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Subscribe to RSSNew Jersey Governor Chris Christie and President Obama talk after flying over damaged communities and talking with residents, saying they are determined to rebuild as quickly as possible.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has adamantly insisted that presidential politics are the furthest thing from his thoughts during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, though that hasn’t stopped some from filtering his praise for President Barack Obama through a political prism.
The pugnacious New Jersey governor, who supports Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney over Obama this fall (and delivered the keynote address at Romney’s nominating convention), has heaped effusive praise on Obama’s handling of Hurricane Sandy, the massive superstorm to wreak havoc in the northeast, and especially the Jersey Shore.
Larry Downing / Reuters
President Barack Obama and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie talk with survivors of Hurricane Sandy in a community center while touring damaged areas in Brigantine, New Jersey, October 31, 2012.
“I want to thank the president for coming here today. It's really important to have the president of the United States acknowledge all the suffering that's going on here in New Jersey and I appreciate it very much,” Christie said this afternoon as he and Obama toured the devastation. “We're going to work together to make sure we get ourselves through this crisis and get everything back to normal.”
Obama was similarly complimentary, telling people at the Brigantine community center that Christie, who is up for re-election next year in deep-blue New Jersey, “is working overtime to make sure that as soon as possible everybody can get back to normal.”
The two appeared together, along with the New Jersey congressional delegation, following their tours to give similar remarks on camera.
Mitt Romney has continued to push full-speed ahead with his campaign in the battleground state of Florida this morning. The president's campaign team is charting the political course ahead while he tours some of the worst damage in New Jersey. Jen Psaki, Obama traveling press secretary, discusses.
The mutual praise is an outgrowth of both leaders’ handling of a natural disaster, but it coincides with a crucial juncture in the presidential campaign, with just days to go until Election Day. Obama is trying to preserve an advantage in swing states as Romney barnstorms the country in an effort to subsume the incumbent president.
Christie rebuffed suggestions on Tuesday that there were political implications to his work with the administration.
"I've got 2.4 million people out of power. I've got devastation on the shore. I've got floods in the northern part of my state,” he said on Fox News. “If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics then you don't know me."
And the Romney campaign gave Christie a pass for his work with Obama on Wednesday, dismissing a question about whether the GOP nominee was annoyed by the New Jersey governor’s praise for the president.
“Gov. Christie's doing his job. He's the governor of the state that's been hit by a very, very horrific storm,” Romney adviser Russ Schriefer said in a conference call with reporters. “He's doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing as governor of New Jersey. And the president is doing what he needs to be doing as president.”
That won’t necessarily stop observers from searching for political implications in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, especially so close to Nov. 6.
“I am hesitant to kind of make political calculations about the impact of an event that resulted in the deaths of 50 people and the loss of $50 billion in property,” senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod said on a separate conference call this morning. “This was a disaster of huge proportions, and the president is doing what his responsibilities require -- and that includes going to New Jersey, as is what he's done in the case of every major disaster during the course of his presidency, to offer the support of the people of our country, to tour the scene himself, to speak firsthand with the first responder and the elected officials at the scene.”
Reuters, Getty Images
In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.
Obama will return to the campaign trail on Thursday after canceling three days’ worth of political events. And Romney on Wednesday was mostly tentative in attacking Obama, opting instead for a softer tone and words of encouragement for recovery efforts in the northeast.
Axelrod suggested that the storm essentially washed out several days of campaigning, during which point there was no movement in the jockeying between Romney and the president.
“Wherever you think this race is, it tended to freeze the race because people are focused on the storm,” he said. “That's what's been in the news; normally the election would have been in the news. So I think it's fair to say that that is the case.”
But as a series of polls suggest Romney is trailing in some battleground states, those days might also be crucial opportunities lost.
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ROMNEY/RYAN in a landslide.....YEEEHAWWW!!!!
bucsdad, I wouldn't open your best bottle of Champaign just yet.
you might want to go check out Real Clear Politics
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/
Hey Owen check out the most accurate pollster of the 2008 presidential campaign. Now you can start crying.
One and done.
Romney/Ryan 2012 The end of an ERROR
One
Big
A**
Mistake
America
Uh,the most accurate pollster in 2008 was Nate Silver at 538.com. The only state he missed on was Indiana (plus the 1 electoral vote for Nebraska's 2 congressional district,all of which went to Obama).
