Washington Post (Right Turn)
By Jennifer Rubin
June 29, 2015
In
anticipation of his expected presidential kick-off announcement
tomorrow New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has put out a video trying to
explain his personality in positive terms, as an over-abundance of
candor. He tells a story about his mother who told him never to hold
back, to always say what was on his mind. He ends by saying, “And when
you ask about my moral compass that’s it. That’s it.”
What’s
it? Candor is welcome, but it tells us nothing about Christie’s moral
compass — his concern for others, his kindness, his values, his
priorities, etc. The line, like a lot of campaign rhetoric, makes no
sense whatsoever. Bad people can be candid. Candor, which can just
simply mean unburdening oneself, is not the same as honesty — which
involves truth-telling. At another level, the video seems unduly
defensive. We all know he has a problem coming across as overbearing or
even as a “bully”, but those concerns cannot be passed off as just an
excess of candor. You can quietly, politely tell us what you are
thinking.
Frankly,
Christie’s video doubles down on an over-reliance on image and
personality — one that got him in trouble when the bridge scandal
cropped up, and when he was seen a few too many times berating audience
members. Rather than make excuses for his personal style, Christie would
be well advised to adopt the following five-pronged approach.
First:
The best answer to the “bully” attack is for Christie to emphasize his
record of accomplishment in a deep blue state with a state assembly.
Bolstered by a court ruling on pension fund contribution, he can make
the case that he has controlled spending and not raised the state income
tax. Those accomplishments, in conjunction with school reform and drug
courts make for a solid record. (Making the case that his
accomplishments are better than those of the governors and ex-governors
from Wisconsin, Florida, Texas and Ohio is a different matter.) He
should move away from apologizing for what he says and how he says it,
and focus instead on what he has already done.
Second,
if Christie wants to tell it like it is, he can start with his
opponents. He can tell Govs. Bobby Jindal and Mike Huckabee they don’t
get to pick and choose what Supreme Court cases they need to follow.
Tell Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) it is a farce to suggest we are going to
change the Constitution to elect judges — and in any event that’s a sure
way to make them more political. As he has done before he can go after
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) for being a scare-monger on the NSA and Cruz for
suggesting we can beat the Islamic State from the air. He can challenge
the freshmen senators who would not support military action to enforce
the red line — and now complain we did not act against Bashar al-Assad.
He can call out Donald Trump’s xenophobic policy nonsense, and denounce
those who refuse to see immigration and trade are essential to our
growth and prosperity. (Had Christie stuck to his guns he might have
also deplored the pandering and misinformation on Common Core that
opponents offer.) In short, some of that candor might be welcome in the
case of debunking the nonsense coming from his own side, in addition to
the White House and Hillary Clinton.
Third,
Christie is a former prosecutor and, when it comes to Hillary Clinton,
should come right out and say it: Clinton’s conflicts of interest,
refusal to follow the administration’s email rules, destruction of
emails, erasure of her server and refusal to turn over all her emails
are unacceptable and should be thoroughly investigated. He can in
essence litigate the case against Clinton and make the argument that
someone who behaves in this fashion cannot be the chief executive,
cannot control the Justice Department and cannot be trusted to
faithfully execute the laws.
Fourth,
Christie can be the grownup on policy. No, we can’t keep sequester and
pay for an adequate military. Nope, a flat tax isn’t going to be
fiscally or politically acceptable. Nope, we can’t keep Social Security
just the way it is. Instead of offering the voters cotton candy, he can
offer meaty polices and specific solutions, as he did on entitlement
reform. He can put out a specific and achievable tax reform plan, a
strategy for defeating the Islamic State, a formula for reducing
headcount in government, a standard for assessing whether regulations
are economically beneficial and so on. He must try to be specific about
his goals. The fewer unrealistic promises he can make, the better.
Finally,
instead of talking theoretically about upward mobility and poverty,
Christie should make the cornerstone of his campaign his efforts to
reduce crime and improve schools for poor, inner city residents of New
Jersey. His roll-his-sleeves-up approach to Camden and Newark should
become his model for the country, and he should make clear he fights
unions and bureaucracy not because he likes to, but because poor
families need him to fight for them. That’s a message he can communicate
with passion and link to the future of the Republican party.
Will
it be enough? Well, he is still a longshot to be sure. And he might
forget about Iowa and put his cards, as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) did
on New Hampshire. If he breaks through there and others stumble he might
fight his way into the top tier. It’s not likely, but in a race with 15
or more candidates, he would at least have a fighting chance.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment