NJ Watchdog: Christie hopes CNN debate begins comeback

On the ropes, Christie hopes CNN debate begins his comeback

With his White House run on the ropes, Chris Christie came out swinging Wednesday night at the prime-time Republican presidential debate on CNN.

Instead of duking it out with the other 10 GOP hopefuls on the stage, the New Jersey governor aimed his blows at opponents who weren't present -- President Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic-controlled legislature in his home state.

“In seven short years, this president has stripped away their trust and faith and belief that the next generation will have a better life,” Christie declared in his opening statement. “He’s stolen that from us, and when I’m president, I’m going to take it back.”

He also urged the other Republican candidates to unite against Clinton for her support of Planned Parenthood.

“We shouldn’t be fighting with each other,” he said. “She’s the real opponent.”

And Christie identified himself as an “outsider” – like Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Firorina – explaining that he is a Republican in a blue state.

“I’ve vetoed 400 bills from a crazy liberal Democratic legislature,” he said.

While Christie tried to play nice with his GOP opponents, there were numerous skirmishes between other contenders. Front-runner Trump exchanged sharp barbs with Fiorina, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Rand Paul.

But when Trump and Fiorina started criticizing each other’s track records in business, Christie interrupted with a crowd-pleasing line.

“You’re both successful people – congratulations,” he scolded. “You know who’s not successful in this country? The middle class who’s getting plowed over by Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Let’s start talking about those issues tonight and stop this childish back and forth between the two of you.”

The question is whether Christie landed punches enough to keep his campaign off the canvas. Positioned on the far end of the stage, a half-hour passed between questions posed to him by moderators at one point.

The governor entered the debate needing to score points with viewers to revive a campaign that’s taken a beating in public opinion polls.

Earlier this week, Christie fell to 11th place with only 1 percent support among GOP voters in both the ABC News/Washington Post and CBS News/New York Times polls.

The story is online at http://watchdog.org/238568/christie-cnn-debate/.

Running 4 Years Too Late, Christie Wasted His Summer On Campaign Trail

In light of tonight's 2nd GOP debate I thought that I'd post an OpEd that ran earlier this week in the Newark Star-Ledger on Chris Christie and the 2016 election. The piece was written by my friend Joshua Henne, president of the political consulting firm White Horse Strategies.

Running 4 Years Too Late, Christie Wasted His Summer On Campaign TrailBy Joshua Henne

It's hard to be "telling it like it is" when clearly no one cares what you have to say. That's precisely the lesson Gov. Chris Christie learned this summer.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. Four years ago, Gov. Christie was basking in the limelight and pushing away big name donors from Wall Street to Iowa who journeyed to New Jersey on bended knee, begging him to jump into the presidential race.

Flash forward to today. The scantest of media contingents trek to his events. Gov. Christie didn't make the Koch brothers' five-candidate list and barely made the first GOP debate by the hair of his chinny chinny chin. After squeaking onto the stage, it became painfully clear that Fox News didn't give a flying fig he was even there. Gov. Christie clocked an anemic six minutes of airtime, logging merely four questions – the first being a full-frontal assault on his failed fiscal gubernatorial record. Other times, moderators used him as an angry wind-up toy for split screen slap-fights with Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee.

Now, Gov. Christie is in peril of not even making the next debate. CNN's latest national polling has him outside the top 10 looking in. If I declared for the GOP nomination this afternoon, we'd literally be tied within the margin-of-error.

It's been over two months since Gov. Christie entered the race – not with a bang, as was long the plan, but with a whimper. When Jeb Bush announced his candidacy, he immediately jumped 6 percent. Donald Trump spiked 11 percent. Gov. Christie slid from 4 percent to a mere 2 percent. In Iowa, he's dropped down from a lackluster 5 percent in the spring to a near-non-existent 1 percent. Gov. Christie even fell to tenth-place in New Hampshire, where he's all but established residency with 20 visits since 2013.

Clearly, every single nomination path Gov. Christie thought he'd have to himself has been closed off worse than access roads to the George Washington Bridge. Gov. Christie's solitary pitch was as the sole viable option who'd stand a chance in a general election. But this rationale only worked compared with an uninspiring 2012 field.

