After JV Debate, Christie Gets Praise From Fox Owner
It’s been an interesting week or so for Chris Christie. He has gotten by far his most traction of the campaign with his heartfelt speech about addiction, but he also was dropped to the undercard debate yesterday due to sagging poll ratings.
And so last night Fox Business Network held two debates, and Christie was in the one that started at 7. He spent most of his time attacking Hillary Clinton.
“I want to talk about what’s going to happen to this country if we have another four years of Barack Obama’s policies,” Christie said during the debate. He essentially avoided squabbling with the other three candidates, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum. “The bottom line is Hillary Clinton is coming for your wallet, everyone,” Christie said. “Don’t worry about Huckabee and Jindal. Worry about her.”
Additionally, Christie said hackers from China stole his identity. He blamed the Obama administration. “They took my Social Security number, my fingerprints as a U.S. attorney that were on file there. And what has this president done? Not one thing,” Christie said. “If the Chinese commit cyberwarfare against us, they are going to see cyberwarfare like they have never seen before.”
The debate wasn’t all predictions of escalating cyberwarfare. Jindal jabbed at Christie, but the New Jersey governor didn’t really respond in kind. He focused on attacking Clinton, and called for smaller government. Even when others on stage attacked his record, Christie didn’t really defend himself much. He stuck to the script.
Undercard debate, all did better than expected, but Chris Christie seemed in different class. Possible to see as Chief Executive.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) November 11, 2015
Was it good enough? After the JV debate, Christie got a boost — we guess — from Fox founder, chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, who tweeted after the debate that it was “possible to see” Christie “as Chief Executive.”
NJ.com talked with several strategists who all said Christie did a nice job at the debate. Actually, Christie has received solid marks at pretty much every debate; the only unpopular debate blip he’s really had is his push to strongly enforce the federal ban on marijuana. (We truly live in a strange time when this was Christie’s biggest slip-up in the four debates we’ve had so far.)
But none of those debates have translated into rising poll numbers. So what’s next for Christie? The next debate isn’t until December 15th (in Las Vegas, of all places). He has more than a month to attempt to gain traction, and possible re-entry into the headlining prime time debate. The latest RealClearPolitics polling averages put him at 2.2 percent. National polls don’t really matter in one sense — there’s no national primary — but Christie will need to improve those numbers if he wants to attract donors and stay in debates. Time will tell.