Why today is a great day to sell Chris Christie stock [View all]

[cali]

Chris Christie just won a higher percentage of the vote than any Republican running in New Jersey since 1985. He won a huge majority of independent voters. He made inroads among African Americans, Hispanics, women, even Democratic voters. The northeastern-centric media universe will hail Christie as the savior of the Republican Party.

All of that is why, if he were a stock, today would be the perfect day to sell shares in Chris Christie.

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The Christie team will spin the governor’s win on Tuesday, over an underfunded Democrat who got little attention from party bigwigs, as proof positive that Christie can appeal across party lines — just what the GOP needs after crushing defeats in two straight presidential elections. But an off-year governor’s race against a broke opponent is different from a presidential contest, in which Christie will face not only well-funded rivals but the pitfalls of moving to the national stage. Here are some of the challenges Christie will face, culled from conversations with a few Republican strategists who have their eyes on the 2016 field, fans and foes of Christie alike:

— The New Jersey image: New Jersey isn’t Iowa, and what works in one state almost never works in another. Christie’s in-your-face attitude plays great in the Garden State, but how will it play in a town hall-style campaign event in Iowa? Or South Carolina, where the genteel way of life masks a sharp-elbowed political culture? Every time Christie gets into a shouting match, it makes for great cable news fodder. It also gives Christie’s eventual opponents the opportunity to take that footage out of context and recut it into a 30-second advertising spot that casts him in the worst possible light.

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And last, but certainly not least …

— The Republican Party: The Grand Old Party that once nominated Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and McCain is gone, replaced by a cast of Tea Partiers who demand fealty on hot-button issues. Christie stepped out of the way of the gay marriage train, banned gay conversion therapy, picked fights with the NRA and walked arm-in-arm with President Obama at a critical point during the stretch run of the 2012 election. Who, beyond the Republican business establishment, is Christie’s base? That establishment doesn’t carry the influence it once did, and it’s not clear whether Christie can grow his support beyond New Jersey’s borders.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/06/why-today-is-a-great-day-to-sell-chris-christie-stock/