Silver predicted an electoral tally of 353 for Obama,which was easily the closest anyone was to his actual total of 365. He also correctly predicted every Senate race. And unlike many more left leaning polling outfits (Silver's politics may lean left,his analysis does NOT) he predicted the GOP landslide in 2010.
The dude is a pure numbers geek and anyone who used to follow his work in sabermetrics when it comes to individual performance for baseball players (I did and have a chitload of fantasy baseball $ won because of it...) would know not to buck his analysis.
He currently has the race as:
Electoral vote: Obama 299.7 Romney 238.3 (A +8.9 gain for the President since 10/24)
% Chance of winning: Obama 78.4% Romney 21.6% (A +7.4% gain for the President since 10/24)
Popular vote: Obama 50.5% Romney 48.6% (A +.03% gain for the President since 10/24)
If you want to bet against the President and for Romney there are plenty of on-line sites that will be willing to take your money...err,action...and even give you 4-1 odds to boot.
So nut up. I'm sure Mittens has 10K laying around that he can loan you to bet with.
Until about 72 hours ago, Romney wanted to privatize FEMA. He has also refused to answer questions from reporters for 3 weeks now.
A phony is a phony and the longer this election has raged on, the more he has been exposed as a candidate without a true base. He can't carry Blacks, Women or Latinos. Evangelicals don't even believe in him. He is a man without a country behind him. Only angry old Whites and racists will vote for him.
His entire campaign has been based on being a chameleon... everything to all people. The facade is crumbling as we near the finish line.
Romney is a Shapeshifter
No, he's just a liar. And not a very skilled one, being that every time he opens his mouth he screws up his last lie. But republicans can be told contradictory things hours apart and not pick up on it, so I guess it's a match made in heaven.
Who's worse though? The presidential candidate that lies to such an extent that even the big wigs of his party have to repeatedly call him out, or the people who still believe the lie even when big wigs of their party have to call their candidate out on his lies? You almost can't blame Romney for taking advantage.
Two shining endorsements in two weeks by Republicans? Hey Senunu, Is Gov. Chris Christie saying good things about Obama because he is black? Thank you Chris Christie for manning up and doing what is best for your city. Chris Christie is a Governor and a better Governor then Romney. He may be extremely unilateral, he took no stimulus money for his city to make infrastructure improvements, but he is doing his job and guaranteeing his future in politics by putting partisan games aside during a crisis. It was on his door step and he is handling it. High praise from a strong partisan.
Remember Collin Powell was seen as an Uncle Tom by the Democratic party for years as a Strong Republican leader. He is not an elected official and earned his position in Government as a soldier. Will that effect the military vote? maybe. Should it? Yes. He does not endorse because of his race. He gave a clear endorsement, as did Romney in the last debate, to Obamas foreign policy. Powell is the strongest endorsement as any Republican ever.
Guess who won't be getting invited to the next republican convention!
Well he was gonna be Hell on the buffet line anyway...
I'm sorry,I'm sorry. Couldn't see that one teed up and let it lay.
On a serious note I say good on Governor Christie,but I don't see why anyone is surprised. He's bucked GOP orthodoxy plenty of times before this and someone should have gotten Steve Douchey the video of Christie crushing the clowns who were trying to make hay of his appointing a Muslim judge (Sohail Mohammed) to the NJ Superior Court. I believe the word "idiots" was used more than once.
Chris Christie on news today: "The President has been outstanding in this and so have the folks at FEMA."
Thank you Chris Christie for finally telling the truth.
I don't agree with him at all on pretty much anything when it comes to the economy and the role of government and government employees,but on social issues Christie has been more in line with how I think and what I believe in than he's been at odds with the same.
So not really surprised he took this route. And I'm personally salivating at the prospect of Hannity or Limbaugh trying to get in a verbal spat with him over this. He would eat those idiots alive. Steve Douchey only proved that he's literally the stupidest individual on TV not named Palin when he went there with Christie yesterday.
Did anyone else notice Gretchen Carlson hot flashing when the Douche asked Christie about Romney? I'm betting they had to change that cushion on the couch during the commercial break.
