situation like you were a trainer or someone (maybe Queen Elizabeth?) who knows horses, they’d see a Democratic stable with various decent racers, and a Republican stable with broken down nags, Shetland ponies, and the like. You can’t construct a horse race narrative with that, so you are forced to either do real reporting (which is harder) or pretend that the Republican stable actually contains horses capable of circling a track in good time.

  9. President Walker Primer: 4 Things You Should Know About Scott Walker Before It’s Too Late

    …While much of the opposition to Walker centers around his policies, there is more to it than that. It is the way he implements these policies, the way he deals with opposition, and the way he rewards his allies that make Walker not just divisive, but frightening. Even conservatives who share Walker’s ideology should distrust him, and dread the prospect of him becoming president.

    Why? Here is a brief primer on Scott Walker, drawn from what we have learned about him first-hand here in Wisconsin. These are things that the rest of the country should know in order to avoid learning the same lessons the hard way—on a national and international platform of the presidency.

    …Under Walker, Wisconsin literally has become a lawless state, a playground for the Walker regime and its supporters, and a dangerous place for the rest of us.

    …Ultimately, corruption and intimidation are unchecked in Wisconsin for two reasons: the State Supreme Court and the Wisconsin press. The State Supreme Court is controlled by four ethically challenged Walker allies who barely even pretend to be honest, and who Walker and his friends can count on to make problems go away.

    Meanwhile, the Wisconsin press has mostly been asleep. A few articles describe each new revelation of Walker’s deceit or corruption, with follow-up articles giving Walker’s explanation, and there the matter is left. Walker is almost never asked difficult questions or pressed to explain his often incoherent answers. Thus Walker’s friends can openly violate the law with little fear of either prosecution or sustained scrutiny.

    …Scott Walker has damaged the legal and political system of Wisconsin so badly that it may never recover. His house of cards is collapsing and even the state GOP knows it. It is only because Wisconsin is just a state within a larger country, and not an independent country on its own, that it has not descended into totalitarian dictatorship. Scott Walker does not scorn moral constraints on his actions. Rather, he seems to not comprehend such constraints. Walker’s only limit is the limit of his power, and it is this limit that Walker wants to eliminate by becoming president.

  10. They certainly aren’t Clydesdales. More like the ponies they had to retire from the kiddie ride cause they could no longer carry a toddler’s weight. And they were prone to biting.

  11. And I liked that Franken anecdote. In one of his books he wrote about his penchant for “kidding on the square”. I don’t think the Republicans there got it. But then there’s been a lot of writing about how rightwingers don’t manage well with comedy, as either producers of or audience for.

  13. According to a CNN/ORC Poll taken February 12-15, the Republican field currently ranks in this order, top to bottom: Mike Huckabee (seriously?),

    Where was that poll taken? Must have been at a fundraiser for Huckabee at a Luby’s cafeteria or maybe a tent revival in some backwater town in Arkansas? I hope the Huckster isn’t getting his hopes up because the reality is that Jeb is the heir apparent to the GOP throne.

Comments are closed.