Apr.24

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

Christie May Jump in and Attack Trump Head-on

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie knows a thing or two about brawling and may be preparing to demonstrate it. He has said that the only way to beat Donald Trump in the primaries is to tackle him head on. He thinks he is the guy, saying: "No one else has the balls to do it." We'll see if Christie measures up and can take the heat when he tries. So far he has mostly been attacking Ron DeSantis, a much softer target, rather than Trump.

Christie is undoubtedly right about the only way to take down Trump is to attack Trump. Otherwise we will get a rerun of 2016, with all the other candidates attacking one another, in the hopes of being the only one left to go man-to-man against Trump. It didn't work then and it won't work now.

None of the other GOP candidates are even trying. Nikki Haley is busy telling people about her time at the U.N. and all the nice people she met. DeSantis is busy telling everyone how much he hates woke. Mike Pence is spending his time in church (see below). Nobody is paying any attention to Asa Hutchinson so we don't know what he is doing. None of this will take down Trump. Only attacking Trump might do that and so far all the other candidates are scared witless of him and are avoiding that. That is not a winning strategy. Christie has nothing to lose so he might as well jump in and start hitting Trump hard where it hurts. It could possibly work. But he has to go in for 100% and not try to attack in a subtle way that nobody notices.

What could Christie talk about? We see a couple of possible angles:

• He's a loser: This approach emphasizes Trump's election record. In 2018, during his administration, the Democrats flipped 41 House seats and handed the (much hated) Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) the gavel. In 2020, Trump lost reelection and the Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress. In 2022, the Democrats picked up a seat in the Senate and blocked the expected red wave due to Trump endorsing terrible candidates all over the country. The point here is that Trump is causing Republicans to lose elections they could otherwise win. Christie could ask the rhetorical question: "Do you want to keep losing? Are you sick of losing? Then maybe it is time to get rid of Trump and go with a winner." The key idea here is to say Trump is a great person and has wonderful ideas but he can't win elections.
  
  
• He's a failure: This approach requires repeating all of the things Trump promised to do in 2016 and didn't do. He promised to build a wall. He failed. He promised to get Mexico to pay for it. He failed. He promised to clean up the swamp. He failed. He promised to replace Obamacare. He failed. He promised to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. He failed. He promised to open up libel laws so people could sue the media easily. He failed. He promised to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. He failed. He promised to bring back manufacturing jobs. He failed. He promised to lock up Hillary Clinton. He failed. He promised to end birthright citizenship. He failed. The list goes on. The idea would be to tell Trump's supporters that Trump had great ideas but he is all hat and no cowboy. He isn't capable of getting anything done so it is time to have someone else try. This approach tells the voters they made the right choice in 2016—Trump wanted all the right things—but he doesn't have the ability to make good on his promises. He's a big fat failure.
  
  
• He tricked you: This approach focuses on the idea that Trump is really in it for himself, not for his supporters. He raised a lot of money for himself and got a lot of attention for himself, and that's all he cares about. He doesn't care a whit about you. I care about you. Don't tell the voters that they are dumb rubes but do tell them they are victims (they love that)—victims of Trump's greed and arrogance.
  

Maybe there are some others, but hiding in the corner and pretending Trump will go away is not going to work for anyone. And just shooting at the other Republicans isn't going to work either. Been there, done that. If Christie wants to make a go of it, he has to attack Trump directly and frontally and not pull any punches. Will he be able to do that and handle the resulting incoming fire? It's possible, but we'll believe it when we see it. (V)