"An Unlikely Union"

Chris Christie, New Jersey's Republican governor has lambasted and blamed the president for just about everything that has gone wrong in this country.  Gee, did I mention that much of it was created by, and inherited from his predecessor George W. Bush.  One thing I'll say about Christie is that, as my husband says about me, he's raw, and says exactly what he means.  Now, in the aftermath of Sandy, the bombastic Christie is showing President Obama much love, not only verbally on national TV, but he's tweeting the praises of the president.  Why you ask?  Well, there are several schools of thought....I'll discuss two.

One is that Christie genuinely cares about the state where he was born in, and is in a job he has aspired to probably since he was a teenager.  There is no doubt that he will go to the mat for New Jersey residents to get them through this crisis.  He also knows that in order to do that, he must work with the president to obtain federal disaster relief funds for said residents.  Chris Christie is many things, but he's no fool.  Another school of thought is that he's positioning himself for a presidential run in 2016, and wants to display his bipartisan skills as a leader in times of trouble.  Let's be clear...Chris Christie is ALL ABOUT Chris Christie, as evidenced when he promoted himself and his own accomplishments as the keynote speaker at the Republican convention.  Christie's praise of the president over the last couple of days is well-deserved.  The president has handled this disaster as a true commander-in-chief, coming to the aid of Sandy victims in a way that only a great leader could.  Five days before the election, Christie is on a mission to accomplish his own agenda, whatever that is, and doesn't seem to give one iota about how it impacts Mitt Romney's campaign to be president. 

The wonderful thing about this newfound love of Christie for the president is that it shows that the president is willing to work with those across the aisle to get things done, something that Romney has repeatedly accused him of not being able to do, even while legislators in Massachusetts accuse him of being distant and unapproachable during HIS tenure as governor.  I have long said that being a CEO is totally not the same thing as being president.  Being a CEO, Mitt Romney was about giving orders, being a president is about building relationships.  So let's not look a gift horse in the mouth, and accept, this HUGE and unanticipated blessing for President Obama.  I'm not mad atcha Chris, no matter what your motives!