Can Chris Christie Turn His Attacks on Trump Into a Campaign?

My political mentor was Stanley Fink, for whom I worked as a media and press guy in 1982–1984. Stanley was Speaker of the New York State Assembly, and had it not been for illness which forced him into an early retirement and then a premature death, I believe he might have gone on to be Governor of New York State.

At one point shortly after Mario Cuomo started his first term in 1982, I happened to remark to the Speaker that the new Governor seemed to be getting very positive public notices in the press. To which Speaker Fink chuckled and replied, “Every politician looks good until someone starts leaning on you.”

I happened to recall this comment when I read Chris Christie’s explanation of why Trump took those classified documents out of the White House. Christie’s comment: “I think he could not deal with the fact that he is the only person outside of the state of Delaware to ever lose to Joe Biden, and he wants to pretend he’s still president.”

Now if that isn’t the best put-down of Trump so far this year, show me a better one, okay? The fact is that Christie seems to be the only person in the GOP primary field who is fashioning his narrative around daily attacks on Trump. And while this strategy hasn’t helped Christie go anywhere in the polls, at least he hasn’t lost support the way that…