We had a republican governor and a democratic president. In a time of significant regional disaster, they worked together to get residents and businesses through the tragedy. But the real tragedy is not being able to work together anymore because of political divisiveness. I hope we can get back to place where spirited dialogue and discussion can resolve differences.

I don't remember this at all

While anyone with common sense saw this as a gesture of gratitude, the right saw this as an servile indignation. Why should Christie have to grovel in front of Obama? Obama should do what he's supposed to do and smile while doing it. How dare he make Christie bow for the help that the state is entitled to? And Christie is spineless for doing it. Never again, said the right wingers.

I remember this hug and being proud of our governor for doing what he needed to do to help his state rebuild.

annnnnd here come the downvotes. Let's go!

Exactly what I remember too. "New Jerseyans [not giving] a crap about “The Hug.”

Polling about a month after Sandy showed more than 90% of the state praised Christie’s handling of the storm"

As flawed as any politician, but I like to think he had our backs during this.

• and the article says that we’re all wrong for remembering a Hug. Not that it matters, but apparently the only hugs were metaphorical.

Thats why he won re-election.

But its a shame that later Christie threw away a lot of the that earned "respect" by trying to bow down to Trump to get into his administration. Maybe it wasnt as bad as the Ted "your wife is ugly Cruz" situation, but still I lost respect for him. I will also never forgive him for cancelling the Gateway project....even if NJ would have been screwed financially, setting it off by decade still screwed us even more.

I respected the hell out of first term Christie. Second term Christie got lofty dreams and left us all in his wake. Lot of good those dreams got him.

Admittedly I did not read it but I thought they did like a bro hug type of thing. I could absolutely remember that wrong

> I remember this hug...

But the point of the article is there was no hug.

Did you read his book? I thought it was good and interesting to hear his version of the Trump stuff went.

He started throwing some of the respect away when all the Fort Lee stuff started coming out with the staffers he had hired (but that was after the 2013 election so he was still riding high on the Sandy bump). The Trump suckling in 2016 finished off the state Dems' respect for him and he lost pretty much the rest of the populace when the photo of him on the closed beach was taken.

No i didnt honestly. Do you have a quick summary of what he said about that?

I know he has appeared on some talk shows and distanced himself from Trump lately, but maybe that was just my interpretation.

And this is why I hate politics. Christie did the right thing as far as doing his job regarding Sandy recovery. Things like saying the other political party is the "enemy", when they are trying to be professional and cordial to resolve an issue.

The true political enemies are politicians working for personal gain, and not a party. Politicians should be called out for doing a crappy job, enforcing horrible policies.

You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain

those days are dead and not returning. in fact, one side has slid even further to embracing fascism pretty openly and just declaring that any electoral result that is not a win for their side is obviously illegitimate. there's no coming back from that, and even republicans who aren't bought into the worst ideas still care more about their party's power than accepting some time in the wilderness by backing the opposition until they can extinguish this movement and come back and try again. there's no other way to look at it.

It is absolutely wild to think that if Bridgegate, David Wildstein and the beach fiasco did not happen that Christie could have legitimately been the 2016 Presidential nominee.

I’m going to be downvoted for this, but fuck these sensitive people who are triggered by a polite gesture from a republican governor to a democratic president. The whole state was in chaos, some more than others. I had to shower in a bucket for two weeks, and I know two people who lost their homes. The only shining light was that everyone, no matter your political affiliation, was working together. Because we are all people and citizens of the United States.

If you’re angry at that hug, I suggest you huddle back into your safe space, you fragile, sensitive snowflake. Don’t forget your participation trophy before you go.

“Obama should do what he’s supposed to do and smile while doing it.”

Funny how they glued their mouths shut when NY and NJ needed COVID help from Trump.

I just gave you an up vote

Exactly, he was focused on New Jersey and not national politics.

Me either. And I wouldn’t have cared then cause I sure don’t care now.

Agree with all you said but politicians should put people over party. That is what Christie did that day and I respected him for it even though I didn’t care for him too much. Politicians work for us and that was lost somewhere along the way. Sad to say our country is so divided that if this happened now Christie would be branded a traitor.

I’m no longer in NJ, but I’m a Jerz girl through and through. And I actually didn’t hate Christie after this. No downvotes from me lol

Until you said specified Republican, your statement could go both ways honestly

I can not believe this didn't get downvoted. And to the person asking about the Christie book, I listened on audible a while ago so I don't remember details but it was a good listen.

There's only one party who actively campaigns on citizens of America getting treated differently because of how they were born. It's not democrats.

Christie destroyed what was a good pension system in NJ.

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I am one of those New Jersians, I was thankful those two could overcome politics to rebuild this state. Anybody who said otherwise at the time was already sliding into fascism.

Pretty sure Christie also contributed more to the pension than all of his predecessors combined. Reality is complicated.

Poster was talking about how both sides claim they won while they lost.

Politicians making millions while they're in office makes them not give a shit about people until it's election time.

The many racists in the GOP were livid we had a black president. Four years later they elected a racist moron to the presidency. Six years after that they’re likely to vote in a fascist majority in Congress. Two years after that they’re likely to end our democracy permanently.

LOL you can't be centrist anymore. There are things i'm liberal on but there are things i'm very conservative on. So you end up getting bashed on both sides, this can actually be a very good thing. We were never truly a two party system we just accepted it. More and more people are starting to wake up to the idea that both parties are getting a little out of hand and that maybe there is a third alternative.

