It's the jerk factor, not the weight factor that's the problem
by digby
I think this just about says it all:
I think that Chris Christie can be related to another Republican politician whose presidential ambitions, once seen as highly realistic, faded because his personality became too apparent—Rudy Giuliani.
Like Christie, Giuliani was a bombastic executive who rose to prominence as a tough-as-nails prosecutor in bare-knuckles US Attorneys’ offices. They both tended to “wear their emotions on their sleeve” as you very generously put it. Or put another way, Christie and Giuliani are both assholes.
And let's not forget that there are a whole lot of so-called liberal Villagers who like to think of themselves as the same kind of "salt-o-the-earth" East Coast tough guys themselves. It makes them very happy to like a Republican so much and prove they aren't progressive pansies.
This conversation was apparently spurred by comments about Christie's weight and his reaction to them. It's foolish for him to get angry about it. If he runs it's going to be topic of conversation whether he likes it or not. I suspect he could turn it to his advantage if he were smart. After all, many Americans struggle with weight. But he seems to think he can bully people into not mentioning it, which just isn't going to work. He's a very big guy, much bigger than average, and people are going to talk about it.
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