Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post is the lead writer for "The Fix" column, which is the Post's version of the D.C. media villager insider gossip at POLITICO Tiger Beat on The Potomac. The Fix column loves to waste time on campaign speculation years in advance before anyone has even announced as a candidate, weighing who is up and who is down as the front-runner in the conventional wisdom of the Beltway media villagers, who unbelievably get paid to write this crap.
On Sunday, Chris Cillizza filed this report, Ranking the Republican presidential contenders for 2016, in which the lede was Governor Chris "Christie is clearly No. 1. Who’s next?"
The very same day, Dave Weigel at Slate filed this report on another "Christie moment." Behind That Photo of Chris Christie Wagging His Finger at a Teacher:
On Saturday, during a short reporting trip to New Jersey, I watched Gov. Chris Christie campaign in Somers Point and captured a moment that quickly got memed. Over the weekend I've seen the photo I tweeted of teacher Melissa Tomlinson being lectured by Christie get copied on dozens of Twitter accounts and blogs. This isn't a #humblebrag—just saying, I was surprised that "Christie takes exception to protesting teacher" was a story in November 2013.
But here's what I saw. After the rally, Christie made his way back to his campaign bus, flanked by low-key security guards. Tomlinson, who had been carrying a sign and handing out fliers from her Badass Teachers Association, asked Christie why he'd called New Jersey schools "failure factories." Christie rounded on her, blurting out that he was sick of "you people."
"This story—oh really? They have more money now than they’ve ever had before. This is an old story from you folks, and they fail because you guys are failing in those schools. Have you ever sent your child to one of those schools?
"You portray us as the bad guys," said Tomlinson.
"Guess what, this is the most money the school has ever spent on education in the history of this state," said Christie.
"It is not," said Tomlinson.
"$9 billion in education!" yelled an onlooker.
"Yeah, and it’s down 0.1 percent," said Tomlinson.
"And it’s never enough for you," said Christie.
"All I want is money for my students and my school," said Tomlinson.
"Do your job," said Christie, turning away and heading into the bus.
The crowd of Christie supporters cheered. "Good for him!" yelled the guy who'd supplied the $9 billion number. An elderly woman turned to Tomlinson and told her "you’re in the wrong place, hon."
"I know," said Tomlinson with a shrug.
Dave Weigel adds this commentary about how the Beltway media villagers spin a narrative to create a front-runner:
Christie's wife, Mary Pat Christie, smiled through the entire talk-off. Why? Because a local NBC News camera was facing her, capturing the scene. Two days later, I don't see any trace of the video online. Is that a statement on how ordinary the confrontation was? Possibly.
I think it's also a reflection of the front-runner coverage boosting Christie as the race ends, as the polls showing him winning (with up to 37 percent of voters not even knowing who is opponent is) are taken as prima facie evidence that he's running a faultless campaign. The day after this little contretemps, one of north Jersey's major papers ran an analysis of how the governor's tone had moderated so much recently.
Pay no attention to that angry, contemptuous, thin-skinned bully who hates public school teachers and teacher unions, and who has a serious temperament problem when confronted by a voter who dares to disagree with him. (Chris Christie is what Frank Antenori only wishes he could be.)
Remember this similar incident from 2011? Christie to Caller: 'None of Your Business<' Where My Kids Go to School:
Call it another Chris Christie moment.
The confrontational New Jersey governor, appearing on a recent call-in show for a local public television channel, effectively shut down a caller who asked him why he sends his kids to private school.
"You know what? First off, it's none of your business," Christie snapped, after being asked to justify how he can impose cuts on the public school system while keeping his own children out of it.
"Secondly," he continued, "I pay $38,000 a year in property taxes for a public school system ... that my wife and I don't choose to utilize, because we believe we've decided as parents that we believe a religious education should be part of our children's everyday education. So we send our children to parochial school."
The Republican governor is well known for his often-public run-ins with teachers and critics of his administration over his cuts to the education system.
Christie was recently rebuked over those cuts by the New Jersey Supreme Court, which last month ruled that the state must restore $500 million in education funding for low-income districts.
YouTube has several videos of this loud-mouthed bully attacking teachers and teacher unions. This is what he builds a presidential campaign on? Fuhgeddaboudit!
Too bad the rest of the country doesn't know what this means: "Chris Christie is what Frank Antenori only wishes he could be." Right on the money. The thing is, for awhile, Antentori was the guy he wished he could be, until people got sick of his schtick. Maybe Christie will have one too many outbursts and people will tire of him.
Posted by: David Safier | November 05, 2013 at 03:17 PM