Congrats, Dems! The fight was worth it.
The Tea Party is on the run and the Senate is safe, again.
See you in 2016: Clinton v. Christie.
Christie telling the truth is driving the talking heads at FOX insane. Of course, those of us with functional grey matter already knew the talking heads at FOX were insane. I'm no fan of Christie in general but even he knows who is truly best for this country when the @!$%# hits the fan.
The @!$%# just hit his fan.
Reality just set in and Republicans can't believe they are voting for Romney.
You can bet the Teatards were wishing that Hurricane Sandy would provide them a lot more fresh corpses they could make political hay out of than the relatively few we ended up with. (thankfully)
They've been dragging those corpses from Libya around for so long that they're starting to show some serious signs of wear and tear.
Voters need the truth about Libya
I'm speculating but I would guess that this administration has been arming the wrong jihadist to fight against Syria's Assad. The meeting with the Turkish ambassador would indicate some degree of US/Turkey coordination in the region. Recall Russia/China want to keep Assad in power.
Can you say
1. Proxy war among nation states
2. Fast and Furious is nothing compared to the gun running deal on this one
3. Arming the wrong guys which will probably bite us in the rear
Ask for the truth before the elections. Why 2 senior US commanders relieved? This is bad.....
There is a reason Romney is down by 15 points in Mass.
And the reason is because Mass. knows him better than any state.
Do you want to learn the hard way what Mass. already knows, or do you want to elect this 2 faced power broker to ruin this country?
Romney gave his supporters food to pretend to be bringing in to donate to his effort, then shook their hands profusely, thanking them for their "donation" to his cause! Does it get any more pathetic and phony than this? Anyone that votes for this greedy, heartless, vulture capitalist liar needs their head examined.
Romney believes these situations should be handled by states and charity, that's why he gave $5,000.00. He would dismantle FEMA, that is his policy.
Mittens sees what true leadership looks like so he puts out a sound bite about how he thinks FEMA is so great when just a short time ago he wanted to get rid of FEMA and privatize disaster relief. He is truly a moron.
Time for truth-1708502
Give Gov. Romney 24 hours, guarantee, he will flip-flop on FEMA again and again...........remember he is a chameleon.........."a binder full of lies"...........
Just looked in the FOX website. They are still selling the Libya conspriracy.
No current news regarding Sandy or Obama and Christie working together to help Americans. Nothing positive say about anything. Selling hate and fear is all they have. Pathetic.
Don't let that "@!$%#" have another for years in the White House is their mantra since day one of the Obama administration.
Truth is brutal and the truth is that FOX is a racist stronghold for the ignorant.... the last of a dying breed.
Mr. Christie's job is to take care of this state and he sure is not going to be negative when he needs federal aid.
Lets see, State of emergency was declared last week for states effected by Sandy. Money was being released to coastal states as the storm was still raging. Mayor Bloomberg asked Obama not to visit NYC and no other states asked for the President to observe their damage.
I think Christie knew Obama could not pass up a photo op and invited him to keep him off the campaign trail one more day. The President couldn't say no he wouldn't go especially after the horribly mishandled Benghazi situation.
In all actuality there is nothing more than releasing the federal money to the states that a president can do in a situation like this I think Christie played Obama!
Mitt Romney is out campaigning, pretending like he's collecting money for relief victims. Funny that he's doing that in Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida. Makes me sick.
in 2008 when the stock markets were crashing John McCain suspended his campaign to go to Washington and suggested that Then senator Obama be in Washington for congressional meetings that were being held and Obama passed he said that if he were elected President he would have to handle multiple situations and choose to continue campaigning
Some would say that the suspension of the McCain campaign at that time was what lead to his defeat
Obama was in the air on the way to a fundraiser in Las Vegas less than 12 hours after the Benghazi consulate was attacked
Obama
Yo Momma!
