Christie says critics misunderstood point of keynote
Gov. Christie tells Pennsylvania and New Hampshire delegates that he saw keynote job to "lay out stakes" of election and provide "vision" for GOP.
Christie says critics misunderstood point of keynote
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
TAMPA, Fla. – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pushed back Wednesday morning against the instant analysis from the pundit class that his keynote speech was a “me-note” speech, aimed more at promoting himself than Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president.
It wasn’t really his mission to pump up Romney, Christie told a joint breakfast meeting of the Pennsylvania and New Hampshire delegations.
“I thought my job last night was to lay out both the stakes in this election and the choice in this election,” Christie said. “As it turned out, with Mrs. Romney going first, it freed me up…to put the choice in even more general terms than I was originally going to do.”
He told the crowd that Ann Romney did an excellent job talking about her husband as a person, his character and qualities. “She could talk to all of us in ways no one else can,” he said.
“What the keynote speech is supposed to do, is to lay out a vision for the party,” Christie said. “What do we stand for? What are our principles? What do we believe, and what do they believe? And that’s….two very different visions of America’s future…we’re about telling the truth. We’re about facing up to those hard truths that need to be faced up to that haven’t been faced up to by either party for a long time. We’re about a party who today recognizes that someone’s got to be responsible, that someone’s got to look the American people in the eye and tell them, this is how bad off things are from a fiscal perspective in our country – and we better get it together, because we’re running out of time.”
For the record, Christie mentioned Romney’s name seven times during his speech. In 2004, then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama mentioned John Kerry 14 times during his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, though of course nobody remembers it as anything other than a vision speech with a healthy dose of self promotion that launched him enroute to the White House.
This comment has been deleted.— The Mighty One- FYI-you ain't even close to "mighty", just another Lib hater, go eat your turds...LOL!!! — sarah89
- And who is in this Pundit Class? The same Liberal Media that carry the water for Obama and the Democrats?— CrashTestCorzine
- Dude, if the media really were carrying Obama's water, they'd be calling Romney out as a liar after every speech he gives. Instead, they are letting him slide with his lying Medicare commercials. — mike l
- Critics have said he made a so-so speech and now he's making excuses. Ranks right up there with his Jersey comeback line. Yeah, NJ came back from 8.1 unemployment to 9.3. Heckuva job, Brownie, er, Christie.— mike l
- He is a master of self promotion. They got what they should have expected.— lfs
- "The republican party is the party that tells the truth." Wow, if this guy wasn't serious this is what you would call satire. When's the last time any republican was within fifty miles of the truth? Yeah, the democrats lie, but no party, and I mean no party in the free world can spin a yarn better than the GOP. They are the party that spewed out the useless man-flesh that is Karl Rove. The party that manufactured fake WMDs in Iraq in order to invade it. Seriously, how did Christie manage not to break into uncontrollable laughter after making such a claim? He must be one heck of a poker player, I'll tell you that.— Hemingway
- So NJ's unemployment increase has NOTHING to do with the president's policies? Another 'not Obama's fault' talking point.— Col. Nathan R. Jessup
- Omar the tent-maker was Christie's tailor..fat-boy!— BigDipper
- Self promoting windbag ... If he laid out the GOP platform, I didn't hear it. Is he the best they could come up with ?— mortt1956
- Hey everyone, look, it's a talking pig!— richojr
They wanted Corbett to do the speech but he forgot his convention ID.- He is a loudmouth and a bully. Had he supported the new tunnel his unemployment rate may have dipped below 9%. Instead he supports Atlantic City's newest white elephant. He takes the new out of New Jersey.— OldSouthPhilly
- MODEREATER
Unless you're a teacher, cop, firefighter, or nurse, then he just wants to fire you. But I guess they aren't the "common man."— Hemingway - Christie's speech about the hard truth was riddled with falsehoods.— JSaq
You can reach Tom Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Reach Thomas at tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
