Can Chris Christie Save America?

Chris Christie, the former US Attorney, the former Governor of New Jersey, the former two-time Trump endorser and a current candidate for the Republican nomination for President, may be the only person who can save America.

Friend, how can you say that?  He’s barely a blip in the polls.  He’s in the back of the candidate pack along with Tim Scott, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley and several other wannabe nominees.

Yes, that’s correct.  Chris Christie is a long shot to get the GOP nod.  But what he’s saying about the current frontrunner is far more important to our nation right now.  He’s the only Republican candidate who is unabashedly bashing Donald Trump, calling out his lies and speaking the truth.  

Here are some of the juicier Christie quotes about the former president.  Christie says Trump is a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving, mirror hog.”

He says he’s “a petulant child when someone disagrees with him.”  He says Trump is “the cheapest SOB I’ve ever met in my life” when he was asked about Trump skimming off campaign contributions to pay his legal bills.

He rightly says Trump’s a “three-time loser”, referencing the GOP defeats in 2018, 2020 and 2022.  He says Trump is “a bitter, angry man who wants power back for himself.”

Unlike the scaredy cats in the race who want to rub up against Trump and his MAGA-ites, Christie knows exactly how thin-skinned Trump is.  He’s giving Trump tremendous agita, as if he just scarfed downed three sausage, onion and pepper heroes from Satriale’s in Kearny.

Chris Christie has something else going for him.

If you go back and look at Trump of 2016, along with his bombast and lies, he was irreverent and entertaining.  His opponents in the Republican primaries were using the standard issue, well-worn Republican campaign playbook, while Trump was rewriting it before their very eyes.

Chris Christie saw that up close and he knows the current Republican candidates are making the same mistakes from eight years ago.  They’re too afraid to take on Trump, to anger his base, to forcibly dethrone the Donald.  But Christie has seized the opportunity with glee and he’s gone full Jersey boy on the frontrunner. 

Christie’s sharp attacks have already landed him lots of free media exposure, from the New York Times to Fox News Channel.  For the east coast media establishment, Christie is a Republican they can live with, for now.  He will attack Trump at the first GOP debate in August and he will attack Trump in the early primary states, where the local reporters will love his pithy soundbites and pernicious punchlines.

Christie is smart enough to know that as the other candidates tip-toe around Trump, it opens a clear path for him to stand tall and to stand out.  He knows that if he keeps up his anti-Trump bombing raids, he will set himself apart from the pack, with their sure-fire, failing strategy of trying to unseat Trump by not calling him out.  

Christie knows there is only one issue in the Republican primaries.  It’s not Hunter Biden, it’s not the economy, it’s not the southern border.  It’s a very simple issue the voters will need to wrestle with.  Do they want another potential four years of Donald Trump as President of the United States?

I believe Republicans want an alternative to the chaos that Donald Trump brings to this country.  I believe the majority of Republican voters know in their guts that Trump will lead them to defeat, again.

I believe they want someone with fire in their belly but who doesn’t feed them lies. 

Chris Christie is counting on that.  I’m praying for that. 

How could I resist?

I mean, how could I not comment on the very public announcement that former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is separating from his wife, Chirlane McCray?

The narcissism of this couple is extraordinary.  They gave a three-hour interview to the New York Times to announce their breakup.  Why the Times agreed to that is another question, but I’ve given up on what drives its editorial decisions.

In the interview, Bill weirdly wondered aloud whether Chirlane’s latent lesbianism was a drag on their marriage.  He said, “For a guy who took the chance on a woman who was an out lesbian…there was a part of me that would at times say, ‘Hmmm, is this like a time bomb ticking…so I always lived with that stuff.”  Took a chance?  What in the name of Dr. Ruth is he talking about?

Apparently, one Saturday night while watching TV, they peered into each other’s eyes and said, we’re done.  This all seems to me like a scene with Elaine and Puddy on Seinfeld.

I don’t want to do a Page Six on the end of the de Blasios’ marriage and what attracted them to each other in the first place.  But in covering the couple during their eight years in Gracie Mansion, they were certainly never shy about using their family to achieve their political ambitions.  

Remember what put Bill over the top in his first run for mayor?  That TV commercial with his son Dante, highlighting the family’s bi-racialism?  Remember Bill saying Chirlane was his closest and most trusted adviser and bestowing upon her outsized influence at City Hall?  Remember how he boosted her for a possible run for Brooklyn Borough President?

And who can forget the ThriveNYC billion dollar boondoggle that Bill cooked up for Chirlane. 

Now, she and Bill are basically unemployed and effectively uncoupled.  He can’t even get elected dog catcher, so I guess there’s no practical use for their union anymore.

They say they’ll still live in their Park Slope house as besties and date others.  Neither can probably afford to move out.  You know, the rents in New York are just too damn high.  Plus, Bill just got dinged for half a million dollars from the city’s Conflict of Interest Board for using taxpayers’ money for his NYPD security detail during his laughable presidential campaign.

So this appears to be the final chapter of the improbable marriage of Bill de Blasio and Chirlane McCray.  

Friend Without Benefits wishes them a happy life apart, together, in a throuple, or whatever.  

Buh-bye de Blasio’s.  It certainly has been interesting but I can’t say it’s been fun.