Friday, January 14, 2011
More Governor Awesome: On "two strong-willed Italian guys"
Chris Christie on "Good Morning America," discussing his policies and Rudy Giuliani's jab over snow clearance.
It is a measure of Christie's rising prominence in the Republican Party that Giuliani felt the need to poke him. It is perhaps a measure of Christie's ambition that he gently tweaked Sarah Palin over the "blood libel" comment. "Perhaps," because it is equally or even more possible that Christie was worried that too strong a defense of Sarah Palin would not sit well with New Jersey voters, who do not think very highly of her.
Finally, I did not know that "one in five" new American private sector jobs in November were created in New Jersey, but it rings true. The employment market here is definitely heating up. I am less certain the local recovery is yet a function of Christie's policies -- the booming stock market is probably the more proximate cause -- but I do not begrudge him the credit.
8 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Jan 14, 11:48:00 AM:
The big loser this week was Sarah Palin. Elements in the traditional GOP and many in Right Wing Media left her exposed. This was deliberate.
The criticism over "blood libel" was a red herring (just ask Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds). Ironically, Sarah was defending core First Amendment principles in her video but that point was totally lost on all in MSM.
Christie won't run unless he's "asked", but he sure as hell is signalling that he wants to be asked. For the record, he's half Irish, half Italian. So is half of New Jersey. He's a better father and husband than Rudy ever was, but that's a bar so low that even a fat man can clear.
Obama had a good week. He got another working vacation, and got an early start on his 2012 campaign by giving a rousing speech. I half expected him to throw Gabby's bloody clothes into the audience -- but his three-peat of "Gabby opened her eyes" was even better.
Thus, we were played all week as Obama went back to his passive-agressive campaign tactics. And no one had the balls to call him on it.
But next week brings the Republican House repealing Obamacare. Meanwhile Illinois is moving closer to default. Pimco's Bill Gross doesn't want to fight the Fed just yet, but he's rallying the bond vigilantes against Illinois. Illinois's going bankrupt and Mortgage Foreclosures will drive headlines that Obama can't spin away.
Will any of this hit before the State of the Union. Developing ....
By , at
Fri Jan 14, 02:03:00 PM:
More good Christie vid is up at HotAir TH, in which he raises the idea of ending guaranteed lifetime employment (tenure) for public school teachers. Hallelujah!!
By , at
Fri Jan 14, 02:03:00 PM:
"The big loser this week was Sarah Palin"
Well, considering she started the week as an accessory to mass murder, I think everyone already knew she wasn't going to have a good week.
However, I would argue that the big loser this week again was the mass media and liberal pundits, whose right wing shooter narrative has been completely crushed.
By , at
Sat Jan 15, 12:30:00 PM:
Every now and then an idea comes along that just seems so right.
Christie is now pushing the idea of 5 year contracts for teachers in lieu of tenure.
Gobsmackingly brilliant idea that can really go somewhere.
M.E.
By , at
Sat Jan 15, 12:45:00 PM:
As an Asian American, I am not so aware of the Jewish persecution and racism between Jews and Gentiles.
When I read the words, blood libel, I took it at the face value meaning of the words. I thought it meant lying about murder or violence. I had no idea about some old racist myth about babies blood baked into cookies.
Maybe Palin heard it somewhere and thought the same.
By 
TOF, at
Sat Jan 15, 03:21:00 PM:
I've heard the term "blood libel" before and know what it means. I took Palin's use of the term to be a metaphor. The Krugman/Kos Left were immediately claiming that those gun-loving conservative Republicans are killing kids and using their blood in rituals
By pam, at
Sat Jan 15, 07:00:00 PM:
You know, I took the use of the term as bad taste as best. Say what you will, but I was taunted by that term as a child and I never hear it as anything but either a) a threat or b) a taunt. I don't care who says what about it, those of us who were threatened by it never want to hear it posed as something innocuous.
As for her video, she was speaking about first amendment rights and, like every good politician, went on a bit too long.
But, to tell you the truth, though I think she was horridly vilified for no good reason, by people of my leftist persuasion and those of centrist and right ones as well, all I heard at first listen were those words that were used as rocks were thrown at my head in the name of Christ. Therefore, i had to give her video a few listens to hear anything else.
By , at
Sun Jan 16, 05:23:00 PM:
were the "it's all because of the stuff palin was saying" slurs in re tucson 'blood libel'? maybe, maybe not. one way to test the theory is to switch the names and political parties of the players. shall we?
it's 1968, and m.l. king has just been killed. imagine that a narrative arises: from the pulpits of every black church, from the speeches of halfwit windbags like jesse jackson, from the 'daily panther' or whatever news organ the black panthers had at the time. the narative is, "martin was killed because the kennedys, jfk and bobby, and the current president, lbj, viewed him as a troublemaker (and kept the FBI busy watching him) for stirring up black folks. more to the point, their panicked reaction to his 4 april 1967 "beyond vietnam" speech that A) criticized US involvement in southeast asia and B) hinted the black males should no longer report for duty to the US army for use as cannon fodder was **the catalyst** that fired up a whacko like james ray to kill king. "the kennedys and LBJ got martin killed!!" is the cry that rings across the land. heavy stuff, huh?
most of the "kennedys and LBJ didn't like king" stuff above is true, BTW, not that it matters in politics. so how 'bout now? does that sound like "blood libel" NOW, now that it's being applied to democrat party icons? i think it does...