Today, his opponents trump every advantage Gov. Christie thought he had. Twice elected governor of America's largest swing state, Bush's family dynasty enjoys deeper ties to the identical money men Christie was banking on. Normally, with so many snowbirds and retirees, a Northeastern governor could fare well in the Sunshine State. Facing Bush – and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio – Gov. Christie has no shot.

Gov. Christie believed he had a lock as a fresh voice for a bright GOP wave. However, Sen. Rubio – without speaking a single word – stands for a new generation by virtue of his life story as the son of immigrants. Ohio Gov. John Kasich is the sitting executive – of a swing state – who balanced the budget and presides over a diversified economy on the mend. And as a blue state Republican who cut pensions and rammed through union-busting right-to-work legislation, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has Gov. Christie outflanked on using workers as piñatas.

Truly "telling it like it is" in New Jersey would mean ticking off the litany of Gov. Christie's abject failures over the past half-decade: a record-breaking nine credit downgrades on his watch; leading the nation in foreclosures, while the rest of America was on the upswing; consistently lagging the region and country on joblessness; ignoring crumbling rail and road infrastructure, putting not just commute times, but lives in jeopardy. It's been an absolute mess.

With no accomplishments, Gov. Christie can only cling to a personality-driven campaign. Even here, he trails Trump as the unhinged guy who spouts crazy stuff. And there's only room for one delusional, misogynistic, bombastic carnival barker with an inflated sense of self who helped usher in dark days for Atlantic City.

When it comes to pulling the trigger on an electoral run – especially for "Leader of The Free World" – it's all about timing. Gov. Christie is four years too late and already quite a few dollars short. People simply don't like or respect him. If this governor was truly "telling it like it is," he'd admit he has no chance. Christie only rationale for running is enjoying the travel and perks...and it's a heckuva lot better than staying home to deal with the mess he's created.

Donald Trump's fight with Fox News and Megyn Kelly, explained

If anyone is interested in Donald Trump and tuned into this past Thursday night's GOP debate on Fox News, you witnessed the attempted take-down of the GOP presidential front runner by the very organization that made him the front runner in the first place. As a result, sensing a hoodwinking in progress, Trump lashed out and has continued to lash out against Fox and one of it's debate moderators, Megyn Kelly. 

Vox.com's Ezra Klein explains how Fox's build-up and tear-down of Donald Trump goes beyond Megyn Kelly. It's about Fox New's lust for power,ratings and money. Klein also states how ultimately it's a fight that Trump can't win:

On Friday, Donald Trump said that Fox News's Megyn Kelly had it out for him during the first Republican presidential debate. And he had a theory as to why.

"She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions," Trump told CNN. "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her... wherever."

So how did we get to the point where the leading Republican candidate for president is accusing one of Fox News's signature hosts of going on a PMS-fueled rant against him? The answer is surprisingly complex.

It's not just about what happened at Thursday's debate. It's also about the way Fox News had, until Thursday, been inflating the Trump bubble, and the broader tension between Fox News's role as a ratings-obsessed cable network, an actual journalistic outlet, and one of the most important institutional actors in the Republican Party.

But let's start with what happened at the debate, and why it left Trump feeling so betrayed.

There's been an internal war at Fox News over Donald Trump

Until Thursday, Fox News had been one of Trump's most important allies. The liberal media watchdog group Media Matters notes that between May 1st, 2015, and July 31st, 2015, Donald Trump was given, by far, the most airtime of any GOP presidential contender, with 31 appearances on the network; Jeb Bush, by contrast, only had 7.

And more than simple airtime, Fox News's hosts defended Trump when the rest of the media was piling onto his more noxious comments.

When Trump said Mexico was sending rapists and criminals into America, Fox News contributor Monica Crowley said Trump "is saying things that need to be said."

When Trump blasted Senator John McCain's war record, Fox News's Steve Doocy said, "if you listen to his comments in total...he's not critical of John McCain the war hero, he's critical of his Senate record." Harris Faulkner said "McCain is not admitting that he kind of started this whole thing."

Erik Bolling, a member of Fox News's 'The Five," said, "I like what Donald Trump is saying, I like what he's doing." On Fox and Friends, Trump was compared to St. Augustine and Mr. Smith from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. And on his radio show, Sean Hannity, one of Fox's key primetime personalities, gave Trump the ultimate compliment. He compared him to Ronald Reagan:

• One of the greatest moments of Ronald Reagan's presidency, he was at Reykjavik. And Gorbachev was pushing him to give up Strategic Defense, what liberals called, derisively, 'Star Wars.' And he said, 'nyet' [no], and he walked away from the table. And eventually it led to peace. That's like Trump's art of the deal.

