If Chris Christie's Running for President But Nobody Notices, Is It Still a Campaign?

A candidate falls in the polls

NJ Governor's Office

Last month, Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) announced his candidacy for president, becoming the umpteenth candidate to do so. Six months from the first open polls, are Americans growing weary of the presidential race already? Or is Christie just a boring candidate?

Not only did Christie not get the traditional "bump" in polling that candidates get when they first officially announced, he's dropped from four percent to two percent in a Monmouth University poll over that time period. With a five percent margin of error, it means Christie's support could be at zero percent.

There at least 17 Republican candidates for president. The first primary debate, to be held in Cleveland next month and hosted by Fox News, will only include the ten candidates with the highest poll numbers.  In the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Christie is ninth with just under three percent. If, unlike Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich gets a bump in the polls after his announcement, he could knock Christie out of the top ten.

More importantly, also not in the top 10 in RCP's average are Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the only Indian American in the race, and Carly Fiorina, the only woman running on the Republican side. Including the two of them would make what's called "good TV." Fox News has wisely left itself enough wiggle room about which polls it will use to have some editorial say in which ten candidates will be on the stage on August 6.

Whether Christie will make the debate is maybe the least of his concerns at the moment. In addition to a lack of interest from voters, Christie is also suffering from a lack of interest from donors. Several of his New Jersey backers have decided to support Jeb Bush in the 2016 race, including Joe Kyrillos, a state senator who ran against Sen. Bob Menendez (D) in 2012 with little support from Christie, a lawyer from Christie's 2009 transition team, an investment banker who previously supported Christie but criticized him last year for banning Tesla showrooms in the state.

Comments

[Gojira]

I'd think the Fast Food and Restaurant Lobby would be funding him all the way to the bank.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

He's funding them.

[Gojira]

Incestuous revolving-door relationship!

Though I guess it's better to have such a relationship with Carl's Jr. than Goldman Sachs.

[Hugh Akston]

Including the two of them would make what's called "good TV."

There are not enough scare quotes on the internet to properly qualify that statement.

[Peaceboner]

Isn't it time for a fat president? What is the fatty wage gap?

[WTF]

Yeah, we haven't had a real fatty for President since Taft.

[some guy]

Yeah we all need to check our skinny privilege.

[Fist of Etiquette]

If Chris Christie falls in the woods but there's no one around to hear it, does it still shift tectonic plates?

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

When he fell, all I heard was "TRUMP!"

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

*looks around for Swiss*

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

I told him his eyes were gonna freeze like that one day....

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

*NARROWS GAZE*

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

My God! Almanian was right!

[WTF]

I initially read that as "shit tectonic plates".

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

seems legit

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

http://time.com/3965586/12-signs-america-decline/

Hey, here's a really-retarded article from Time! Oh, that's redundant.

[Raven Nation]

I don't know why, but I skimmed that article. It includes at least one remarkable piece of cognitive dissonance. One of the authors criticizes current capitalism as crony capitalism but then goes on to note that the US's crony capitalism is not competing with other countries such as Qatar and Spain.

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

EXACTLY!

[Lee G]

Wrong Top Men, obviously

[Peaceboner]

"America's child poverty levels are worse than in any developed country anywhere, including Greece"

I'm going to go out on the limb here and say they've defined poverty (for Mericans) to include overweight kids with cable TV. And that that definition is based on some metric of equality, over actual basic needs. It always amazes me how many Americans think kids are starving here despite never seeing one. American poverty is approximately zero.

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

This. So much.

[sarcasmic]

But, but, but equality is a basic need! How can someone feel good about themselves knowing that someone else has more stuff? It's not fair! That, that, that's poverty! I mean, if someone else has more stuff than you, then that makes you poor! Right? Besides, wealth equals money! Some rich person who is worth all this money must be hoarding away money that could be used to feed hungry children, right? Not only that, but they're doing it on purpose! They want children to be hungry! What else could it mean? And what about food insecurity? It's not fair that some kids don't know what they're having for dinner! They might as well be starving! It's the same thing as starving! If you're not outraged then you're not paying attention! Aaaauuugghh!

