Askthepizzaguy
Know the Dark Side
I want to give a big shout-out across the aisle to Republican Governor and huge Romney supporter Chris Christie for keeping his focus on what actually matters.
I realize it's already been a week and it's been covered before, but I want to highlight what I think should be highlighted:
Christie is a strong Romney supporter, and by strong, I mean he was the first choice for VP and he gave speeches for Romney. Big Romney supporter. And that's his right, and possibly his duty as a well-known and respected Republican in a presidential election year, to pull for a Republican leader to become President. For the Republican team.
I understand and respect that. I disagree with his choice, but this is how we decide who leads the country, and there's nothing wrong with it.
But Christie also shows where his priorities are: The hurricane hits, and immediately, Christie is focused on his actual job: Being the governor of the State of New Jersey.
This means he's the guy in charge of saving the lives of thousands of his own people, Republican and Democrat. This is not a moment for party affiliation to mean jack flipping squat.
And IMMEDIATELY, he's on the phone with President Obama, the guy who just weeks and days earlier he was putting his whole energy into running out of office, and he's asking for a strong partnership between the two of them, along with all the President's horses and all the President's men, to put New Jersey back together again.
And Obama of course does his job as the President, which is to put citizens first, lives of the people first, and works closely with Christie. Tells him and other governors that if they run into any red tape whatsoever, call Obama personally. They'll get a response within 15 minutes.
Now, this is what is right with our government. After seeing ever so many examples of what's wrong, I need to highlight this.
This is correct.
This needs to be shown to everyone, in both parties.
This political football game does not matter when the stadium is on fire.
Is any of this getting through?
When asked about Romney at this point, said Christie:
Yep.
This is like when 9/11 happened and we all stood with President Bush. There are moments when the football game doesn't matter anymore. Even if you didn't vote for the guy in charge, when the country needs to stand together as one, you can't afford not to rally around him. We all did it for Bush in 2001. Why? Because the terrorists don't care which party you voted for. They want all of us dead, equally so. And hurricanes also don't seem to care how many Republicans or Democrats they kill, funnily enough.
Christie is faced with a disaster that requires cooperation. He takes his strong support for Romney and his very Republican leanings, and sets those aside for a moment, even if the election is imminent, and does right by the people of his state, and nuts to whatever the Republican campaign has to say about it.
I applaud him for this, and everyone else should too, and in nearly all accounts, they are.
This is not because I'm an Obama supporter and I like to see Republicans praising Obama. I am, and I do; and there's been very, very precious little of that.
The reason why I say this is because this exchange between Obama and Christie demonstrated that we don't have to agree to cooperate on issues that matter. We don't have to be in the same party. We don't have to like each other. We don't have to have anything in common at all, really, other than the fact that we're fellow human beings.
This won't happen- The bipartisanship will not last. Soon, things will return back to their divisive rhetoric, and turtle boy will raise his head up high and suggest that the GOP's next highest priority is to ensure that Biden never becomes president, and Boehner's recent comment about bipartisanship will go immediately back to the dustbin from whence it came, and there will be gridlock again. And the GOP will blame Obama and Obama will blame the GOP and there will be no movement. And it will frustrate the people of both parties.
My point is it doesn't have to be this way. In a crisis, we can drop the BS and say that political party doesn't matter, we must do well by our people.
We've demonstrated so before, and recently. This isn't wishful thinking or magic. It's very real, and it can happen, even from leaders of partisan groups like Obama and Christie. And it can happen where it matters, even at the cost of others in their respective parties clucking their tongues at the shameless non-partisan behavior.
It's not a love festival. Christie didn't suddenly agree with all of Obama's policies. It's called being professional, and being a public servant, not merely a puppet of a political party.
What's the point of being elected if you don't drop the partisan sack of dung every once in a while and actually use the power of your office to help the people who need you the most?
IMO Christie demonstrated where his priorities were, and IMO, they are where they should be.
And I strongly encourage any Republicans to not ostracize Christie or blame him for Romney's loss in the general election, or look at this bipartisanship as a sign of weakness.
In truth, Romney would have lost regardless of what Christie did, and it ultimately doesn't matter which man won, in the short term. Obama and the current Congress would already have the budget made up for fiscal 2013, there wouldn't be enough movement in the House or Senate to drastically change the laws, and the economic recovery would continue along at the same pace regardless of who won the Presidency.
But I can tell you that the strong working relationship between two partisan men of two different parties directly and substantially benefits the people of New Jersey, in both the short term and the long term. And it is a thousand times more important that Christie focused on this, than on the general election.
This is a moment when I wish Christie was governor of my state. I am not satisfied with my current governor in the slightest.
You folks need to support Christie on this, and in his future endeavors. If we run every man out of office who does this sort of thing, there's never going to be any unity in a crisis, and America will suffer more for that than for any other stupid thing it ever does.
I had every expectation Obama would do his duty regardless of who was Governor, but the Governor did not need to praise Obama or point out that he was doing a good job. It's an election year, I doubt anyone would have blinked if he simply thanked Obama for the help and then proceeded to move on to another subject. It's expected.
What's not expected is that very Republican and partisan Christie works well with very Democratic and partisan Obama.
