New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie endorsed Donald Trump's presidential candidacy on Friday in Texas, a stunning development sure to add to the growing sense of inevitability around Trump's bid for the Republican nomination.
The only question anyone was asking in the wake of the endorsement was "why"? Or, more accurately, "WHY??!?" After all, Christie had savaged Trump as unelectable just a few weeks ago. So, why the abrupt about-face?
That's the Washington Post's Chris Cilizza, who thinks it basically comes down to the electoral math, Christie's desire to be in the VP mix and his very real disdain for both Rubio and Cruz.
The strongest point Christie makes is probably that Bill and Hillary know the playbook to run against junior senators, but have no idea how to run against Trump because no one knows what Trump will do. He's "rewriting the rules" or "making it up as he goes along" depending on how you want to look at it.
Yeah, OK, but what about this?
"Donald's a great guy and a good person. But I just don't think that he's suited to be president of the United States," he told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren as they walked along the Jersey Shore.
He added: "I don't think his temperament is suited for that and I don't think his experience is."
Christie, often accused of having his own temperament issues, was responding to Van Susteren asking if he would be willing to "take a swipe" at at the Republican front-runner and real-estate tycoon.
What's changed about Trump's experience or temperament since August, when Christie first said that? Nothing that I can see.
The weirdest thing about this to me is that I saw Christie coming from that class of Republican governors who proposed to bring both a record of achievement with conservative governance and real executive experience. I suppose you could say that argues against an endorsement of relative newbies Rubio and Cruz, but how does it recommend Trump - who not only has no governmental executive experience but also has no real track record of believing much of anything conservative.
(When the boss ran, his proposition was success as a business executive plus a long track record of embracing conservative ideas, which I knew from five years syndicating his columns was genuine.)
I would have thought a guy like Christie, who's cut his teeth not only as a governor but also as a federal prosecutor, would have scoffed at both Trump's rhetoric and his qualificiations. Shows what I know.
Watch:
I'm . . . flabbergasted:
