If you’re a Republican not named Donald Trump (or one whose default position isn’t “Let’s Lose!”), it’s truly something to let down the nerds of National Review. But in the most remarkable feat thus far of his exceptionally lame presidential campaign, Chris Christie has done just that.
“If Christie is as committed to stopping Donald Trump as he says,” NR concluded in a Friday editorial, “it’s time for him to retire to his tent.”
The once venerable magazine known these days for, really, nothing wrote, under the headline “Chris Christie Needs to Stand Down,” that the former New Jersey governor, whose campaign goal has solely been aimed at kneecapping Trump in 2024, may actually be doing the reverse. “As things stand now,” the mag said, “Christie could pull off a trick no one else would dare attempt — helping Trump win the nomination as a devoted supporter in 2016, and then turning around and helping him win the nomination as a fierce opponent in 2024.”
I don’t give Christie nearly that much credit. There are, I imagine, the same number of voters weighing what he has to say about Trump as there are cable news guests waiting at any given moment in CNN’s greenroom.
Spoiler: They’re the same people.
Christie’s campaign has targeted virtually nobody outside of TV bookers. A report in Axios on Friday said as much. Detailing his campaign’s first-ever purchase in broadcast, the report said that the content of the New Hampshire TV ad is intended to
