Outside the Beltway

Outside the Beltway

Chris Christie On Running For President: Not Gonna Happen

Doug Mataconis
17

New Jersey’s Governor gives a Shermanesque statement in response to speculation about him running for the White House:

“Not going to happen. I want to be Governor of New Jersey. I ran for Governor of New Jersey. I’m not Woodrow Wilson. You have to be in your gut and in your heart ready to President if you decide to run for that. I simply do not have the desire to do it, nor do I think I’m ready.”

On some level it is refreshing to hear a politician who doesn’t have never-ending ambition and recognizes their limitations. It’s rather rare for the profession, after all.

Christie also does not seem to be interested in the Vice-Presidency:

“Is there anybody around here who thinks I could be a number two to anybody? It’d be kind of hard. It’d be tough for me to be number two to anybody. Now is the time for me to focus on being Governor. While I am flattered by all this, I really am. On the other hand, I know who I am.”

Interesting guy.

,
, ,

17 responses to “Chris Christie On Running For President: Not Gonna Happen”

  1. Steve Plunk Avatar
    Steve Plunk

    Interesting. Smart. Straight shooter. It makes sense for him to do the job he ask for in New Jersey before looking at the next step. Our current president didn’t want to wait that long and now we see how short of executive experience (or any experience) he is. Christie seems to know his limitations.

    If he is successful in New Jersey I expect to see him run for president eventually. After he has earned it.

  2. An Interested Party Avatar
    An Interested Party

    Oh yes, I’m sure he will “earn” it by doing things like this…forget the White House, he’ll be lucky if he gets reelected governor…

  3. Doug Mataconis Avatar
    Doug Mataconis

    Either the people of New Jersey will let Chris Christie do what needs to be done to cut a bloated and unsustainable welfare state

    or, New Jersey will become the next California.

  4. An Interested Party Avatar
    An Interested Party

    Oh yes, and what a fair and equitable way “to do what needs to be done”…

  5. Doug Mataconis Avatar
    Doug Mataconis

    “Fair and equitable”

    More nonsensical words in the face of a fiscal catastrophe were never spoken

  6. An Interested Party Avatar
    An Interested Party

    Funny how trying to take care of a fiscal catasrophe doesn’t preclude a $900 million tax cut for the state’s wealthiest families…talk about nonsensical…

  7. Doug Mataconis Avatar
    Doug Mataconis

    You do know what happened when New York taxed their wealth families, right ?

    They started leaving the state and taking their tax revenue with them.

  8. Steve Plunk Avatar
    Steve Plunk

    AIP,

    You are absolutely right. Fiscal sanity and making hard choices is how you earn it. For too long your type of arguments have held sway and now we have doomed future generations to paying for yesterday’s and today’s excesses.

    Christie may yet blow up in scandal or his policies may fail but if he succeeds it will create momentum for not only him but true fiscal conservatism.

  9. An Interested Party Avatar
    An Interested Party

    Hmm…so “jump(ing) off the cliff together” entails cutting the earned income tax credit for working families, saving $45 million, but also cutting taxes for the wealthiest, thus taking away $900 million from helping to shore up this fiscal catastrophe…some “fiscal sanity”…

  10. Juneau: Avatar
    Juneau:

    All liberals ever want to do is spend money. And, having spent all there is, insist on demanding more. Any thought of fiscal sanity is immediately turned into a us vs. them victimhood argument. The more they give, the more dependents they create. They don’t even care about results, they just care about creating dependency on the government tit.

    Case in point, Obama canceling the DC school voucher program for inner-city schools. The parents (almost all minorities) complained bitterly because, guess what? The programs worked. But Obama didn’t care about how well it worked, he owes too much to the teacher’s unions to let the program continue. Heaven forbid he should actually EXPAND it.

  11. An Interested Party Avatar
    An Interested Party

    All conservatives want to do is cut taxes for the wealthiest. And, not content with cuts already made, they insist on demanding more. Any thought of fiscal sanity is immediately turned into ludicrous fantasies like trickle down economics, the Laffer Curve, etc. The more they give to one group, the more they want to take from another group. They don’t even care about results, they just care about pushing their own ideological concoctions.

    It’s so nice to talk about fiscal catastrophe and the need to restore fiscal sanity, but $900 million in tax cuts? Yeah, that’ll really help balance New Jersey’s books…as for talking about what works, the earned income tax credit, pushed by Ronald Reagan no less, has worked in helping the working poor…but obviously, Christie doesn’t care about that, he owes too much to his ideology and his wealthy backers…

  12. Michael Reynolds Avatar
    Michael Reynolds

    IP:

    All conservatives want to do is cut taxes for the wealthiest.

    That is terribly unfair: they also like to spend and balloon deficits.

    I mean, be fair dude.

  13. Juneau: Avatar
    Juneau:

    “Any thought of fiscal sanity is immediately turned into ludicrous fantasies like trickle down economics…”

    Show me a decade of growth in the last 60 years (excluding immediately post-WW2) where we had as much growth as during the 80s. You can’t. And the primary reason why Reagan brought us out of the disastrous interest rates and crippling economy that were the Carter years was (drum roll please) Reaganomics. Also known affectionately by the wacky left as trickle-down economics.

    We rocked in the 80s and built more wealth as a nation than at anytime since the post-war explosion in the late 40’s.

  14. Juneau: Avatar
    Juneau:

    By the way. The reason why taxes get cut for the wealthy is because the more money they have, the more they spend, including on expanding their businesses. I’m not wealthy but, unlike you, I do not resent those that are and, with hard work and good fortune, I hope to someday be fortunate enough to fit into this category somehow.

    The main problem with the idiotic “tax-cuts for the rich” mantra is that liberals think anyone that makes $250,000 a year is “rich.” This a typical reaction from people that have never built a business and only know how to confiscate wealth, not build it. The $250,000 year figure pulled out of the air by Obama is not “net” income. It is “gross” income. for those liberals who have no idea what that means from a business-owners standpoint, it means that you can take home just enough to have a middle-class lifestyle and still have a bit extra.

    Liberals are dirt-stupid when it comes to business and what it takes to succeed. Because they don’t understand how jobs are created or care about that. Everyone is just a milk-cow, there to feed the machine.

  15. An Interested Party Avatar
    An Interested Party

    Well, if you want to talk about presidents and the economy…

    “Liberals are dirt-stupid…”

    More spittle-flecked ranting, and not even true, as conservatives aren’t the only people who start and sustain businesses…

    Oh, and by the way, if Christie wants to give tax cuts to the wealthiest in his state (notice how I never used the word “rich”), that is perfectly fine, but then he shouldn’t be talking about everyone jumping off of cliffs or his state’s fiscal catastrophe, as I’m sure those $900 million in tax cuts would go far in plugging New Jersey’s fiscal hole…

  16. Juneau: Avatar
    Juneau:

    “and not even true, as conservatives aren’t the only people who start and sustain businesses”

    OK, you got me. Seriously, that was short-sighted of me to make that statement. I should have said ” liberal POLITICIANS are dirt-stupid when it comes to business.” Look at the rolls on the democrat side of the House and Senate. Many of them have never even held a real job in their entire lives (like Obama), much less run a business. This administration has no knowledge about business – and it shows. Everywhere.

  17. An Interested Party Avatar
    An Interested Party

    That wasn’t the only place you are short-sighted…let us look at our last president, Mr. MBA…how did he and his administration, full of business people, do with the economy? Hmm? Suc a sparkling success…

Trending