EVEN IF RIGHT-WINGERS NEVER FULLY GET BEHIND CHRISTIE, THEY'RE GOING TO TRY TO MAKE BRIDGEGATE ALL ABOUT OBAMA AND HILLARY

Elias Isquith at Salon after Chris Christie's press conference:

For conservatives on Twitter, Chris Christie's press conference proved one thing: Barack Obama sucks

Indeed:

... anyone who was on Twitter while Christie was answering questions had the opportunity to see right-wing conventional wisdom form in real time. And that conventional wisdom, simply put, is the following: Yeah, Chris Christie may have messed up, but he’s still better than the mainstream media, Democrats, Obama ... and did you hear about Benghazi?

A few highlights:

Christie has already fired people over BridgeGate. Obama promoted those who "got even" on his behalf in IRS.

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) January 9, 2014

If only Christie had actually driven a woman off the bridge, he'd be a hero to Democrats.

— Just Karl (@justkarl) January 9, 2014

Treating this as the potential national end of Christie is a symptom of how we hold GOP candidates to a higher standard than Democrats.

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) January 9, 2014

Isquith has more tweets where that came from. And this follows James Taranto in The Wall Street Journal:

Christie's reputation as a straight talker has made for a flattering contrast with the smooth-talking Barack Obama. Obama's deceptions, most notably his fraudulent claims about ObamaCare, have seriously damaged public trust in Washington. Christie's supposed candor made him look as if he might be the man to restore it.

Worse, the Christie administration's evident abuse of the Port Authority is reminiscent of the Obama administration's abuse of the Internal Revenue Service. Neither the governor nor the president has been shown to be directly involved, but each must bear a measure of responsibility for his subordinates' actions. One of Obama's worst traits is his unvarnished contempt for his political opponents. The new revelations from Trenton suggest that Christie's administration, if not the man himself, has a similar quality.

Its sheer pettiness is what distinguishes the GWB scandal from the ObamaCare and IRS ones. The ObamaCare fraud was in the service of an ambitious ideological agenda, and ... the 2012 election was close enough that it is possible the IRS's suppression of opposition was necessary to secure the president a second term. Christie, by contrast, is not much of an ideologue and was cruising to an easy re-election.

And then there's Jennifer Rubin:

Ironically, in elevating the scandal to front-page news, the media drew attention to the press conference, which was a tour de force.

... Christie did everything humanly possible to clear the decks and address the mushrooming crisis. Will it be enough? That largely depends on what the U.S. attorney and New Jersey legislature find in their respective investigations. But one can't but help notice the contrast between Christie's response and the hide-the-ball behavior of the Obama-Clinton gang, be it in the IRS scandal, the Benghazi debacle or the "you can keep your health-care insurance" ordeals.

Expect the same from Peggy Noonan soon.

Add this to the argument (from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Steve Doocy) that media coverage of this story is just an excuse to avoid talking about the Robert Gates book, and you've got the makings of a right-wing reaction to Bridgegate that's agnostic about Christie but full of the right's usual certainty about the limitless depravity of Democrats.

And that alone could change the tone of the mainstream media coverage, and possibly help salvage Christie's career.

****

And if you want every single one of the emerging right-wing talking points in one piece, read this from Fox's Todd Starnes. Christie fired people, unlike Obama! Christie didn't say "What difference does it make"! Hell, there's even a Teleprompter reference.