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

well, NOW I'm outraged

[Mainer2]

How can you have equality when there are too many choices ? No one needs 23 different deodorants to choose from. You might choose the wrong one. And if someone else makes a better choice, that's inequality. Better that government make one choice for all of us. Then everyone is equal. And that's freedom.

[Peaceboner]

Finally, somebody is speaking common sense for the common moron.

[Brett L]

Oh. A couple of American kids starve everyday. Because their guardians withhold food. But no parent who wants their child fed has to worry about the child starving.

[some guy]

Exactly. A starving American child is a child being abused by its legal guardian. Plain and simple.

And frankly, a starving American adult is almost certainly suffering a mental illness that is severe enough to keep them from getting help, but not so severe that they are being forced to get help.

[Rich]

It always amazes me how many Americans think kids are starving here despite never seeing one.

Well, to be fair, many Americans have never seen the Federal Reserve or a dead Black youth either.

[Mainer2]

There is an obesity epidemic and starvation. It's just common sense.

[sarcasmic]

Obesity is caused by corporations forcing poor people to buy processed food that contains no nutritional value, which results in obese people with malnutrition! They might as well be starving, since they're starving for nutrition! All because of unfettered capitalism and libertarian and obscene profits and food deserts and inequality...! Aaaauuugghhh!

[Mainer2]

Poor people making bad choices. Have the President's wife sign some legislation mandating what they can eat. Hey, it worked for school lunches, right ?

[Peaceboner]

Which explains why all corporate leaders are libertarians.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

A kid out there didn't have lunch yesterday. We're worse than Greece!!

[Lord at War]

Peaceboner-

We had a story in the local rag- Family of 5 in "Appalachian" Ohio was sad because they had to go to the foodbank which was underfunded despite state money and donations.

They were getting $800/mo in food stamps, had satellite TV, three cars, and all 5 kids had "smartphones" (provided free by the gov't).

[paranoid android]

"Capitalism has been amazingly successful," write Friedman and co-author Sarah Hertz of Empire State College. But it has grown so unfettered, predatory, so exclusionary, it's become, in effect, crony capitalism."

This is just buzzword soup. What's his basis for asserting that "capitalism" is now more "unfettered" than at some unspecified point in the past (as implied by "grown so"). And how does that translate into "crony capitalism", commonly understood as an environment in which rent-seeking and political patronage replace innovation and competition as keys to economic success? If politicians are so powerful that businesses feel incentivized to become "cronies", how is that unfettered!?

Broadband access has become essential for industry to grow and flourish. Yet in the US, penetration is low and speed relatively slow versus wealthy nations?thought the cost of internet is among the highest ($0.04 per megabit per second in Japan, for example, versus $0.53 in the US). The problem may be too much concentration and too little competition in the industry, the authors suggest.

I can think of absolutely no other reason why the US (land area: 9,826,675 square kilometers) would have slower internet adoption than Japan (land area: 377,835 square kilometers). It is truly a mystery.

I can keep going, but I have work to do.

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

Yep. I was pretty well speechless after reading it. So much derp and multiple definitions and assumptions and....

Just horrid.

[Rhywun]

I couldn't get past "child poverty" - like, the very first sentence.

[Mainer2]

Any jack ass who says capitalism in the U.S. is "unfettered" has never tried to start even the simplest business. Just look at all the push back on Uber and Lyft. Now imagine starting a bricks and mortar business. I frankly don't know how entrepreneurs do it.

Unfettered, my ass.

[Lee G]

The broadband penetration rate is utter and complete trash, and a favorite whipping boy of the slashdot crowd.

[Rich]

broadband penetration rate

Sheesh, Lee -- can we get a trigger warning?

