John F. Kennedy swept up a nation with his eloquence. Remember the triplicates in his major speeches? Since then that political dynasty stuck to that elevated rhetoric.
Now we have in New Jersey - a fitting setting - the un-Kennedy in political discourse. Governor Chris Christie keeps getting attention for plainspeaking verging on the vulgar. Before a hurricane he told the people to get the hell off the beach. Last night on television he told Piers Morgan that Warren Buffett should give the money to the government or just shut up about it.
Of course this is getting Christie noticed. After all, the leveling of The Great Recession created the age of Everyman. Blue collar seems a lot more trustworthy than the white collar crowd in the mortgage industry and investment banking. But we wonder how far will it take him? Can his style resonate as a vice presidential candidate or, down the road, a presidential one?
The Christie show is interesting to watch and POLITICO is doing just that.
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