We need more of this. And we need to run out of office the folks who do not meet this test.
___________________________
I realize it's already been a week and it's been covered before, but I want to highlight what I think should be highlighted:
Christie is a strong Romney supporter, and by strong, I mean he was the first choice for VP and he gave speeches for Romney. Big Romney supporter. And that's his right, and possibly his duty as a well-known and respected Republican in a presidential election year, to pull for a Republican leader to become President. For the Republican team.
I understand and respect that. I disagree with his choice, but this is how we decide who leads the country, and there's nothing wrong with it.
But Christie also shows where his priorities are: The hurricane hits, and immediately, Christie is focused on his actual job: Being the governor of the State of New Jersey.
This means he's the guy in charge of saving the lives of thousands of his own people, Republican and Democrat. This is not a moment for party affiliation to mean jack flipping squat.
And IMMEDIATELY, he's on the phone with President Obama, the guy who just weeks and days earlier he was putting his whole energy into running out of office, and he's asking for a strong partnership between the two of them, along with all the President's horses and all the President's men, to put New Jersey back together again.
And Obama of course does his job as the President, which is to put citizens first, lives of the people first, and works closely with Christie. Tells him and other governors that if they run into any red tape whatsoever, call Obama personally. They'll get a response within 15 minutes.
Now, this is what is right with our government. After seeing ever so many examples of what's wrong, I need to highlight this.
This is correct.
This needs to be shown to everyone, in both parties.
This political football game does not matter when the stadium is on fire.
Is any of this getting through?
When asked about Romney at this point, said Christie:
Yep.
This is like when 9/11 happened and we all stood with President Bush. There are moments when the football game doesn't matter anymore. Even if you didn't vote for the guy in charge, when the country needs to stand together as one, you can't afford not to rally around him. We all did it for Bush in 2001. Why? Because the terrorists don't care which party you voted for. They want all of us dead, equally so. And hurricanes also don't seem to care how many Republicans or Democrats they kill, funnily enough.
Christie is faced with a disaster that requires cooperation. He takes his strong support for Romney and his very Republican leanings, and sets those aside for a moment, even if the election is imminent, and does right by the people of his state, and nuts to whatever the Republican campaign has to say about it.
I applaud him for this, and everyone else should too, and in nearly all accounts, they are.
This is not because I'm an Obama supporter and I like to see Republicans praising Obama. I am, and I do; and there's been very, very precious little of that.
The reason why I say this is because this exchange between Obama and Christie demonstrated that we don't have to agree to cooperate on issues that matter. We don't have to be in the same party. We don't have to like each other. We don't have to have anything in common at all, really, other than the fact that we're fellow human beings.
This won't happen- The bipartisanship will not last. Soon, things will return back to their divisive rhetoric, and turtle boy will raise his head up high and suggest that the GOP's next highest priority is to ensure that Biden never becomes president, and Boehner's recent comment about bipartisanship will go immediately back to the dustbin from whence it came, and there will be gridlock again. And the GOP will blame Obama and Obama will blame the GOP and there will be no movement. And it will frustrate the people of both parties.
My point is it doesn't have to be this way. In a crisis, we can drop the BS and say that political party doesn't matter, we must do well by our people.
We've demonstrated so before, and recently. This isn't wishful thinking or magic. It's very real, and it can happen, even from leaders of partisan groups like Obama and Christie. And it can happen where it matters, even at the cost of others in their respective parties clucking their tongues at the shameless non-partisan behavior.
It's not a love festival. Christie didn't suddenly agree with all of Obama's policies. It's called being professional, and being a public servant, not merely a puppet of a political party.
What's the point of being elected if you don't drop the partisan sack of dung every once in a while and actually use the power of your office to help the people who need you the most?
IMO Christie demonstrated where his priorities were, and IMO, they are where they should be.
And I strongly encourage any Republicans to not ostracize Christie or blame him for Romney's loss in the general election, or look at this bipartisanship as a sign of weakness.
In truth, Romney would have lost regardless of what Christie did, and it ultimately doesn't matter which man won, in the short term. Obama and the current Congress would already have the budget made up for fiscal 2013, there wouldn't be enough movement in the House or Senate to drastically change the laws, and the economic recovery would continue along at the same pace regardless of who won the Presidency.
But I can tell you that the strong working relationship between two partisan men of two different parties directly and substantially benefits the people of New Jersey, in both the short term and the long term. And it is a thousand times more important that Christie focused on this, than on the general election.
This is a moment when I wish Christie was governor of my state. I am not satisfied with my current governor in the slightest.
You folks need to support Christie on this, and in his future endeavors. If we run every man out of office who does this sort of thing, there's never going to be any unity in a crisis, and America will suffer more for that than for any other stupid thing it ever does.
I had every expectation Obama would do his duty regardless of who was Governor, but the Governor did not need to praise Obama or point out that he was doing a good job. It's an election year, I doubt anyone would have blinked if he simply thanked Obama for the help and then proceeded to move on to another subject. It's expected.
What's not expected is that very Republican and partisan Christie works well with very Democratic and partisan Obama.
We need more of this. And we need to run out of office the folks who do not meet this test.
___________________________
- Agree or disagree?
to Christie!
