New Jersey governor Chris Christie followed every rule in the political crisis playbook today.
He apologized, admitted he was personally humiliated and fired a top aide for lying to him.
But that doesn’t mean he did enough to keep his White House dream alive.
Because the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey is reviewing the matter, and so are millions of voters.
Here’s Christie’s problem: nobody likes a bully, and that’s become part of his reputation.
So, even if he had no direct knowledge of what caused the dangerous traffic back-ups at the George Washington Bridge, would anyone close to him create those jams if they thought he’d disapprove?
Not likely.
And that’s why Christie calling the lane closings “abject stupidity” is not likely to close the case against him.
Meanwhile, don’t miss this: all the attention on Christie and the 2016 presidential election means less attention on the man who’s in the White House right now.
Talk about turn about.
Shortly before the last election, republicans accused Christie of taking the air out of Mitt Romney’s campaign by publicly supporting the president after hurricane sandy.
Now, Christie is taking air away from Obama.