Chris
Christie, Bully Blowhard
Posted By Roger Kimball On
September 16, 2013
Make that “incompetent
bully blowhard.” Don’t get me wrong: I loved watching Christie take apart those pathetic public school [1] teachers [2] as much as anyone. And for about fifteen minutes I thought, “Hey, this guy is pretty cool.” But
then I noticed that he subjected everyone who disagreed with him to the same bully treatment. His only rhetorical strategy,
it seems, is throwing his weight around. (Sorry, couldn’t resist that.)
And
then there was Christie’s love-in moment with Obama after Hurricane Sandy (The Atlantic called it “the hug seen ’round the world [3]”). Did it cost Romney the presidency? Probably not, but it didn’t help.
He had to engage in that public post-Sandy chumminess, I’m told, in order to do the right thing by New Jersey,
which suffered cruelly from the hurricane. But has Christie done the right thing by New Jersey? I think the New
Jersey Star Ledger may be right: Christie is America’s most overrated governor [4]. Consider:
New Jersey’s economy is a mess [5], even compared with its neighbors. The property-tax burden is up sharply. Poverty is rising [6]. And the state’s credit rating has dropped [7]on Christie’s watch as the long-range outlook deteriorates. His successor will inherit a bigger mess than
he did.
“His successor will inherit a bigger mess than he did.” And I
thought Republicans were supposed to be the fiscal adults.
Some are. But I don’t
think Christie is among their number. He talks a big game (again, sorry), but what has he actually accomplished? The Star
Ledger has more uncomfortable stats:
Crime is spiking in several of New Jersey’s
hard-pressed cities, where loss of state aid has forced massive police layoffs. The state’s home foreclosure rate is
the second highest in the nation and Christie fumbled a federal aid program intended to soften the blow. Yet he tried to raid
a fund earmarked for affordable housing until the courts stopped him.
The list goes
on. The state’s open space program is essentially dead [8], with no money and no ideas from the governor on how to fix it. The transportation trust fund is broke [9] as well, so the governor has financed projects mostly by borrowing and by scavenging money that former Gov.
Jon Corzine had set aside for the Hudson River tunnel project, which Christie canceled.
Ouch.
At least I say ouch. And remember, this is the man who thought the Ground Zero Mosque was just great [10]: lots of Muslims who have to be fed and watered in New Jersey, you know.
Because of the Democrats’ irresponsible policies, many states are at the threshold of bankruptcy. Republicans
were supposed to be the chaps who could fix that. Some did. Mitch Daniels in Indiana, for example: a sterling success story.
But Christie’s New Jersey is just as much of an basket case as it ever was.
