Christie’s crusade

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Of all the candidates I have seen  in New Hampshire, there is one who has truly invested almost all of his time and energy on winning the state: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Christie gave a rousing 45-minute speech at a town hall style meeting in Bedford before the Feb. 9 primary. He was flanked by two other prominent Republican governors, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Maryland’s Larry Hogan. Both touted their ability to “get things done in deep-blue states,” a point repeated by Christie numerous times.

Christie spent most of the speech addressing his record in New Jersey, and how as an executive he is held accountable for his actions, unlike members of Congress. He even compared senators to grade-school children.

He was quick to take note on the relative indistinction between Sen. Marco Rubio’s resume and President Obama’s in 2008. It’s a comparison that he drove home in the Feb. 6 debate, where he, along with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, concentrated attacks on Rubio.

Rubio appeared distraught and surprised at the volume of attacks, stumbling with his responses and finding himself using the same answer three times in four minutes, and a reworded version an hour later.

Christie has made similar statements against Rubio in past debates and on the stump. Given the recent media attention over Rubio’s “achievement deficit,” they may be attacks that stick.

What was clear was that Rubio’s “establishment inevitability” is no longer quite so certain, and that  Christie’s direct message against Washington insiders is viral.

(Christie dropped out of the GOP primary race after placing 6th among the eight top candidates.)