Is Christie ready to be president?
It was about this time five years ago when political strategist David Axelrod sat down and wrote a memo to then-Sen. Barack Obama, who was seriously considering whether to run for president after months and months of saying he would not.
“History is replete with potential candidates for presidency who waited too long rather than examples of people who ran too soon. . . . You will never be hotter than you are right now. . . . In short, there are many reasons to believe that if you are ever to run for presidency this is the time.”
Those words could easily be included in a memo that one of Chris Christie’s advisers might be sending to the New Jersey governor now, for many of the same elements that led Axelrod to encourage Obama to run in 2008 apply to Christie at this moment.
Christie’s blunt style has captured the imaginations of many Republicans, as Obama’s hope and change message stirred Democrats then. He is a fresh face in a party that is in transition and looking for something more than it sees on the horizon. He is being encouraged to run by ordinary citizens, wealthy fundraisers and party leaders who see an opportunity for victory in 2012 and don’t want to let it slip away.
Axelrod’s memo contained another piece of advice relevant to Christie’s decision-making, which is that the incumbent president defines the coming election and that, if there is unrest in the country, voters will be looking not for a replica but for a replacement. Whatever negative qualities they see in the incumbent, they will be looking for the opposite…