Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal discusses NJ Governor Chris Christie's possible candidacy for President in 2012 with Wall Street Journal editorial board member Jason Riley, columnist and deputy editor Dan Henninger, and assistant editorial page editor James Freeman.
There are some key points here including:
" Governor Christie can talk about reforming teachers unions and their pension systems without coming off as antieducation.."
" Republicans don't trust Mitt Romney, and they don't think Perry's electable.."
" I think if you look at (Governor Christie's) background, he was not a career politician. Before he was governor--he became governor of the state in 2009--his day job was putting away politicians who were corrupt in New Jersey..."
This is the man we need. Not another career Pol, but someone who is adept at taking on problems and making sure that the People come first.
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Paul Gigot: This week on "The Journal Editorial Report," the clamor for Christie. Calls continue for the New Jersey governor to jump into the GOP presidential race. He said he won't, so why do many Republicans keep hoping? Plus, Rick Perry draws fire from his rivals for being soft on immigration. We'll take a closer look at his record as a border-state governor and his controversial stand on in-state tuition for illegals. All that, and anti-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is killed in Yemen. Does the U.S. have al Qaeda on the ropes?
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Unidentified woman: We need you. Your country needs you to run for president.
Gigot: Welcome to "The Journal Editorial Report." I'm Paul Gigot.
Well, he has said he won't run, but the clamor for Chris Christie continues. That plea from a supporter after the New Jersey governor delivered a speech at the Reagan Library in California this week. So what does Christie have that the current GOP field is missing?
Joining the panel this week, Wall Street Journal editorial board member Jason Riley, columnist and deputy editor Dan Henninger, and assistant editorial page editor James Freeman.
So, James, is this clamor about the appeal of Christie or the lack of appeal of everybody else?
Freeman: It's mainly Christie. Obviously Rick Perry, the recent entrant into the race, hasn't done a great job in the debates. But you're seeing the clamor for Christie because people are looking at all these guys on the stage, the Republican debates, and saying they're not as good as the governor of New Jersey, who's been making, for the last two years, a very powerful case for more-limited government.
Gigot: So is it the fact that Christie has been in that battle, people have seen him, people have seen him taking on the challenges? Is that it?
Freeman: They've seen him, and they've also emulated him. He's really taught Republicans around the country how to talk about reforming government, limiting benefit programs, in a direct way--in a way where, for example, he can talk about reforming teachers unions and their pension systems without coming off as antieducation, and that has been very hard for Republicans to do until Christie.
Gigot: Jason, is this about, though, the rest of the field not quite measuring up?
Riley: Republicans don't trust Mitt Romney, and they don't think Perry's electable, and I think that is why you see a clamor for Chris Christie. And I think one of the things that may be giving Christie pause, however, is Perry--what happened to Perry. Here's a veteran politician--governor, one of the largest states, 11 years. He sort of flopped in the debate. Christie's been governor for two years. He might be thinking to himself: "Wow, look what happened to Perry. Am I ready for this?"
Gigot: You really have to go to school on an awful lot of issues, foreign policy and other things.
Dan, you've argued to us as a group that you don't think that Chris Christie is ready for this kind of vetting and candidacy. Why?
Henninger: Well, taking him at his word, he's the one who also says he isn't ready. I think the thing you have to understand about Chris Christie, and one of the sources of his appeal, is that Christie is a former prosecutor, a former federal prosecutor. What prosecutors do--and we went through this, recall, with Rudy Giuliani--prosecutors assemble their facts, they absorb them, and then they're terrific at making a presentation and an argument based on those facts. And I think what James is describing is why Christie has had such an appeal. He knows New Jersey--pensions, unions, its finances. When we've talked to him, it hasn't just been a guy who makes interesting, funny arguments. He knows his stuff.
But Medicare, Social Security, entitlement reform, foreign policy, tax policy--I don't think he would feel comfortable in having his facts mastered the way he has New Jersey, and would run the risk in a debate of that coming through.
Gigot: James?
Freeman: Well, I think if you look at his background, he was not a career politician. Before he was governor--he became governor of the state in 2009--his day job was putting away politicians who were corrupt in New Jersey, not studying their policies. And so I think if you look--
Gigot: But what about the vulnerability that Dan points out and Jason suggests, which is, you've got to be a quick study on these national issues. Otherwise they're going to say, "Aha! You said--you really said your going to raise the retirement age on Medicare?" Boom, you step on a land mine like that, and everybody suddenly says you're not ready for prime time.
Freeman: Well, I think he's been showing lately that he does have a broader view. I think one of the things that got people excited in that Reagan Library speech is he's talking about free trade; he's talking not about New Jersey, but about how America has to lead the world economically if we want to be a model to the world. I think you've seen him go in great depth on a lot of issues, and I don't see why he couldn't do that at the national level.
Gigot: I really liked that speech myself, Jason. He talked about "earned American exceptionalism," and he took that speech out of just policy wonkism and brought it to a higher level about the better angels of America's political character.
Riley: Sure, but you know what another theme of that speech was? His ability to lead New Jersey with divided government. He was highlighting his ability to compromise, and that is part of leadership. That was another running theme of that debate. He's a Republican, he's working with the state Legislature run by the other party, and he was able to get things done because he was willing to compromise. Is that a primary message that those voters want to hear?
Gigot: But he compromised on his turf in that sense. He got, 50%, 70% of what he wanted, not what they wanted.
Riley: But it's not just whether Christie can defend positions. It's some of those positions that he holds that we don't know a lot about but that could come up if he were to get into the race--his positions on energy policy, his positions on gun control, even some of his positions on abortion. He's pro-life, but on the campaign trail when he was running for governor, he opposed a law that would have forced minors, for example, to get permission from their parents before getting an abortion.
Freeman: But he's also cut funding for Planned Parenthood. He's governed as a small-government conservative to the extent he can in New Jersey--gotten the Democratic Legislature, amazingly to some, to go along on a lot of reforms. I think conservative voters are going to be very comfortable with him, and some of the things you mentioned are not going to scare away independents, which I think is why a lot of Republicans around the country are excited to have him at the top of the ballot.
Henninger: Well, I think if he gets in, he'll be responding to go what the woman said at the outset: "Your country needs you." Voters understand this is a historic election, and Chris Christie would be taking some risk to get in. And if he gets in, I say more credit to him for taking that risk and understanding it is a bigger-than-average election.
Gigot: Sometimes the moment comes before you think you're prepared for it.
All right, still ahead, Rick Perry's rivals attack, accusing the Texas governor of being soft on illegal immigration. We'll take a closer look at the Perry record in Texas and his controversial decision to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students
Recently, while I was working in the flower beds in the front yard, my neighbors stopped to chat as they returned home fromwalking their dog. During our friendly conversation, I asked their little girl what she wanted to be when she grew up.
