I’m just not seeing the offense. An “offensive oral sex joke”?
Over at Slate, Torie Bosch is incensed by Gov. Chris Christie’s banter with hecklers yelling at him “Christie kills jobs.” She works overtime to make a point that isn’t very convincing.
…it was uploaded to the New Jersey GOP’s YouTube account. They seem to think his remark about “going down” is a zinger, something to be proud of, rather than recognizing it as flagrantly demeaning, even misogynistic. How would Christie have responded to male protesters saying the same thing? Probably not by changing the subject to what acts they perform in the bedroom. His handlers should be apologizing for the remark, not promoting it.
There’s a difference between how Newt Ginrich handled Michele Bachmann on stage and how Chris Christie seems to be obviously flirting with the pro-Mitt audience at the expense of hecklers, who, frankly, should be prepared for whatever they get, as long as it’s not violently offensive.
There’s a general fear of Gov. Chris Christie on the left, with Democrats at a loss on how to handle the guy, because the media clearly loves him.
Steve Benen jumps in to the fray as well, calling Gov. Christie out for “ugliness” and suggesting he needs a little more class, then calls him a bully. Benen’s class charge is what gets Democrats in trouble all the time. This notion that a big, burly, loud man isn’t comporting himself properly.
This type of judgment about Christie not having any class is what makes Democrats look snooty. It’s about style, actually, with a side of political correctness from those judging him.
Christie’s swagger and enjoyment at the moment is clear and I’m not sure it’s wise to always shout down hecklers. It’s going to get him into trouble at times, but he’s the type of guy who can handle it.
What Gov. Christie does for Romney that’s so important and effective is show a deft hand at playing with the crowd, something that stiff Mitt’s needs desperately.
Some people may not like Christie’s style, but he’s simply reeling it out at a partisan pro-Romney event. In other words, he’s doing his job, which if Romney is the nominee could serve him well in the vice presidential spot. If Joe Biden can learn to curb his tongue so can Chris Christie.
However, that Republicans are in another position of trying to make the top man on the ticket more appealing and cool by finding a vice presidential candidate that brings some excitement so conservatives can get on board is one reason the right is trying to bring Mitt Romney down.
The word that offends me is “sweetheart” unless it’s being spoken by my girlfriend to me or by a family member.
When someone like Christie (or Obama “sweetie” ) uses words like “sweetheart” they are in effect talking down to a woman or women, it’s inappropriate and imo is meant to demean.
So, when he called those women “sweetheart” which he would never have called a man or men in the audience who either heckled him or asked him a question, I cringed and wanted to give him a few swift kicks in his opulent backside.
IMO, unless the sexual insult to a woman is so clear and blatant, these kind of comments remain in the realm of in the eyes and ears of the beholder as to what the speaker meant. In the Christie case when he said “someone is going down tonight but it’s not job’s, …….”, there is going to be more than 1 way to interpret that comment as sexist or not. Sometimes human beings hear what they want to hear when a comment is made by someone they don’t like and/or disagree with on something as personal as one’s political beliefs. Sometimes human beings can be objective in these cases and don’t hear or interpret what was said in the negative. And, sometimes a rose is a rose meaning the comment wasn’t meant to offend the person’s gender or race or sexuality. It is what it is.
For me, I saw and heard the first part of his comment to the women as a tough guy comment that they were going down, not in a sexual way but that they would be the ones losing the argument in that crowd of partisan Republicans and he immediately followed that comment by effectively calling them Obama partisans. So, that gives what I saw and heard a bit of support. Others like the woman who wrote the Slate article saw things differently but I agree not convincingly to me either.
I’m a liberal who doesn’t hate or fear Christie because I don’t see him as a phoney and I can see his clay feet as well. If LBJ were alive today in today’s frank climate, I think he would be the Dem version of Christie, imo. He is who is he and says what comes to his mind and not all of the things I’ve heard him say has done him favors. He sometimes does come across as a bully know-it-all as when he (in my eyes) answered with his big ego when he told a woman that it was none of her business where he sent his children to school who asked him a question about his contradiction of sending his children to private schools when his cuts to public schools were harming public school children. What Christie needs to do is learn to control his temper and the bully side to his personality.
Just a few words about humor. As liberals, we should be confident in our beliefs and who we are not to be intimidated by Christie. We can fight fire and his humor with our own. It’s not that difficult. Overall, our ideas ARE better than theirs. All we need do is to be ourselves and passionately have a strong core set of political beliefs and a sense of humor about it all and who can laugh at ourselves as well (I’ve also seen Christie make fun of himself which is another reason he endears himself to people).
That’s crucial, having a sense of humor and about oneself in any debate about how we should govern our country is no laughing matter to be taken lightly. Humor-less politicians (and any person) with a strong set of core political policy beliefs are deadly. Without a sense of humor and without being able to make fun of ourselves, it’s more difficult to communicate those policy prescriptions to a hungry public the majority of whom are looking for sensible answers that will benefit them and the country. People respond more to someone who can articulate policy in an honest and clear way and make them laugh at the same time. FDR had a sense of humor as did JFK, RR and BC.
Overall, I also see lively and non-wooden Christie as good for wooden and phoney Romney. Similar to how Biden has been good for Obama. But, both Christie and Biden have put their foots in their mouths on several occasions so they both need to proceed with caution when they do the dirty work of Romney and Obama in the General Election (and barring some Romney sexual scandal like he has more than one wife, it would be a shock to me if Romney isn’t the GOP nominee). Btw, I’m not a keen advocate for Biden, for various reasons which I won’t address here. But, generally, he has been a mostly positive addition to Obama’s administration.
If Romney does win the GOP nom, imo, Christie and Haley will be on his short list for VP.
I can certainly see the “sweetheart” tag grating.
I just don’t get the same condescension vibe from Christie on it that I’d feel if Donald Trump let that fly, though we’re really circling the drain when you go there.
Agree on not taking everything so seriously. I also think that Christie is a Republican who would have once appealed to Democrats, those same people who are now independents.
“Sweetheart” ismeant to be condescending. It is not meant to put a woman down in a man-woman fashion, it is to put the woman down in a adult-child fashion. He would likely have used the same term had it been a man that was heckling him.
And, why does he owe a heckler any respect? Standing up and shouting during a speech/talk is not acceptable in first grade, it is even less so for adults. The heckler and democrats should be thankful that he didn’t use the old Kathy Griffith line, “hey, I don’t go to your job and knock the cocks out of your mouth…”.