Words of Desperation?

In the news clips of Chris Christie’s speech at the Ronald Reagan Library in California last night there was a woman who spoke what the news story claimed was a general consensus. She emotionally pleaded for the New Jersey Governor to reconsider his decision not to run for President… that she and the entire nation needed him…need him? His inability to emphatically close the door on such a run, as he has previously tried, allowed the news media the following morning to hype uncontrollably about the possibility. What is going on here?

Chris Christie has found his niche. Although clearly more educated and intelligent than Sarah Palin, his background has about the same depth. He has held public office now for 21 months. He has virtually no background or even any record of interest in foreign affairs. His glib, self-deprecating, and often bi-partisan approach to public communication has given him a kind of Will Rogers appeal, someone you can laugh with and trust at the same time. Somehow to desperate moderate-right Republicans this is enough to put him in-charge of the United States and the Free World, damn the details.

Sarah Palin is not likely to run for President (see Pennyfound: Ignoring the Obvious 7/5/09). On a recent interview she indicated running would cramp her style as “a maverick”. She’s smart enough to know that increased public scrutiny holds mostly downside for her, especially in the pocketbook. Chris Christie, as I said earlier, is smarter than Sarah Palin…way smarter. Much of what he has given for reasons not to run is both admirable and impressive. He has said “I’m not ready”, indicated it wasn’t the right time, pointed out his shortcomings, and simply relayed a lack of desire, among other things. He knows he’s a darling of the media that has found a talent in himself to be attractive, but he also knows that 21 months as a governor, 7 years as US Attorney (appointed under questionable circumstances), 3 years as a lobbyist, and some squirrely in and out participation in local politics does not a President make.

I think there could be something more to his decision not to run. As opposed to Sarah Palin who grew up in a conservative Christian, cheerleader, beauty pageant, weather girl kind of environment, Christie developed in the raw middleclass environment characteristic of New York/ New Jersey. The controversies that have surrounded his years both as a local Freeholder (like a county supervisor) and later as US Attorney lead me to consider that the kind of pragmatism he may have embraced is something he’s rather not have dug up and set on the table. If such is true, nobody knows this more than him. He may say that he’s not ready to run for President; however he may actually be saying that he’ll never be ready to run. The Peter Principal argues that people often rise one level above their expertise to their level of incompetence. In Christie’s case, it may be that a Governorship is the last level he can rise before he reaches his level of exposure.

It is a commentary in itself that there are so many who would follow an unknown quantity, or in the case of Sarah Palin an incompetent known quantity, simply because they are desperate for someone to believe in. If there is a lesson in here somewhere it is that leadership contains critical elements that are not intellectual or political. We all intuitively know that right…or do we President Obama?