This is the only reason I regret moving out of NJ in 2009. That I couldn't vote Christie. Even though I was mailed a motor voter ballot at my new address...

Love this guy. He impresses me more with every speech and press conference he does, .

I especially liked the way he told the teacher to behave or go sit down.

We need more leaders like Christie.

Love this man!!!! I wish we could trade him for Benedict Specter, Useless Casey and the Moron-in-chief of PA - Fast Eddie Rendell!

Well Gov. Cheesesteak is out this year anyway, FedUp.

The definition of awesome.

Could we clone this guy?

I watched this yesterday and thought it was great. He should have asked the teacher at the end of his explaination "Do you understand now?"

From the clips I've seen so far of Christie and teachers, the teachers haven't come across as very intelligent. Could it be the intelligent ones know not to ask him questions?

The intelligent ones already understand that he's right.

You can BET this "educator" had not the first idea of the facts Cristie put to her. Nor does she care NOW, no doubt!!!

Gfan,
They're quoting religious dogma, not reasoned facts.

In terms of statistics (e.g., standardized tests) teachers are some of the least intelligent college grads. This woman is no exception.

Christie is among the finest political leaders in America today.

Now now, children, settle down. In specific, financially centered conservatism, yes, absolutely, there is much to be excited about Chris Christie. However he is no conservative in some areas we would mostly consider critical areas like respecting ALL the amendments. We were all very impressed with Giuliani, too, but he should never be president, and neither should this guy.

Never thought I'd ever be saying this in a proud way as a life-long resident of New Jersey, but:

That is my Governor.

Shawn Mallow
Long suffering New Jersey Conservative

ABG ABG ABG ABG ABG ABG ABG ABG ABG ABG ABG ABG
America's Best Gov., Mr. Chris Christie

Wonder how long it'll be before a hit gets put out on him? You can't dis a union member like that without repercussions!

I agree, this guy looks good. He might be that rare species, a true conservative.

WOW! This guy has guts and really knows how to speak his mind without flinching. He's a great role model for Republicans.

This guy is a Republican? He's got a spine? Says what he thinks? Wow. The status quo would not approve...which is a good thing. Now if we can find more like him.

Christie has a great way of laying out details and presenting the facts. He did leave out one figure, though, the $400 million in federal education funding his administration just lost due to its own incompetence.

Christie's desire to quickly "move on" from the blunder and his own initial mis-statements, at best, outright lies, at worst evoke the typical politician mindframe, so I think he's still got some work to do to be a shining, honest, plain-spoken star instead of a one-note wonder. Hitting the Teacher's Union is his wheelhouse and he can consistently knock those out of the park, as he has proven.

And when Christie found out the screw up was made in house, what did he do Joe?
Corrected his statements and cleaned house.
as for beating up on the teacher's union... did you watch the video? Don't wave red meat meat in front of a dog and complain when he got the tips of your fingers because you didn't move fast enough ...

And when Christie found out the screw up was made in house, what did he do Joe?
The first thing he did, before attempting to find out the genesis of the screw up was call a press conference and try to place the blame elsewhere.

On Wednesday, Christie publicly said Schundler had tried to give the correct information to a bungled question during the presentation, but video from the U.S. Department of Education released Thursday proved that did not happen.

When his claims were subsequently disproven by video evidence, he did fire the person responsible. So, we definitely have a rushing to judgement without knowing all of the facts on Christie's part. Even beyond that, we have the emails from the person who was fired, Bret Schundler, that show that Christie's staff was clearly informed before they had the press conference that it was their own (Schundler's) screw up.

Schundler has said he warned the governor before the press conference not to say the state tried to fix the application by providing the correct information -- which would have been against the rules. Schundler produced e-mails last week showing he told the governor's staff the day before he did not provide the correct data.

Christie says that Schundler told him the opposite in a phone conversation, but the emails are harder to refute.

Finally, we have him ignoring that figure ($400 million) as money that the state would have had for education if it were not for that screw up when answering this question, a mistake that (no matter how you slice it) his administration was directly responsible for.

When politicians want to "move on" from something, it's usually because they know that they were wrong, not because they were proud of how they handled the situation. Christie is a typical politician in this respect.

I certainly was not complaining about his beating up on the teacher's union. I agreed with pretty much all that he had to say in that video. Read my comment again. I complimented Christie on his knowledge of the details and how he presented the facts. I said he might be a "one-hit wonder," but that one hit is punching the teacher's union. As I said very clearly, the has proven he can "knock those out of the park." Perhaps baseball is not your game, but that's known as a home run and is a good thing for your team. Calling him "honest" though? He's honest about calling out his opponents, less honest when it comes to dealing with his own errors.

Schundler has said he warned the governor before the press conference not to say the state tried to fix the application by providing the correct information -- which would have been against the rules. Schundler produced e-mails last week showing he told the governor's staff the day before he did not provide the correct data.

Christie today said by the next morning, Schundler's story in a direct, 15-minute conversation with him was "the exact opposite." Christie said Schundler said he had "updated the panel at the hearing that he complied with the requirements of the question."

So Christie had emails and then was verbally told the version of the story he presented in the press conference. And it was this story from Schundler that resulted in his firing. I've yet to hear Schundler say he didn't have this conversation.

I think the "move on" is partly because he was wrong, though he didn't know at the time and took action when he discovered the fact. The rest is to deprive a less than friendly press (they're torn between their dislike of Christie and their delight in finally getting to safely use him for cover while they slide their knives into the ribs of the NJ democrat oligarchs) and his political opponents of an issue to beat him about the head with.

As for the unions, I think we agree. Their cries that he beats on them doesn't ring true, since they pick the majority of the fights. As a former NJ resident and someone that dropped out of the teaching track in college because of the union tomfoolery (my student teaching period opened my eyes big time), I can say from experience that the NJEA is not used to being on the defensive. They have no idea on how to handle someone that won't sit down and be quiet when they are told.

Please note that I did summarize the paragraph you quoted as "Christie says that Schundler told him the opposite in a phone conversation, but the emails are harder to refute."

Schundler does say that this conversation took place, but that the contents were different:

He said he met with Christie on Wednesday before the governor talked to the media about the grant application error.

"I told him stuff that he had said wasn't accurate on Wednesday morning when he was telling me what he was going to say to you guys," Schundler told a group of reporters. "I said, 'Stop. Where you say I gave the numbers, I did not give them the numbers.'"

Also:

I will not accept being defamed by the Governor for something he knows I did not do," Schundler wrote in the chronology. "The Governor called me a liar this week. That was the last straw. I have no choice now but to defend my name through this chronology of facts and the attached evidence."

Now you've heard Schundler say that he told Christie directly that he did not give the review board the numbers in their conversation before the press conference and that Christie was not telling the truth when he claimed that Schundler had told him that he had. I'm glad that I could help you find those.

So, what I'm really saying is that the Christie worship needs to be punctured. He has some great qualities, but people seem to be going to lengths to overlook his feet of clay. He might have a bright future, but he needs to work on the honesty and integrity thing first. A couple of videos of him righteously nailing teachers, who aren't used to any resistance (as you rightly point out) are good, but let's not get carried away.