By Michael Aron
Chief Political Correspondent
Christie got some good reviews for his performance on the undercard last night. Rider University professor Ben Dworkin says it’s because he chose to be the adult in the room.
“He went out and he refused to bite at any of the temptation of defending his record in New Jersey, even when it was attacked, of mixing it up on some of these issues. He kept focusing on Hillary Clinton,” Dworkin said.
“She believes she can make decisions for you better than you can make them for yourself,” Christie said last night. “Wait until you see what Hillary Clinton will do to this country and how she will drown us in debt. She is the real adversary tonight […] Believe me, Hillary Clinton’s coming for your wallet everybody. Don’t worry about Huckabee or Jindal; worry about her.”
Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal tried to bait Christie by challenging his conservative credentials.
“Under your leadership in New Jersey, your budget’s gone up 15 percent. It’s gone down 26 percent in Louisiana. It’s gone up $5 billion in New Jersey, down $9 billion in Louisiana,” Jindal said.
Christie didn’t bite: “I have great respect for Bobby’s record in Louisiana. I think he’s been a wonderful governor, provided outstanding leadership in that state […] I’ll tell you what I want to talk about. I want to talk about what’s going to happen to this country if we have another four years of Barack Obama’s policies.”
“Chris, it’s also true that that you expanded food stamps at a time that we have a record number of Americans on food stamps. It’s also true you caved in to Obamacare. You expanded Medicaid,” Jindal said.
“It’s interesting. I complemented Bobby. Imagine how much time he’d want if I actually criticized him,” Christie replied.
Christie pivoted back to his main point: “The people out there don’t care about any of that. They care about who’s going to beat Hillary Clinton and who’s going to keep their eye on the ball. I’m going keep my eye on the ball,” he said.
“Chris, I’ll give you a ribbon for participation and a juice box, but in the real world it’s about results. It’s about actually cutting government spending, not just talking about government spending,” Jindal said.
Christie’s also delivered some tough talk on smaller government: “the greatness of America is in the American people, and what we need is to get the government the hell out of the way and let the American people win once again.”
On China hacking into U.S. data systems: “If the Chinese commit cyberwarfare on us, they are going to see cyberwarfare like they’ve never seen before.”
As strong as he was, he didn’t say anything that’s being played again and again today, and nothing on the main stage worked to his benefit.
“A breakthrough moment, a break out moment is going to happen when suddenly people start rallying around Chris Christie as opposed to someone else,” Dworkin said. “And no one else has really made the kind of flub, or fall, to allow him to do that.”
Christie’s campaign put out dozens of quotes last night from observers who praised the governor’s performance. What got lost in some of the superlatives was that this was still the undercard debate.
“He needs to get back on the main stage, otherwise no one is going take him seriously. So he did well, but that’s just one night,” Dworkin said.
The next GOP Debate is Dec. 15.