Earlier this week I had a post on the upcoming book about the 2012 election; Collision 2012 by Dan Balz of the Washington Post. In it, Balz interviewed Mitt Romney who admitted he almost dropped out because he knew he was a flawed candidate. This was very revealing and explained his terrible campaign for the Presidency in 2012.
It seems, the GOP Establishment knew Romney’s heart was not totally in it. in the summer and fall of 2011, Republican establishment figures like the Bush family, Henry Kissinger, the Koch Brothers and even Nancy Reagan tried to recruit NJ. Governor Christie to run for President. The GOP at that early stage knew Romney could not beat Obama and tried to gamble on Christie. He declined and the GOP establishment threw its support behind Romney.
Chris Christie was actually Mitt romney’s original choice for VP. The only thing preventing it was a SEC ruling that forbid Wall Street to donate to candidates where big banks are located. Several major banks have their headquarters in NJ. The only way Christie could have been the VP nominee if he had quit the governorship. He declined to quit and Romney ended up passing him over. A series of events transpired that led to bad blood between Christie and the Romney campaign. The culmination of this led to the Corpulent Guido backstabbing of Mitt Romney by embracing Obama so publicly after Hurricane sandy.
Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., threatened to drop the “f-bomb” during a nationally televised speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention. Mitt Romney, the GOP’s eventual 2012 nominee, almost aborted his presidential run in 2011 because he didn’t see a viable path to the nomination. And Romney’s advisers, frightened by Newt Gingrich’s victory in the South Carolina primary, held a series of “Kill Newt” strategy sessions in the days after the primary.
[….]
The presence of Christie loomed large over the 2012 election, even though he had publicly maintained that he would not run. Balz reveals how pervasive the effort to draft Christie into the race became during the summer of 2011, when figures including former President George W. Bush and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger contacted the popular New Jersey Republican, entreating him to throw his hat into the ring.
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In addition to Bush and Kissinger, former first ladies Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan and billionaire businessman David Koch also pushed Christie in the direction of a run.
When he eventually decided against a run, he was again courted – this time by the Romney campaign – as a potential vice presidential candidate. Though he had cautioned Romney that he had a “big” personality that may not be well-suited to playing second fiddle, Romney assured Christie that he remained under serious consideration, Balz writes.
In the end, it was money, not chemistry, that kept Christie off the GOP ticket. A “pay to play” regulation from the Securities and Exchange Commission prevented the country’s largest banks from donating to candidates and elected officials from states in which big banks were located. If Christie, the governor of New Jersey, were added to the ticket, Romney’s campaign would have been barred from accepting any campaign contributions from Wall Street – a critical source of cash for the GOP candidate, formerly a private equity manager.
In a phone call, Romney asked Christie whether he would be willing to resign the governorship to side-step the SEC regulation. Christie laughed and said he needed time to think about it, but eventually decided to stay put in New Jersey. “After that phone call, Romney and Christie had no further conversations about joining the ticket,” Balz writes.
Read the rest: Christie threatened to drop “f-bomb” at 2012 GOP convention
This book shows the dysfunction of the Republican Party heading into 2012. Mitt Romney knew he could not win nor was his heart totally in it. The GOP establishment knew this as well and tries to recruit the wannabe Jersey Shore style Guido. Christie it turns out is a snake who is out for himself.
Unlike the mess in the GOP, Obama had a united Party, a virtually invincible electoral machine in OFA that organized an anti-Republican coalition, a friendly media, support of the popular culture and government resources like the IRS or NSA. In retrospect. It is now apparent the GOP never had a chance in 2012. Unless the GOP makes major changes and begins to form a broad appealing coalition, 2016 will be another lost election for them and the Democrat Party’s dominance of Presidential elections since 1992 will continue.
Tags: Chris Christie, Dan Balz, Henry Kissinger, Republican Establishment
