Chris Christie Praises Obama Sandy Response
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been working tirelessly to ensure Barack Obama is a one-term president but has been effusive in praising Obama's leadership during Hurricane Sandy.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been working tirelessly to ensure Barack Obama is a one-term president but has been effusive in praising Obama’s leadership during Hurricane Sandy.
The Hill (“Gov. Christie praises Obama response to Hurricane Sandy as ‘outstanding’“):
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) praised President Obama’s work to help states battered by Hurricane Sandy as “outstanding” Tuesday, but cautioned that the recovery would be a prolonged effort.
Christie, a prominent surrogate for GOP candidate Mitt Romney, said Obama had moved quickly to help designate his state a disaster area to better expedite federal assistance.
“The federal government’s response has been great. I was on the phone at midnight again last night with the president, personally, he has expedited the designation of New Jersey as a major disaster area,” said Christie, in an interview with NBC’s “Today.”
“Last night, I was on the phone with FEMA at 2 a.m. this morning to answer the questions they needed answered to get that designation and the president has been outstanding in this. The folks at FEMA, [Administrator] Craig Fugate and his folks have been excellent,” he continued.
In a separate interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Christie added to the praise, saying that “the president has been all over this and deserves great credit.” ”He gave me his number at the White House and told me to call him if I needed anything,” he added.
Obama is going to win New Jersey by a large margin regardless. But it’s good to see politics put aside for a few minutes during national crises.
Update (Doug Mataconis): This interview of Christie by Fox’s Steve Doocy is particularly revealing. Doocy tries to steer Christie into a discussion about politics and Christie won’t take the bait:
That video is posted on the Governor’s official YouTube page.
Can’t wait to see the conservatives pile on him for praising Obama. Sad that’s the world we live in now.
Well, Chris’s politics aren’t my politics, and they’re certainly not the president’s, but he’s no bullshitter. Wish we had more like him.
RINO!
So I guess Christie isn’t in favor of privatizing FEMA? Maybe he didn’t get the memo from Romney. Well, that was Romney’s position last week. This week, who knows?
But he should probably stay out of Atlantic City for a while.
He continues to call it like he sees it.
I love the insipid grin on Doocy’s face after Christie slapped him down.
Christie’s a good guy. And Davebo? EVERYONE should stay out of Atlantic City for a while. Frelling idiot mayor…
And Romney stuffed his campaign bus full of relief supplies and sent it into NYC. There’s no way in hell it’ll help him in the election, but it shows the guy’s character.
Romney also announced that today’s rally in Ohio would be a “relief rally”. The press passes are labeled “Romney/Ryan Victory Rally 10/30/12. I think THAT “shows the guy’s character”.
Oh, and they played a campaign video to warm up the crowd. But of course, since he publicly announced that he was suspending all “campaign events” for today, I guess that this isn’t a “campaign event” per se.
@Jay Tea’s puppet Jenos Idanian #13:
And Romney stuffed his campaign bus full of relief supplies and sent it into NYC. There’s no way in hell it’ll help him in the election, but it shows the guy’s character.
He made people wait in line with their donations for an hour until he showed up to personally accept them for the cameras. And if you believe he wasn’t doing this to help himself in the election, you are dreaming. The entire thing was a photo op. Random collections of goods are not particularly helpful to the Red Cross in the midst of an ongoing disaster.
@OzarkHillbilly: Insipid grin is pretty much Doocy’s only expression.
@Jenos Idanian #13:
🙂
From the Red Cross website, not a tweet.
http://www.redcross.org/help-faq
In a more comedic role, Brownie has come out and said this.
@bk:
Today’s event originally was a campaign rally. The press passes would’ve been printed up at least a week ago
@Doug Mataconis: Screw your spin, Doug. Every report that came out of there said it was the same as a campaign rally. Was there any “relief-related” reason to air his campaign video at the start of it?
He was under no obligation to suspend his campaign even for a day. But once he said he was going to do so – having a campaign event and calling it a “relief rally” is just one more evidence that he will do ANYTHING, say ANYTHING, lie about EVERYTHING, to win.
Meanwhile, Obama’s FEMA is telling people who need help or information in the wake of the disaster to go to FEMA’s web site. Don’t bother calling, they have no information for you. Just go to ready.gov…
@Jay Tea’s puppet Jenos Idanian #13:
Meanwhile, Obama’s FEMA is telling people who need help or information in the wake of the disaster to go to FEMA’s web site. Don’t bother calling, they have no information for you. Just go to ready.gov…
You expect the feds to give everyone in the storm’s path one phone number to call? A lot of help that would be.
@Jenos Idanian #13: “And Romney stuffed his campaign bus full of relief supplies and sent it into NYC. There’s no way in hell it’ll help him in the election, but it shows the guy’s character. ”
He’s worth a quarter of a billion dollars. If he really cared about hurricane victims, he could make a real difference. Instead he staged a photo op of himself stuffing his bus with canned goods the Red Cross doesn’t want and can’t use.
You’re right. It does show the guy’s character. He’ll use anyone to advance his desire for power.
Christie impressed me this week. I like that he is coming across as valuing good government over politics. He may in fact be doing so just to pander to people like me for some future campaign he might launch, but at least that’s better than hyper-partisanship.