So Christie gave his highly anticipated speech at Reagan library and once again made non-denial denials of his intentions to seek the presidency - regardless of which the speech was very well received and hailed as presidential - and so all are trying to figure out what exactly his intentions really are etc etc - I still feel that my original interpretations of Christie were right - he wants to be dragged into the contest and will only enter if he feels a significant number of conservative power brokers have bought into his candidacy as a necessary thing and are therefore in essence co-opted into the effort to make it successful - that has now happened. I believe this has been his strategy all along and the advantages of it are obvious: that a significant proportion of conservative leadership in the country now have a vested interest in seeing him win - well, don't need to be a genius to see how that's a good thing; he's avoided much of the early primary crap - the idiotic debates, the straw polls, the endless pandering; the weaknesses of his opponents have now been exposed and he can play off them in ways they will be unable to reciprocate; most importantly though is that he has established himself as a true leader, ie he looks like the anti-Obama in so much as Obama now looks like the egotist who sought out the presidency when he really wasn't ready for the job whereas Christie in all humility resisted the call and only sought it out when the need and his duty to serve became undeniable - to me this narrative of the humble man of the people stepping up to do his duty for God and country will play like gold against the Obama narrative of arrogant egotist in search of personal glory.
And of course should he run and lose that he was drawn into the race by pleas from the powerful will serve him the way it served Reagan in 1976 - the loss will not impoverish his political prospects going forward - he can walk away as undamaged goods. It's a brilliant strategy - although unfortunately could also be entirely a figment of my imagination - completely plausible he has milked the notion of him running for the same reasons Sarah did - it's good for business. I don't really get that vibe from him, but entirely plausible.
