In its Sunday edition, the New Jersey Star-Ledger published an op-ed declaring that the paper is sorry for endorsing Chris Christie for New Jersey Governor in 2013. Editor Tom Moran wrote the column, pointing out that they had indeed ‘blew this one.’ Moran also pointed out that Rachel Maddow was right when she took the paper to task for endorsing the Governor for reelection last October.
During the fall campaign, the liberal TV hero Rachel Maddow ran a stinging segment ridiculing The Star-Ledger’s endorsement of Gov. Chris Christie. How could we endorse him, she asked, when we criticized him so harshly in the same piece? Had we lost our minds?
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Not quite. An endorsement is not a love embrace. It is a choice between two flawed human beings. And the winner is often the less bad option.
But yes, we blew this one. When the endorsement ran, I could not get a cup of coffee in the People’s Republic of Montclair without my liberal friends taunting me. Back then, I pushed back.
Yes, we knew Christie was a bully. But we didn’t know his crew was crazy enough to put people’s lives at risk in Fort Lee as a means to pressure the mayor. We didn’t know he would use Hurricane Sandy aid as a political slush fund. And we certainly didn’t know that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer was sitting on a credible charge of extortion by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.
Moran did attempt to make a defense for the endorsement by discussing policy. He pointed out that he felt that Buono was far too liberal when it came to supporting teachers’ unions and that Christie was better for education. (Apparently Moran is one of the Michelle Rhee neo-liberals who feel it is best to blame teachers for everything and that charter schools and vouchers are the answer. Socio-economic conditions and lack of a decent property tax base in certain districts need not matter. But I digress. Different topic for a different time.)
The editor acknowledged that Christie has been a bully to his newspaper for years. He pointed out that Christie would not engage with the editorial board of the paper at all, basically boycotting them unless they gave him more positive press. That does make one wonder why Moran didn’t see the writing on the wall or feel the need to endorse a man that felt the Star-Ledger should act as his personal publicist.
This is not about who we like better. Christie has boycotted the editorial board for years, an attempt to bully us into more loving coverage. So we’ve had a front-row view of what a creep he can be. Buono is the more likable person by far.
The funny thing is that at the end of Moran’s op-ed, he highlighted just how bad the current crop of candidates look for the 2016 GOP Presidential nomination. He stated that with Christie falling back in the polls, that now Mike ‘Uncle Sugar’ Huckabee is the leader of the pack, which really is a sad commentary of today’s Republican Party. Moran said that despite how awful Christie is, if he were to have to pick a Republican candidate out of the current field, he’d still have to go with Christie.
If one of the tea party favorites gets the Republican nomination, then the country is at risk. Because as we have just seen, one scandal can flip the board in politics. What if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, and some dark secret emerges about her tenure as secretary of state? How does President Rand Paul sound to you?
Now ask yourself this: If the Republican primary came to a choice between Paul and Christie, which candidate would you endorse?
At the risk of repeating a mistake, I’d pick Christie in that primary, even now. And if you think that makes some sense, then you understand how excruciating the endorsement process can be.
This is where you are at, GOP. The best candidate you can offer is a scandal-ridden bully whose local newspaper just apologized for endorsing him for Governor. All other candidates are far, far worse than him. Congratulations GOP! Good luck in 2016.
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
