Analysis: Christie In Better Shape Than You Think

At Businessweek, Joshua Green surveys Chris Christie’s reception by conservative activists at CPAC over the weekend, and judges Christie’s presidential prospects to be in good shape:

The fact is electability has always been Christie’s greatest strength and will continue to be, unless he’s indicted or shown to have orchestrated some terrible new scandal we don’t know about….

For all the bad press over Bridgegate, Christie hasn’t been abandoned by party leaders or major donors. True, some conservatives don’t like him. But the media’s criticism has prompted others to rally behind him. His CPAC reception hardly left the impression that he’s unacceptable to the base. All things considered, Christie may be better positioned to win the Republican nomination than he was a year ago.

As for that poll of Republicans swearing up and down they’d never vote for him? Don’t believe it. In 2011, Gallup found that 26 percent of Republicans would “definitely not vote for” Mitt Romney, who, of course, went on to win the nomination and the vote of just about every Republican in the country.