I live in New Jersey and voted for Chris Christie when he ran for Governor.
Mistake.
Since Christie has taken office he has done nothing more than issue false promises and go back on the ones he made before he was elected. Due to his policies Camden has lost many of its police officers, Trenton has laid off half of its force and many other police departments have had to cut back on protecting their citizens. Teachers have also been victims of his massive cuts into our education system which have increased our unemployment rate and damaged our young peoples' potential. While small government is effective in many places, the least we can ask of our elected officials is to be honest about what they will do when elected.
Christie wrote letters to the state PBA and our teachers promising that he would not allow lay offs or cuts if he were elected. This was a lie. Due to his policies crime has risen and cities like Newark, Trenton, Paterson, and Camden are bordering on being absolute hopeless places. People cannot venture outside without the fear of being robbed, raped, or murdered. Newark has laid off Police Officers and has seen a rise in crime that makes it comparable to its days as a crime capital of the country in the early 1990s. Jersey City has also been starved by Christie's policies to the point of having to lay off officers and now has severe gaps in police coverage in what is a dangerous city.
Not to mention...
How can we trust a President to make critical decisions, if he couldn't even easily decide if he wanted to be President?
i like christie for all of the reasons you oppose him
NJ was spending way beyond its means. rather than getting its budget back in check, the previous politicians kicked that can down the road by doing things such as not funding its pension plan
year after year
and the problem was getting more and more unmanageable while the politicians refused to address the real issue: too much spending for the available tax base
little different than our nation's fiscal mismanagement since reagan ... only without the fed's ability to print money to further postpone our country's day of reckoning
don't misunderstand me. christie is no diplomat. he is actually a dick; youtubes will put that bullying 'quality' on display. as a union official, i resent his heavy handed dealings with labor. but we need straight shooters in office in these hard times. and christie is nothing if not blunt
seems preliminary reports indicate christie's 1pm announcement is to say he will not run. that is unfortunate. he was one of the few republicans i might vote for instead of Obama. and i believe there are many in the middle, like me, who would do the same
that can't be said for romney. as someone mentioned, he is a republican kerry - with the added baggage of being too mormon. un-electable
i fear palin will now jump in and motivate the teabaggers to nominate her as much as that will cause the great majority of Americans to be forced to re-elect Obama - by default
the only way the republicans can salvage this election is to give Gary Johnson some air time. like christie, as gov of NM Johnson did what he promised in his campaigns to do. and left the office with the state in a sound fiscal condition
a fiscal conservative and social liberal, Gary Johnson - again, like christie - would steal the votes of centrist Americans ... votes that will otherwise elect Obama
looks like Obama will win 2012 only because the republicans cannot find an electable candidate. not unlike the democrats of humphrey, mcgovern, mondale, dukakis, gore, and kerry ...
the gop needs to wake up and realize that romney is another bob dole - only with less charisma