U Nose
Dis Brotha
Gots TO GO!!
dats rite:)
If Christie really wanted to do something for the jersey Shore he should have laid on the beach and stop most of the from water coming in.
well.. I guess we now have some good insight into the Republican temperament. Lead net headlines this evening:
- NBC: 9 of 12 top headlines relate to the storm, 2 to the election, 1 to foreign policy
- CBS: 2 of 4 top headlines relate to the storm, 1 on the judiciary, 1 on the election
- ABC: 9 of 15 top headlines relate to the storm, 1 on KY derailed train, 2 on foreign policy, 3 on domestic crime
- CNN: website not organized to count easily, but most headlines relate to the storm and its impacts
- FOX: 0 of 7 top headlines relate to the storm, 3 to Fox's pet Benghazi conspiracy theory, 3 on the election, 1 calling on states to reject int'l election monitors. Their lead storm headline, further down on the page is, "Scientsts Skeptical of Dem Climate Change Claims?"
Beneath contempt.
Christie is a moderate and has even appointed a muslim NJ judge this year telling the far right to shove it when they complained that the judge wasn't a christian. Maybe he also is worried that if the repubs keep relying on Southern Strategy leadership in the party, NJ and all northern states will get hosed eventually when DC moves south of the mason-dixon line in control. On top of these, he probably wants to send a clear message to the Tea Party that he does not want his state or any state held hostage by their radical right budget idiots when they don't want to fund the billions it will take for their state to recover. All the repub leaders in states that got hit hard better be wondering if their own party will hostage them in the budget help for recovery.
Instead of criticizing Willard, let's review a few of the President's accomplishments:
1. The first bill President Obama signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, to help women fight back when they don't get equal pay for equal work.
2. His Recovery Act supported millions of jobs and helped to stave off a second Great Depression.
3. He pushed for and won middle-class tax cuts that benefitted every American worker, and saved the typical family $3,600 in taxes over the last four years.
4. President Obama rescued the auto industry, and now GM and Chrysler are healthier than they've ever been. The American auto industry has added nearly a quarter of a million jobs since June 2009 -- and they most likely wouldn't exist right now without President Obama's leadership.
5. He doubled funding for Pell Grants, helping to make college more affordable for nearly 10 million families.
6. His student loan reform ended billions in subsidies to banks serving as middlemen and reinvested those savings directly into students.
7. The President established the American Opportunity Tax Credit, worth up to $10,000 over four years of college.
8. His Race to the Top Initiative helped spur nearly every state to raise academic standards.
9. His tax cuts, social-welfare programs, and economic policies lifted nearly 7 million Americans above the federal poverty line in 2010.
10. President Obama has signed 18 tax cuts for small businesses since taking office.
11. We've seen 5.2 million new private-sector jobs over the last 31 months.
12. The unemployment rate is at the lowest level since President Obama took office.
13. Health care reform -- passed after decades of failed attempts by every previous President -- provides affordable health coverage to every American and will lower premiums by an average of $2,000 per family by 2019.
14. Obamacare expanded access to lifesaving preventive care such as cancer screenings and immunizations with no out-of-pocket costs for 54 million Americans.
15. Obamacare ends insurance discrimination against the 129 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.
16. Because of Obamacare, over 3 million more young adults have health insurance today than would if the new law hadn't passed.
17. The parents of over 17 million children with pre-existing conditions no longer have to worry that their children will be denied coverage.
18. President Obama has ordered the overhaul of federal government regulations to make them smarter, practical, and more efficient. Just a fraction of these commonsense initiatives will help save businesses $10 billion in the next five years alone.
19. His historic investments in clean energy have helped more than double the amount of electricity we obtain from wind and solar sources and helped increase biofuel production to its highest level in history.
20. President Obama is doubling fuel efficiency standards, which will save drivers more than $8,000 at the gas pump, not to mention lessen the impact of automobiles on our environment.
21. President Obama has taken unprecedented action to address climate change, reaching historic international agreements to curb carbon emissions, and taking action here at home to reduce carbon pollution from our vehicles and promote clean energy production.
22. He has taken historic action to protect our environment -- signing one of the largest expansions of protected wilderness in a generation and putting in place standards to reduce toxic air pollution that will save thousands of lives.
23. President Obama fought for and won landmark Wall Street reform that reins in the abuses that led to the financial crisis and ends the era of taxpayer bailouts and "too big to fail."
24. Wall Street reform created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the nation's first federal agency focused solely on consumer financial protection -- and the Bureau is already protecting families from unfair and abusive financial practices from Wall Street banks and shadowy corners of the financial industry.
