Posts Tagged ‘Chris Christie’

Rick Perry needs surrogates to help him close the deal in 10 weeks

Cain, Romney and Perry

Newscast Media, AUSTIN, Texas — As the candidates undertake the last quarter of the year, former front-runner Rick Perry has slipped to third place while Mitt Romney and Herman Cain are leading the GOP field. Cain came from obscurity and continues to grow his support, while Mitt Romney is relatively stable and has not slipped or risen considerably in the polls. What some analysts wonder is why Rick Perry isn’t recovering in the polls.

The Washington Times wrote this article attributing Perry’s falling numbers to not using surrogates.

The analysis is accurate, and if Perry wants to turn this around he has October, November and December to do so, and he is going to not only start thinking outside the box, but to also tear it up. If Perry cannot turn this around by Christmas, Mitt Romney will waltz his way into the nomination. The article asks why Perry hasn’t put Bobby Jindal to use the way Mitt Romney has Chris Christie.

One may also ask, “Where is Haley Barbour, Sarah Palin and all the college students? Where are the soccer moms and the factory workers?” Perry needs these surrogates in order to succeed. Bachmann will end up endorsing Romney and might go as far as telling her supporters to vote for the former Massachusetts governor, just like Mike Huckabee told his supporters to vote for McCain and was able to keep Romney from getting the nomination.

Perry and his staff have to realize they cannot win this on their own, and only have a short window to flip the script. Mitt Romney doesn’t really have to worry about surrogates because Romney’s surrogates are members of the media as I first reported on December 6, 2010 last year, and is evident in the video below:

Herman Cain, at some point will trip himself because he is already making some serious gaffes and is having to take his words back. Romney remains the warm steady glow rather than the wild fire that dies out quickly. Without deep pockets like Romney, Cain will have problems raising money to match Romney. Cain is currently on a book tour and is not campaigning or fundraising, which is a symbol of either false hope or overconfidence. The Obama camp anticipates a Romney nomination and is preparing ammunition to use against him

Yet one would ask how Perry could put someone like Sarah Palin to use if she hasn’t endorsed him. Gingrich has recently confessed that he could use a Palin endorsement to boost his campaign. Gingrich is aggressively trying to reach her, but is still unable to do so. Perry cannot just sit and wait for the endorsements to come his way, he has to be proactive in getting these endorsements just like Romney actively sought Christie’s endorsement and succeeded in getting it.

The only problem with Sarah Palin is that she might string the candidates along just like she did her supporters knowing from the very beginning she wasn’t going to run. Palin has a job in showbiz and may want to play it safe by not endorsing anyone, in order to keep a sense of neutrality, yet that even makes her more irrelevant as a politician. Any candidate who wins the GOP nomination will not need her endorsement to make it to the finish line because all polls show that Romney/Cain/Perry can beat Obama in the general. Now would be the time for Palin to be effective, while the candidates are on their last stretch.

When Donald Trump was in the race, everyone was quick to put his or her stamp of approval on him, yet it was obvious he was planted by Obama to extinguish the issue of the birth certificate and put it to rest. After he played his role, he announced he wouldn’t run. Right now every GOP candidate has to kiss Trump’s ring and seek his blessing, even though Trump has absolutely no grassroots organization or ground game to put him in the position of kingmaker. But hey, if the candidates are giving him all that attention, why not bask in it?

Should Romney win the nomination, I suspect he may choose a southerner like Cain to help him capture the South. If Perry were to win, he would probably choose Newt Gingrich who has experience, as his running-mate. My best bet is that if Cain were to win he would choose Romney. Because Perry disagrees Romney’s healthcare plan and Romney disagrees with Perry’s in-state tuition for illegals, it is hard to envision one choosing the other as a running-mate.

Perry only has 10 weeks to turn this around, so if I’m him, knowing what I’m up against, I’d be calling in surrogates like Palin, Jindal, mobilizing Tea Party members and other less known political and community figures to help re-energize the campaign, in order to recover from the recent setbacks.

http://www.newscastmedia.com/surrogates.html

NJ Gov. Christie Ends 20-year Underground Tunnel Project

Chris Christie

Newscast Media TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday canceled a train tunnel project connecting New Jersey and Manhattan, saying he state can’t afford to pay for cost overruns on the underway project. The project was 20 years in the making.

At a news conference Thursday, Christie said: “I can’t put taxpayers on a never-ending hook.”

Construction on the tunnel began last year and was scheduled to be completed in 2018. The largest federal transportation project in the country, it was expected to double train traffic in and out of New York City during peak commute times.

But over the years, the cost for the tunnel has also nearly doubled as well. It started at $5 billion in 2005 and grew to $8.7 billion by 2008. In recent months, Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff has made public statements that put the price tag between $9 billion and $10 billion.

Christie canceled the project to use the money to pay the nearly broke Transportation Trust Fund and has refused to raise the state’s gas tax, which is among the lowest in the country, so he can replenish the fund. http://newscastmedia.com/tunnel-project.htm

Gov. Chris Christie’s Veto Against Millionaire’s Tax Stands

NewscastMedia.com — In an effort to override New Jersey Gov. Christie’s veto against an increase in tax for those who earn more than $1 million, Democrats fell short of the votes required to nullify the veto.

The vote was along party lines with all 47 Democrats voting against it and 33 Republicans voting for it. The Democrats were met with resistance because they planned to spend the money earned from taxes on the elderly and disabled, instead of applying it to reduce the state’s budget deficit. http://www.newscastmedia.com/chrischristie.htm