The Ultimate Christie-Porn

by JASmius

Remember the origin of that term? It was just a couple of years ago, after Chris Christie was elected governor of New Jersey and commenced letting the Garden State left in general, and the bloodsucking public employee thugocracy in particular, have it right between their collective beady eyes with rhetorical truncheons on a regular basis - and then followed through on what he said he would do. The vids of these cathartic verbal bludgeonings went instantly viral in the Rightosphere, somebody coined the term "Christie-porn," and a meme was born.

This quote belongs in that category:

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie stumped on behalf of
Mitt Romney in a Chicago suburb today, telling the crowd packed into a student center at Elmhurst College that it would be a bad idea to send a member of Congress to the Oval Office.

"In our Republican primary, let's be very leery, very wary of sending
another member of Congress to the White House. Now see members of Congress they can be okay, but they don't know the first thing most of the time about using executive authority. They don't know the first thing about getting things done," said Christie. "We don't need Ron Paul, we don't need Newt Gingrich , and we don't need Rick Santorum. We need an executive. We need Mitt Romney in the White House."

Actually, we needed Tim Pawlenty or Rick Perry in the White House, but Mitt Romney will have to do.

Why? Barack Hussein Obama, THAT's why.

The Rightosphere is unlikely to be as enthusiastic about the Big Man's advice now, but history backs him up, folks. Shall we take a stroll down memory lane?

2008: Senator defeats senator

2004: President defeats senator

2000: Governor defeats VP/ex-senator

1996: President defeats ex-senator

1992: Governor defeats president

1988: VP defeats governor

1984: President defeats ex-VP/ex-senator

1980: Ex-governor defeats president

1976: Governor defeats president

1972: President defeats senator

1968: Ex-VP/ex-senator defeats VP/ex-senator

1964: President defeats senator

1960: Senator defeats VP/ex-senator

1956: President defeats FLL encore

1952: General defeats...what? Faculty lounge lizard.

1948: President defeats governor

Not to get all sports statistical on your candy-asses, but I stopped the regression at 1948 because that's the last election in which a current or former governor failed to unseat an incumbent president. To find a current/former governor who failed to win an open race (with the exception of Michael Dukakis in 1988), you have to go back to 1928 when Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover defeated New York Governor Alfred E. Smith.

Meanwhile, only twice in the twentieth century did a senator win (Harding in 1920, JFK in 1960), and to find a congressman ascending to the White House you have to go all the way back to James Garfield in 1880. And, FWIW, to 1844 to find the last time a House Speaker captured the White House (James K. Polk).

The inconvenient truth, if you will, is that presidential elections are not won by ideology. That's because neither side of the philosophical aisle constitutes an electoral majority in this country. If one did, we'd be a one-party state. The reason power bounces back and forth between Republicans and Democrats is because it is the least informed, least ideological, and least intelligent voters who determine who wins national elections. And to the degree that these "swing" voters vote according to ANY substantive criterion (even on a subconscious level), history shows that they value executive experience over long, vulnerable, compromise-strewn congressional voting records.

In short, governors have a record of running things; legislators have a record of running their mouths.

This is why both Santorum and Gingrich would be doomed to defeat in November if they weren't already doomed to defeat in the GOP nomination race, and why Governor Romney is the only viable option we have left.

And given his problems, he needs all the time and as wide a run at Red Barry as he can get, not two also-rans ankle-biting him all the way to Tampa.

[cross-posted @ Hard Starboard]