25. As part of President Obama's commitment to transparency, the White House has posted its visitor records online for the first time ever.
26. President Obama's all-of-the-above approach to energy has helped cut the United States' dependence on foreign oil to its lowest level in 20 years.
27. President Obama responsibly ended the war in Iraq.
28. He announced a plan to end the war in Afghanistan and transition security responsibility to the Afghan people.
29. President Obama sent the largest security assistance package to Israel in history and funded the Iron Dome system, which is protecting Israeli homes and schools from rocket attacks.
30. President Obama rallied the international community to implement the toughest sanctions on Iran in history.
31. Through the President's historic increases in Veterans Affairs funding, he has expanded and improved healthcare and job training access for our returning veterans.
32. President Obama negotiated the New START Treaty with Russia to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in both countries. At the same time, he also secured commitments from dozens of other countries to lock down nuclear materials.
33. His administration naturalized 11,146 military service members as U.S. citizens in 2010; more than in any year since 1955.
34. President Obama set a bold new plan for the future of NASA space exploration, using the skill and ability of the private sector for short trips to the International Space Station, while building a new vehicle for exploration of distant space, and doing everything in his power to support the economy on Florida's Space Coast.
35. President Obama recognizes that tourism is one of America's largest economic engines; he's worked to encourage international visitors to come here, maintaining our security while keeping millions of Americans in good, paying jobs.
36. He has affirmed his personal support of marriage equality, directed the Justice Department to stop defending DOMA in federal courts, and took the practical and compassionate step of extending hospital visitation rights to same-sex partners.
37. He fought for and won the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, allowing gay and lesbian members of the military to serve openly for the first time in history.
38. When Congress failed to fix our broken immigration system, his administration did everything in its power to improve it, streamlining the legal immigration process and announcing a policy that lifts the shadow of deportation from hard working young immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
39. Oh, and he gave the order to send troops in after Osama Bin Laden -- and has decimated al-Qaeda's senior leadership.
@Talk to the hand....it maybe invisible but, where has that hand been?.....#11...to many lies here and so little time. 5 million jobs...name one.....just one out of the 5 million jobs, Obama and liberals keep lying about that have been created. Any "new jobs created" most part-time, low pay, with no benefits.
(its just a stupid number that along with everything else Obama says.....it fizzles under scrutiny...tell a lie over and over, and soon its accepted as fact).
If all this massive hiring has been done, why then has there not been a reflection of that in the unemployment rate?............still above 8% over 4 years.unless you count last month when unemployment dipped below 8%(oh wait ...whats that.... it didn't...oh I see California's jobless rate wasn't INCLUDED in that number).
#13.....Obamacare billions of NEW costs will SLOWLY kick in costing average Americans financial hardships, and reducing the numbers of doctors because compensation reductions from Medicare/Medicade.
#20....Obamas raising of fuel standards does nothing accept drive up costs in manufacturing automobiles, which in turn drives up the cost so that an average family cannot afford the price of a new vehicle(which has now driven up the price of a new car to what a median "starter home" use to cost in the 70's).
#21....climate change TAX..........really?????
#32......Obama "whispering" to our enemies that America will "roll over", after HE is re-elected.
#39...Oh and finally it was not a "video" that cost the lives of 4 Americans in Libya..........it was Obama and liberals like you constantly "spiking the ball" about Osama's killing....and NO only in a liberal wet dream has al Qaeda been DESIMATED...........Northern Africa is now an al Qaeda stronghold, which will bring destruction to US and the rest of the World for years to come.
Women: Sen. Bob Menendez paid us for sex in the Dominican Republic
Read more: #ixzz2AxggYxnr
Christie has always been a great leader. Maybe now the fat jokes can subside. Both Obama and Christie are good leaders, although I would say Christie is more willing to "not" pander to the media or what people want to hear when it comes to fiscal issues. You won't get a lot of fluff and rhetoric from Christie. Just the truth. Even if the truth isn't pretty.
The Republicans made the wrong choice with Romney. It should have been Christie (although he wouldn't accept it) or Huntsman.
We do not need a rocket scientist to figure out ....Gov Mitt Romney is either a Moron or a Mormom....distributing $5000.00 bag of chips to hurricane victims for a photo-opt.........this guy is a nutter!!!!!!!