"No, not that guy ... THIS guy! (Self-pointing thumbs) ME baby! ME!"
This is the "do or die" ultimatum coming directly from the GOP money establishment in the form of Chris Christie. I
knew this moment
would come:
"But here's the great news for Republicans: We have a candidate who is going to do extraordinarily well on Wednesday night – the first time he has the opportunity to sit on the same stage with the president of the United States, and the first time a majority of people who are gonna vote in this race will have the opportunity to make that direct comparison.
"He's gonna come in Wednesday night, he's gonna lay out his vision for America and he's gonna contrast what his view is to what the president's record is," Christie added. "And this whole race is gonna be turned upside down come Thursday morning."
Boy, is this guy running for the GOP nomination in 2016
or what?
My God. Now who among us doesn't think this was deliberate? Christie first goes directly against Romney's schtick that the race is tied. Then he shoots down the idea that the polls are skewed:
Asked whether he believes the polls have been skewed against Romney, Christie replied, “I don’t buy that.” Polls are inherently imperfect, he said, but there’s no “concerted effort to skew the polls against Mitt Romney.”
Instead of lowering expectations for the debate, Christie goes out and raises them!
Why?
Because he knows there is no way Romney is going to come out of that debate reversing the polls and blowing Obama away. That way he can start planning his own trips to Iowa and New Hampshire with the comfort of knowing there is no chance Romney thwarts his ambitions. There's no seat like an open seat. He's signaling to the GOP establishment that this is how he's going to play it. It's pretty brazen politics, but Republicans like that kind of thing.
This wasn't just throwing Romney under the bus. This was putting it in reverse and giving it the gas, then a good rubber burn on the pull away!