Part of the Chris Christie appeal is that aura of non-Tea Party, non-libertarian smash-mouth honesty that could have traction beyond the usual Republican suspects. Unlike Charlie Crist, the New Jersey governor looks like a Republican who can more than survive a Barack Obama man- hug. He embraced pragmatism and he embraced gratitude on behalf of his Sandy-blindsided constituents–and he’ll not apologize for the unapologizeable. Next question. His political persona has the ring of authenticity in the context of ideologues, red-meat panderers and hard-core Obama-haters.
What’s intriguing, however, is the calculating, by-the-numbers, pre-campaign prep he seems in the throes of. He has a 50-state fund-raising network that is obviously beyond his November 2013 gubernatorial re-election needs–even in Democratic New Jersey. Current contributors include Mark Zuckerberg, Condoleezza Rice and Sheldon Adelson. He has a viable Hispanics for Christie coalition in the Garden State. And if he is re-elected, as is expected, he becomes chairman of the Republican Governors Association. That would give him political cover to travel the country even more frequently.