[Lee G]

No you may not.

If it bothers you, please stay in your safe zone and kill yourself for the good of the species.

[Rich]

I thought this *was* my safe zone.

*** pouts ***

[Marshall Gill]

H&R is the exact opposite of a safe zone. Poor Rich.

[Mainer2]

broad
penetration
whipping
slash

i think i just triggered in my pants

[See Double You]

Doesn't he realize that greater broadband penetration would likely require eminent domain? Telecoms can't exactly bury fiber anywhere they damn well please.

The guy complains about crony capitalism in one breath while implying we need more of it - for the children Internet!

[Peaceboner]

These people really believe that scarcity is a phenomenon created by the government not giving people what they want. If we could wake the sheeple up they could vote that the government's gives us broadband, and food, and like high speed rails maybe. Who was the Scotus that had a hard on for some socialist shithole constitution because they guaranteed basic rights like housing? Because everyone will have houses if we just vote for it to be true.

[Lee G]

Ginsberg and the South African Constitution

[Mainer2]

Last night on New Hampshire Chronicle, Fritz Weatherbee was talking about the Cheshire Bridge. For most of it's life it was a toll bridge. People of course didn't like that, so in 1992, the state bought the bridge and now crossing the river is "free", because that's the "fair" thing. We've been soaking in economic illiteracy so long that he can say something so stupid with utter innocence.

Crossing the river didn't become free because the state owns the bridge. Someone is paying, but now it includes a lot of people (like me) who may never even see the damn bridge. How is that "fair".

TANSTAAFL Fritz, TANSTAAFL.

[some guy]

I'd love to see a scatter plot of broadband total cost vs. population density. I know the US would be an outlier, and not in the way this author indicates.

[FreeToFear]

With a 5 percent margin of error, it means Christie's support could be at 0 percent.

Somebody needs to retake statistics...

[Mainer2]

...or get their sarc meter recalibrated ?

[Stilgar]

Sadly Reason authors make mistakes like that on a fairly regular basis.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Wow, I did completely forget that he announced a campaign. I thought he was still in an "I'm exploring my options" state.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Some guy should step up and say, "I'm not running for President, but I hope people will listen to my talk show anyway."

[Notorious G.K.C.]

What we need is a President who served as governor of New Jersey.

The last NJ governor/President was so bad, the law of averages dictates that Christie will be awesome.

[NoVAHockey]

He kept us out of Manhattan!

[Peaceboner]

I appreciate your scientific approach to this issue and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. I too, fucking love science.

[Paul.]

Just tell me when Hillary is President.

[Rich]

You'll know by all the squealing.

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

In fairness, it's really hard to tell when Christie is running. You have to line him up with something just to make sure he's moving.

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

/sage

[Mainer2]

+1 parallax view

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

Is it the Libertarian Moment? yet?

[Marshall Gill]

Sandi is the expert on Libertarian movements.

[Suthenboy]

Haven't read the comments yet. Has anyone made an 'elephant in the room' joke yet?

[Lee G]

OT: Chrysler still sucks

The attack tools Miller and Valasek developed can remotely trigger more than the dashboard and transmission tricks they used against me on the highway. They demonstrated as much on the same day as my traumatic experience on I-64; After narrowly averting death by semi-trailer, I managed to roll the lame Jeep down an exit ramp, re-engaged the transmission by turning the ignition off and on, and found an empty lot where I could safely continue the experiment.

Miller and Valasek's full arsenal includes functions that at lower speeds fully kill the engine, abruptly engage the brakes, or disable them altogether. The most disturbing maneuver came when they cut the Jeep's brakes, leaving me frantically pumping the pedal as the 2-ton SUV slid uncontrollably into a ditch.

[Mainer2]

So the computer in a car can be hacked ?! who'd a thunk it ?

[some guy]

Gotta nit-pick this...

he's dropped from 4 percent to 2 percent in a Monmouth University poll over that time period. With a 5 percent margin of error, it means Christie's support could be at 0 percent.

