How much of Chris Christie’s endorsement of Trump is driven by sheer animosity to Marco Rubio?
At today’s rally in Fort Worth, announcing his endorsement of Trump, Christie ripped into Rubio, declaring, “Being president of the United States isn’t a no-show job, the way you’ve treated being a U.S. senator as a no-show job!” Coming from a governor who spent 261 days of 2015 outside of his state, that line of attack is pretty insufferable. What’s more, Christie didn’t mention Ted Cruz at all. Perhaps he’s hesitant to attack the Texas senator on his home turf — eh, who are we kidding, this is Chris Christie we’re talking about, and he’s at a Donald Trump rally. The lack of attacks on Cruz probably indicate that Trump and Christie aren’t even that worried about him anymore.
Then again, maybe Christie sees Trump as inevitable, and wants to play a role in the next Republican administration.
Peggy Noonan’s column in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal contends that the coming nomination and presidency is pretty obvious:
In my experience any nonpolitical person on the street, when asked who will win, not only knows but gets a look as if you’re teasing him. Trump, they say.
I had such a conversation again Tuesday with a friend who repairs shoes in a shop on Lexington Avenue. Jimmy asked me, conversationally, what was going to happen. I deflected and asked who he thinks is going to win. “Troomp!” He’s a very nice man, an elderly, old-school Italian-American, but I saw impatience flick across his face: Aren’t you supposed to know these things?
In America now only normal people are capable of seeing the obvious.
Whatever the motive, it’s a striking 180-degree turn from the former candidate who said nominating Trump “could wind up turning over the White House to Hillary Clinton for four more years,” who said Trump was “acting like a child” when he skipped the Iowa debate, who said Trump’s immigration plan was “just too simplistic,” who said Trump’s plan to ban Muslim immigration to the U.S. was “the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don’t know what they’re talking about” and who said 140 characters or less seems to be the best way for Trump to communicate.