Scott Raab in Esquire about the Christie story that’s apparently knocking the voters dead in New Hampshire:
There’s a story Chris Christie loves to tell about his mother on her deathbed, how he had flown to be by her side for her final moments of life, and how she shooed him back to work, telling him “there’s nothing left unsaid between us.”
It’s touching, at least according to the journalists who’ve profiled Christie and who invariably cite this anecdote and characterize it as touching. I myself have heard him serve it up at a couple of his town halls, and I can attest to the fact that the crowds ate it up.
I was not touched, except by The People’s endless hunger for bullshit. Any journalist who takes this fable at face value in order to make some self-evident point about Christie’s skill as a candidate is either a putz or part of the long con. I’ve spent enough time around politicians to know that deep within each resides the soul of a siding salesman. The mama’s-last-words bit reveals nothing about Christie that isn’t entirely calibrated as theatre. It is a scripted performance, as were the many town hall shout-downs Christie’s media people eagerly uploaded to YouTube before the Great Fort Lee Clusterfk.
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