The GOP Establishment's worries about Rick Perry aren't leading everyone to rally around Mitt Romney -- naturally, they're also leading to a desire for yet another wingnut savior. (Um, isn't that what Perry was supposed to be?) So, predictably after the last debate, we're getting this at Newsmax:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is reconsidering his decision not to enter the 2012 presidential race — and he says he will let top Republican donors know within days about his plans, Newsmax has learned....
Newsmax has learned that the effort to draft Christie culminated in a hush-hush powwow held in the past week with Christie and several notable Republican billionaires....
Yeah, but Christie has meetings like this with zillionaires who are crushing on him -- here's a post I wrote about one such meeting in July.
Oh, but there's also Bill Kristol saying, "I know Chris Christie is thinking about it," as reported by Politico. (Well, Christie's thinking about being courted. I don't know if he's really thinking about running.)
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Think Christie will be welcomed with hosannas as the true-blue 100% conservative the rubes are waiting for? Well, start with his best-known deviations from conservative correctness:
It was startling enough when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called out Islamophobes who were throwing fits over his appointment of a Muslim judge:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie appointed Muslim-American judge Sohail Mohammed to the state bench this week and has no patience for his detractors....Now Christie is saying that he thinks global climate change is real and probably man-made:
When asked about fears that Mohammed could bring Sharia Law into his practice, Christie (who is known for his combative interchanges with reporters) snapped back:
"Sharia Law has nothing to do with this at all, it's crazy!"
"I can’t claim to fully understand all of this," he said. "Certainly not after just a few months of study. But when you have over 90 percent of the world's scientists who have studied this stating that climate change is occurring and that humans play a contributing role it's time to defer to the experts."
Beyond that, as Hot Air notes, Christie wants a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, he's supported the assault weapons ban in a 1995 campaign for State Assembly and said this in an interview with Sean Hannity as he was running for governor:
... on certain gun control issues, looking at it from a law enforcement perspective, seeing how many police officers were killed -- we have an illegal gun problem in New Jersey.
...Listen, at the end of the day, what I support are common sense laws that will allow people to protect themselves. But I also am very concerned about the safety of our police officers on the streets. Very concerned. And I want to make sure that we don't have an abundance of guns out there.
Unacceptable! He says "abundance of guns" like it's a bad thing!
Oh, and there's this ad he put out when he was running, on renewable energy. Watch just the beginning and tell me how he'll live this down with the crazy base:
There's no doubt that renewable energy is the future here in New Jersey and there is really no better time than for us the begin the discussion of not only how it will lead us to energy independence, but also how it will help create more good paying, middle class jobs for New Jerseyans. It's a change that President Obama stands firmly behind. I couldn't agree more.
Forget it. They'll make mincemeat of him. And this is the fun of the 2012 GOP race (despite the dread that comes from the realization that one of these frauds and nutjobs could really become president): everyone who can win is at risk of losing because of purity tests, and the testing is likely to become more rigorous and severe.
Bizarrely, Mitt Romney seems to understand this best. So he may win as a result.
