Christie's temperament a political double-edge sword

He defended his Ebola quarantine policy on national television, lambasted President Obama's leadership as limited to "seven-minute lectures from the South Lawn," and supplied morning-show fodder by ordering a Hurricane Sandy protester to "sit down and shut up."

Gov. Christie spent last week in the national limelight, shrinking from neither criticism of his Ebola pronouncements by public health officials - "We're right and they were wrong," he said on NBC's Today show - nor his widely publicized takedown of a protester at the Jersey Shore.

"Just another day at the ranch, in Rancho Christie," Christie said Thursday in New Mexico, where, as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, he was stumping for Gov. Susana Martinez - part of a five-day, 19-state campaign blitz that capped off his week (and is still underway). He is expected to appear with Gov. Corbett on Sunday night in Bucks County.

The episode spurred some pundits to question Christie's presidential chances.

"He thinks that this kind of Sopranos approach to politics marks him as a strong leader," David Axelrod, a former Obama adviser, said on MSNBC's Morning Joe. "I think it marks him as an angry man."

Whether Christie's actions over the course of the week showed decisive leadership or impulsive bullying was a matter of debate.

Christie's behavior was "not that different from what we knew," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. "On one hand, he is an aggressive leader, taking action, saying what he thinks and not waiting long in responding to an issue - whether that's a protester, or a public health problem."

But those qualities can "turn into liabilities" if Christie is seen as making too-hasty decisions, Zelizer said.

And with a possible 2016 presidential bid looming - Christie has said he will make a decision on running by the start of the year - the governor's brash persona "will be increasingly under the microscope," said Steve Schmidt, a Republican consultant who advised Arizona Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.

"When you are evaluating somebody and their capability to sit across from Vladimir Putin . . . you want somebody who is in control," Schmidt said. Christie "is up against a line where he's calling that into question."

Christie has resisted one-note characterizations of his leadership style. During a September trade mission to Mexico, he told reporters asking about his more diplomatic demeanor that he had "more than one club in the bag."

Last week, Christie said his shouting at the Shore protester - a former Asbury Park councilman who was criticizing the state's failure to release more federal aid to Hurricane Sandy victims - wasn't a regular occurrence.

But he said the confrontation, which drew applause from the Shore crowd, also wasn't something he would shy away from.

"If you give it, you're getting it back," Christie said in New Mexico, repeating a line he uses at his town-hall-style events in New Jersey. "That's what the people of New Jersey, and I think a lot of people in this country, have come to expect from me."

A video clip of the remarks - including the "Rancho Christie" comment - was posted to Christie's Twitter account.

He struck a similarly unapologetic tone when asked about Kaci Hickox, the nurse who protested her detainment after arriving Oct. 24 in Newark, on her way home from treating Ebola patients in West Africa.

Of the possibility Hickox, who was released Monday from New Jersey and later fought a quarantine in Maine - would sue, Christie said: "Whatever. Get in line. I've been sued lots of times before."

Christie presented himself as a leader while defending the quarantine decision.

Mandating a 21-day quarantine for a health-care worker exposed to the Ebola virus is "commonsense policy," Christie said at the Shore event Wednesday. "I don't know when the White House is going to get around to admitting that and not giving us seven-minute lectures from the South Lawn, and just get to work."

Public health officials - and Obama - have expressed concerns that policies like New Jersey's could deter health-care workers from volunteering to help in West Africa. Civil liberties advocates have also criticized the policy.

But Christie has pointed to states that also have adopted quarantine policies - following, he said, New Jersey's lead.

Tom Rath, a New Hampshire Republican strategist who advised the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, said Christie had a "valid point" in draing a contrast with the White House as "an engaged, hands-on manager who's willing to take on tough issues."

How Christie makes his point, however, is the question. "He shows the complexity of personality for any would-be candidate," Rath said. "We like decisiveness, we like firmness. . . . When does that cross a line and become overreaching and overbearing? That's the balance."

Rath recalled a rally Christie attended for Romney at a high school in Exeter, N.H., days before the 2012 primary.

Responding to a female protester in the crowd who accused him of killing jobs, Christie said: "Something's going to go down tonight, but it ain't going to be jobs, sweetheart."

While Christie was aggressive, "the crowd was with him," Rath said.

Crowd support, however, isn't always the image that sticks. Howard Dean, a Democrat whose unsuccessful 2004 presidential bid is partly remembered for his infamous "scream" in a speech the night of the Iowa caucuses, said he, too, had once told a protester to sit down during an event.

The incident happened while Dean was campaigning in Iowa. "The guy was harassing me," Dean said. "I basically pointed at him - I wasn't even as rude as Christie was - I pointed at him and said: 'You had your turn. . . . Sit down and be quiet.' "

Two days later, the interaction was in a campaign ad, Dean said.

"It looked terrible," he said.