That's misleading at best. Margins of error can't be blindly applied at the extremes. If Christie polled 2-4% that means at least some people voted for him, which means his support necessarily can't be zero percent.

I would love it if his support was zero percent, though. Few are more deserving of no support. Sadly many of those few are also running...

[Mainer2]

I assumed Ed was being a smart ass.

[Marshall Gill]

I always say that if something is within the margin of error then "statistically it doesn't even exist" even though I realize this is not accurate. It sounds good, to me, so I am going to continue doing it.

[Calidissident]

Well it could be below 0.5% which would round down to 0.

[The Late P Brooks]

Miller and Valasek's full arsenal includes functions that at lower speeds fully kill the engine, abruptly engage the brakes, or disable them altogether. The most disturbing maneuver came when they cut the Jeep's brakes, leaving me frantically pumping the pedal as the 2-ton SUV slid uncontrollably into a ditch.

[insert Nelson Muntz reference]

[See Double You]

OT: PB has a sad.

Corzine must face MF Global customer class action -US judge

Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - MF Global Holdings Ltd commodities customers may pursue their lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from former chief executive Jon Corzine and other officials over the brokerage's bankruptcy as a class action, a federal judge said on Monday.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan said it was desirable to let the roughly 25,200 customers sue as a group rather than require a "plethora" of individual lawsuits, a process he said would be "wholly inefficient and wasteful."

The lawsuit seeks at least $820 million, comprising at least $350 million of prejudgment interest, and $470 million to repay advances from MF Global brokerage trustee James Giddens, which he could not recover in the bankruptcy proceedings, according to Merrill Davidoff, a lawyer for the customers.

MF Global filed for Chapter 11 protection on Oct. 31, 2011, in a collapse that left $1.6 billion missing from customer accounts. The customers recouped that sum in exchange for assigning some of their claims to Giddens.

"We were expecting a favorable decision," Davidoff, a partner at Berger & Montague, said in an interview. "They all had their money raided and stolen and dipped into illegally, and still have important claims that need to be pursued."

[See Double You]

Corzine is also a former New Jersey governor and senator, and co-chairman at Goldman Sachs.

His lawyer Jonathan Streeter, a partner at the Dechert law firm, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. MF Global is now defunct.

Former MF Global investors have separately reached $204.4 million of settlements with the company's former banks, auditor and officials.

These include a $64.5 million accord with Corzine and other executives and directors, which would be covered by insurance.

Marrero designated the law firms Berger & Montague and Entwistle & Cappucci as co-lead counsel of the commodities customer class action.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is separately suing Corzine over MF Global's collapse. MF Global settled related CFTC claims for $100 million.

The case is DeAngelis v Corzine, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-07866.

[John]

Corzine would be doing life if he were anything other than a very connected Democrat. He is a walking talking proof that we no longer have a rule of law in this country.

And his defense is that "he gave almost all of the money back", after he was caught stealing.

[Rich]

Don't forget ol' Sandy Berger.

[Marshall Gill]

To me he will always be Sandy Pants Berger.

[Whahappan?]

Ahem. That's Sandy Berglar.

[Mainer2]

A defense that no responsible parent would accept from a 9 year old caught stealing.

[See Double You]

A defense for an act that gets one immediately disbarred if one is an attorney.

[See Double You]

Seriously, how is Corzine any different from Madoff other than in being a powerful former Democratic U.S. Senator?

[Lee G]

shriek will be along shortly to defend him

[See Double You]

I'm just waiting for the inevitable "PHAKE SKANDULL!322!%#" that so often accompanies him.

[Josh79]

Chris Christie is a fake conservative and a lying dishonest piece of trash. He's worse than the most left-leaning member of any political party (including the communist party!) because at least they are telling the truth about who they are and what they stand for. I hope he washes out in the most embarrassing way possible.