Christie, critics paint by number
A bit of humor serves the governor well
Following Chris Christie's rather bellicose pursuit of a reportedly belligerent critic while toting an ice cream -- talk about problematic political "optics" -- the governor's super-savvy media team cooled things off with a bit of good humor.
A post on the governor's website Wednesday, headlined "Christie by the numbers," spun some fun with a pithy blend of bona fide and fanciful statistics.
And given what officials describe as the boardwalk critic's boorish and profane insult about Christie's weight, the list's alleged "David Letterman fat jokes" factoid (327,832) was a tasty example of the governor's ability to poke fun at himself.
Some critics who shout on websites rather than boardwalks countered with a list of their own, featuring -- as does this NJ Spotlight story -- differences between the wishful thinking and actual revenues that relate to the purported "Jersey Comeback" you may have heard about on NJ-101.5.
Late in the week, an Atlantic magazine blogger weighed in as well, noting that with the "numbers" post, Christie's peerless press office managed to persuade journalists to pay attention to a press release.
Which is no small thing.