Maureen Dowd, "Christie Puts the Gloves On": Christie Almost As Viable As Sebelius

“Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different.”

- President Obama, March 2011

You will recall that "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it" was rated the "Lie of the Year" for 2013 by PolitiFact (see: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/dec/12/lie-year-if-you-like-your-health-care-plan-keep-it/). Given his past declaration that "Some nations may be be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries" and his current passivity in response to genocide being perpetrated by Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Obama should now also be retroactively awarded the "Lie of the Year" for 2011.

In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Christie Puts the Gloves On" (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/dowd-christie-puts-the-gloves-on.html?ref=maureendowd&_r=0), Maureen Dowd is back again with another tirade aimed at New Jersey's governor. Dowd's conclusion:

"The governor was a beneficiary of America’s desperate hunger for genuine leadership. You can blame Obama for the Christie tulip craze. The president has been so wan, he confused people into thinking that bluster was clarity. In a climate with no leadership, the bully looks like a man. If you’ve only been drinking water, Red Bull tastes like whiskey.

Obama’s ethereal insipidity made Christie’s meaty pugilism attractive; Obama’s insistence on the cerebral made voters long for the visceral, even the gracelessly visceral.

George W. Bush was the Decider who engaged in thoughtless action. So America veered toward Obama, who engaged in thoughtful inaction. Then they careered toward Christie, another practitioner of thoughtless action.

When all you have is leading from behind, there’s a place in your heart for in-your-face."

Dowd is correct. After five years of ineptitude and procrastination from the first invertebrate ever to inhabit the Oval Office, America seems ready for leadership, but from where is this leadership to come?

Chris Christie for president in 2016? Sorry, but in the aftermath of Bridgegate, Christie would be almost as viable as Kathleen Sebelius in a national election.

Dowd desperately needs to find a new victim.