(This caricature of Chris Christie is by the one and only DonkeyHotey.)I haven't seen a potential candidate come apart faster than Chris Christie since Clayton Williams ran for governor of Texas in 1990. Williams started as a prohibitive favorite, and then his campaign disintegrated as he made mistake after mistake. Christie is doing the same, and it's destroying his credibility as a presidential hopeful.
It started with his attempt at payback for a mayor refusing to support his re-election. Christie (or his aides/appointees) closed lanes entering the George Washington Bridge at Ft. Lee, New Jersey -- causing massive traffic jams (and possibly taking the life of one heart attack victim whose ambulance was delayed getting to the hospital). Christie held a press conference, denying that he ordered (or even knew about) the lane closings.
Then came another accusation -- that he withheld funds designated for Hurricane Sandy relief to pressure the mayor of Hoboken into approving a private building venture in that city. This was followed by accusations of bullying by other New Jersey officials.
And the scandals just won't die. Now there is evidence that Christie was lying in the press conference where he denied knowledge of the lane closings. The man Christie appointed to serve on the Port Authority, David Wildstein, and the man who ordered the lane closings, said Christie lied to the public. He says Christie knew about the lane closings from the start, and he says he has the evidence to prove it. Also adding fuel to the fire is Christie's former campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who has said he will plead the Fifth Amendment if forced to testify about the lane closings.
A few months ago, Christie had the best favorability ratings of any Republican. That's not true any more (see chart below). Not that his ratings are now upside-down, and almost all groups give him a higher unfavorable rating than favorable. Only two groups (Republicans and Hispanics) give him a higher favorable than unfavorable rating -- and the ratings are very close among Republicans. The surprise (at least for me) is that Hispanics give him a good rating (45% favorable and 29% unfavorable). It seems that Hispanics are a lot kinder to Republicans than Republicans are to Hispanics.
This chart was made from a new YouGov Poll. The survey was done between January 25th and 27th of a national random sample of 1,000 adults, and has a margin of error of 3.9 points.
