Chris Christie’s biggest break in the New Hampshire primary came when the only statewide paper, the Union Leader, endorsed him. In part, the paper said, it was to save the country from the egregious Donald Trump, whom it compared to the bullying mogul “Biff” in “Back to the Future.” .
The Union Leader’s endorsement didn’t save Christie from a poor showing in the Feb. 8 primary and the New Jersey governor withdrew. But politico.com reports that the day after the primary, publisher Joe McQuaid heard a rumor that Christie was going to endorse Trump and called the governor to ask him about it. Christie responded that.
“He said, ‘No, no, I would never do that,’” McQuaid told Politico. “[Christie] told me to tell the other guy to ‘take his head out of his ass’ for saying he would support Trump.”
We all know what happened just three weeks later. McQuaid says he is “disappointed” in Chris Christie and puzzled by what happened. ”It’s like Romney says about Trump and his taxes. I think there’s something there. Christie hasn’t come clean.”
Many others agree. Opportunism is a central tenet of politics, but Christie’s move reminds me of the old British story of a parliamentarian who abandoned his stance with such alacrity that one of his colleagues said “If he were aboard a ship, his departure would have been so swift that the rats would be left gaping in astonishment.”