But there's been at least one powerful critic of Trump at Fox News: Rupert Murdoch. On July 22nd, New York Magazine's Gabriel Sherman, author of a biography of Roger Ailes, reported that there was a schism at Fox News over Donald Trump.

• According to sources, Murdoch has tried — and failed — to rein in Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, who, insiders say, is pushing Fox to defend Trump’s most outlandish comments. This week, Ailes told his senior executives during a meeting that Murdoch recently called him and asked if Fox could "back off the Trump coverage," a source told me. Ailes is said to have boasted to his executives that he told Murdoch he was covering Trump "the way he wanted to."

Murdoch loathed Trump so much that he took to Twitter to make his feelings known. "When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?" he asked.

Fox News went after Trump at the GOP debate

Donald Trump's post-debate tantrum has been an embarrassment. But it's not, on some level, a surprise.
After months when Fox News was his main ally, Trump stepped onto the Fox News debate stage and suddenly found the network seemingly committed to his destruction.

The first question was designed to embarrass Trump in front of a national audience of Republicans. Bret Baier began the debate by asking, "Is there anyone on stage, and can I see hands, who is unwilling tonight to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the Republican party and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person?"

Trump had already made clear that he wouldn't take that pledge. But Fox News began the debate by making sure every Republican in the country knew Trump wouldn't take that pledge. It was a question designed to embarrass him, and Baier kept turning the screws.

"Experts say an independent run would almost certainly hand the race over to Democrats and likely another Clinton," Baier told Trump. "You can't say tonight that you can make that pledge?"

And, for Trump, it went downhill from there.

Megyn Kelly's first question for Trump exposed his rampant misogyny in front of a national audience. "You've called women you don't like 'fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals,'" she began.

Trump, of course, interrupted. "Only Rosie O'Donnell," he said with a smile.

Kelly wasn't having it. "For the record, it was well beyond Rosie O'Donnell," she replied. "You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president, and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who was likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?"


Trump's answer was a master class in how to excuse sexism and wield the politics of white male resentment. "I don't frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn't have time either," Trump replied.

"Honestly Megyn," he continued, "if you don't like it, I'm sorry. I've been very nice to you, although I could probably maybe not be, based on the way you have treated me. But I wouldn't do that."

It turned out he would do that. But we'll get to that in a second.

The next question to Trump came from Chris Wallace. And here, again, the question was designed to embarrass the candidate.

"Mr. Trump, it has not escaped anybody's notice that you say that the Mexican government, the Mexican government is sending criminals -- rapists, drug dealers, across the border ... you have repeatedly said that you have evidence that the Mexican government is doing this, but you have refused or declined to share [that evidence]. Why not use this first Republican presidential debate to share your proof with the American people?"

But the demolition effort didn't end with the questions. As soon as the debate ended, Fox News cut to a focus group being conducted by pollster Frank Luntz. The entire segment was about how the focus group came in liking Trump and left loathing him. It was a festival of Trump hatred.

Look at the debate from Trump's perspective. His onetime friends at Fox News crafted the questions to embarrass him and then, once he was off the air, cut to a focus group — and who knows if that was a real focus group or actors who were coached on what to say — who told the whole country that Trump had lost the debate. 

And there's nothing Donald Trump hates like being called a loser....

Continue 

NJ Watchdog: Christie squeezes into GOP prime-time debate

Chris Christie squeezed his way into the prime-time Republican presidential debate on Fox, but it was a tighter fit than the New Jersey governor had wished.

The choice of only 3.4 percent of GOP voters, Christie clung to ninth place in a poll-based competition for 10 invitations to the big stage in Cleveland, just ahead of Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Donald Trump, who stole Christie’s tell-it-like-it-is thunder, leads the pack. The bombastic billionaire will be at the center podium at 9 p.m. Thursday, surrounded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, retired physician Ben Carson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Gov. Rand Paul, Christie and Kasich.

The story is online at http://watchdog.org/232625/christie-makes-gop-debate/

Conan O'Brien: Republican Presidential Debate Factoids

Wednesday night's GOP Presidential Debate gave some surprising factoids about Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and more!