Pretty sure he was referencing the facism unless he posted a clarification....

He also agreed to pay into the pension and then reneged bc he's a liar.

https://whyy.org/articles/christies-public-pension-legacy-broken-promises-no-effective-fixes/

https://www.nj.com/njv_tom_moran/2014/01/post_16.html

He was labeled a traitor by some on the right during that time.

Lol that’s not what stopped christie from being the nominee. The arrival of trump and the subsequent fervent embracing his open bigotry was what stopped christie from being the nominee.

I'm not into politics but Chris Christie is scum

Same, I loved Christie after this moment.

No it was bridgegate

Christie and his entire team were pretty much ostracized from the gop for handing NJ back to dems

You’re wrong. Since the dawn of Trumpism Republicans own the hate

I'm a leftist who lived in Pa at the time. I was pleasantly surprised by seeing a politician put his residents first. That all came to an end over bridgegate though lol

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Aside from a tiny group of fools, no one questioned that Trump won the 2016 election. Hillary conceded within a day. He won based on the rules to win the presidency. Whether he knew or not, it was clear certain foreign adversaries pushed to have him elected. There were protests wearing pussy hats, which has proven to be an appropriate reaction given the recent ruling.

Trump has never conceded and directed an angry mob that he knew was armed (Jan 6 hearings had the audio proving he knew they were armed) to at-best intimidate legislatures, at-worst to kill them. That happened.

Don't equivocate the scenarios.

Yeah? Are there a lot of Democrats breaking into Mitch McConnell’s home to beat his wife’s skull in with a hammer?

I’m also having a hard time remembering the failed coup in 2016 when Trump won.

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You mean his neighbor who did not break into his house but beat the shit out of him because he’s a terrible neighbor? Sure. Violence isn’t OK but if my neighbor knocks my teeth out because I don’t clean up after my dog that’s not politically motivated.

When did Democrats storm the Capitol in an attempt to stop an electoral process again? I forget.

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What do you view as the Democrats "worst ideals" and how would you compare them the the "worst ideals" of Republicans?

The guy attacked teachers and their benefits, as well as the police, firefighters, and other public workers that help the NJ society function as if theyre root cause of all the state’s problems. He handled Sandy well, yes, but anyone that goes on a public PR campaign that goes after the benefits of public servants that took decades to earn through contract negations is a big no my book. All the BS this state wastes money on, and public servants are the target. Hard no.

It was pure political theater by Christie. And it worked like gangbusters. And the next year, Barbara Buono got thrown under the bus by her own party during the gubernatorial election.

Honestly, Christie thought he was lot more popular than he really was. I remember someone bringing him up on CD for a lot of nonNJers to say "who?" and the rest knowing him for being obese.

One party's leaders - not wingnuts; leaders - stopped calling the other party by its actual, incorporated name 25 years ago.

Sorry, this isn't a "very fine people on both sides" situation.

He tried pivoting to being an anti-abortion activist and looked foolish in the process -- it was nearly as bad as Cruz, Rubio, Paul, or Graham, but those four guys set records that may never be broken for debasing one's self.

Yeah, his war on teachers was awful.

Spoiler: there will be no third party

BuT tHe GaS PrIcEs!!1

Trump is what you get when you stop using your brain and start thinking with your ass, and then vote that way.

I understand that he didn't pay as much as he negotiated, but neither did his predecessors. On the other hand, he contributed more than all of his predecessors. Christie ran the state in one of the worst economic environments of the last century. The tax collections weren't there to make those payments.

I appreciate why pensioners have it out for Christie, but to say that HE destroyed the pension when it was left unfunded across some 7 governors before him seems somewhat misguided.

https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/new_jersey_state_spending_pie_chart

costs related to public workers are by far the biggest portions of this pie chart. And back then they were also paying next to nothing for healthcare costs.

That is the primary reason we are taxed to death in this state.

yup. People massively underestimated this, how sick people were of the clintons, and other things.

you good?

looks at the state of the country

No, I’m not. And you shouldn’t be either.

And we have had many awful governors tying our state with the definition of corrupt, for some.

Because he negotiated cuts to benefits including removing cost of living adjustments for already senior citizens, let the teachers hold up their end by less benefits and increase contributions, and then reneged on his side to get contributions in exchange.

It's not like the previous people. He specifically backed out of a deal he himself agreed to. He lied and anyone with any kind of brain knew he would. Because that's the kind of guy he is. He went around the state bad mouthing teachers who make 40k to teach people's children. He's a douche and typical of his party and supporters.

Chris Christie was attacked by his own party & Fox News for the hug so who are the sensitive snowflakes?

……………the people who attacked him for the hug.

Yeah, I agree. Usually when people namecall others as "snowflakes", they are referring to democrats so I was pointing out that the republican party actually attacked Christie the most for this hug.

Oh, I’m sorry. I’ve actually had people fight me before about the political divide so I thought you were serious. Sorry about that and I’ll strike through my previous comment.

No problem. I wasn't trying to start any fights on my favorite holiday. 🎃

Thank you for understanding. Have a good Halloween!

Hillary Clinton or Obama or and D leader encouraged rioting? I don’t remember that but I certainly remember Trump doing this. Get out of here with these false equivalencies. The democrats are not anywhere the wannabe fascists many republicans are.

I didn’t vote for Christie or generally agree with much of his platform but this is a picture of a governor doing his job. This is how politicians should behave and it killed his career.