Chris Christie challenges George Pataki as the WTF?? candidate

As anticipated, today New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced he was a candidate for president of the United States.Via The Daily Caller:

With New Jersey’s Bon Jovi blaring over the speakers, Chris Christie on Tuesday became the 14th Republican to join the race for the White House, vowing to fix the dysfunction of Washington D.C.

“If Washington and Jefferson and Adams had believed compromise is a dirty word, we’d still be under the crown of England,”* Christie said, offering himself as fixer who will speak bluntly about the country’s problems.

The announcement resembled a town hall, with Christie roaming the stage with a microphone and his family standing behind him.

“Americans are filled with anxiety,” Christie said. “They are filled with anxiety because they look to Washington D.C., and they see a government that not only doesn’t work anymore, it doesn’t even talk to each other anymore. It doesn’t even try to pretend to work anymore.”

Lamented Christie: “We have a president in the Oval Office who ignores the congress and a congress that ignores the president. We need a government in Washington D.C. that remembers you went there to work for us, not the other way around.”

To quote the New York Times story announcing Christie’s candidacy:

But today, a staggering 55 percent of Republican primary voters say that they cannot envision voting for Mr. Christie, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll, a remarkable deficit from which to embark on a national campaign. The only candidate less palatable: Donald J. Trump, the bombastic developer-turned-reality television star.

With two pillars of his presidential run — his record and his judgment — looking wobblier than ever, Mr. Christie must build a campaign around his most raw and prodigious asset: his personality.

Christie might very well be the most ferocious conservative we can elect in New Jersey, but we can do better at the national level. Otherwise, it is difficult to see what Christie brings to the table… other than a hardy appetite. He is a direct challenge to the candidacy of John Kasich as they enter a cage match fighting for the coveted WTF?? vote. Christie also seems to be interested in locking up the Rodney King vote. But this is not an election in which calls for compromise will be welcomed by a GOP electorate that has seen our economy devastated, our alliances laid waste, and the force of the federal government unleashed upon people who disagreed with Obama’s priorities.

*I thought we became free of England because Washington, et al, refused to cooperate.