Jon Ward of the Huffington Post is reporting that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie all but announced himself as the next coming of Ronald Reagan and cast President Obama as Jimmy Carter in a speech Tuesday night that will only inflame speculation that the Republican plans to run for president.
In his speech, Christie didn't just voice obligatory Republican criticisms of Obama. He contrasted himself directly with the Democrat currently inhabiting the White House, suggesting that his own record as governor has shown him to be more prepared than Obama to carry the mantle of national and international leadership.
As governor, Christie said, he "has not sat by and waited for others to go first to suggest solutions." But Obama, he said, "once talked about the courage of his convictions, but still has not found the courage to lead.
"We continue to wait and hope that our president will finally stop being a bystander in the Oval Office. We hope that he will shake off the paralysis that has made it impossible for him to take on the really big things that are obvious to all Americans and to a watching and anxious world community," Christie said.
Can you say, "The man doth protest too much"? For someone not interested in running for president of the United States, Christie sure does sound like a contender, more so than some of the current pool of GOP candidates. It will be interesting to see whether Christie can back up his tough talk with a presidential campaign that can actually win in 2012. We know — deny, deny, deny, so he can pretend that the people asked him to do it. We'll just wait for more "people" to publicly "implore" him to run for president until he announces his run.
Read more at the Huffington Post.
In other news: David Axelrod: Obama Re-Election Will Be 'Titanic Struggle.'