Gov. Chris Christie’s announcement on Friday that he was endorsingDonald J. Trump startled the political world. But every political marriage involves a bit of calculation, and in this case, each man has much to gain from the alliance.
What Mr. Christie Gains
Relevance:
There is nothing more painful or humbling for a presidential candidate than returning to an old, humdrum job. The phone doesn’t ring. The lights are not so bright.
Now Mr. Christie is back where he wants to be — in the headlines, shaking up a political story, newly enlisted to campaign across the country and soon to be overwhelmed with news media requests. Look for him to become a regular again on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and to forget, for now, about New Jersey’s credit rating downgrades.
Revenge:
It is difficult to overstate how angry Mr. Christie remains about the party’s embrace of Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, whom the governor regards as an unqualified lightweight.In Mr. Christie’s mind, Mr. Rubio stole his donors, enchanted the Republican elite and destroyed his chances of becoming the nominee with a series of hard-edged attacks from Mr. Rubio’s campaign and the “super PAC” supporting him.
A Future:
At a news conference on Friday, Mr. Christie played coy, saying he wished to enter the private sector after his term ends in 2018. But, as noted above, he cannot seem to resist the political limeligMr. Christie is a serious surrogate: a two-term governor of a major, politically diverse state who understands the news media with the same savvy and shrewdness as Mr. Trump.Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona and former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, previous Trump endorsers, have their conservative followings. But they don’t have a lot of crossover appeal.
Hit Man:
Few characters in American public life relish the blood sport and brutal hand-to-hand combat of politics as much as Mr. Christie. He is an experienced and inexhaustible one-man attack machine.
On Friday afternoon, he offered a taste of what’s to come when he savaged Mr. Rubio as a “D.C. act” and a lawmaker “who barely showed up for work.” It will be like having two Trumps beating the Florida senator up at once.
Topic Change:
Just when it appeared that Mr. Rubio had finally thrown Mr. Trump off balance in a debate and a chorus of Republicans were demanding that the real estate developer release his tax returns, Mr. Trump did what he does best: He saturated the news media with an entirely different story line.
It is an irresistible tale of an alliance between two larger-than-life New York-area personalities. And, of course, the news media could not get enough of it on Friday. What tax returns?
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