Christie's off-ramp

It's time for some traffic problems on the road to the White House. Presaging even less time for his day job running New Jersey, Gov. Christie became the 14th official candidate to merge into the Republican presidential bottleneck Tuesday.

Christie made the long-expected announcement at the North Jersey high school where he once settled for the presidency of his class. It was also at Livingston High that a callow Christie met (though, by his account, was too cool to hang out with) future anonymous political blogger turned Port Authority executive David Wildstein, now charged with orchestrating the famous Fort Lee gridlock that may keep Christie on this side of the Beltway.

Both traffic jams - the retributive George Washington Bridge tie-up linked to his aides and the crowded race with no clear lane for Christie - have been blamed for the governor's flagging presidential prospects. The greater problem, however, is his record: Even if Christie can outrun the opposition and the scandal, it's difficult to grasp what he would run on.

While styling himself a pragmatic decider who gets stuff done, Christie has presided over a period of fiscal deterioration and economic stagnation. The budget he just signed required his lawyers to extricate him from the pension reforms he touted as a signature bipartisan achievement. The reversal was at stark odds with his proclamation Tuesday: "I mean what I say and I say what I mean."

Most New Jersey voters - 65 percent, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll - understandably doubt whether Christie would make a good president. Even more - 70 percent - say he should not continue to run the state while making a run for the White House. Christie's record makes it that much easier to join this landslide in favor of his resignation.

With more than a year of presidential campaigning ahead and more than two years left in Christie's term as governor, a state that needs leadership won't be able to count on it. After his announcement Tuesday, Christie was already off to New Hampshire for the rest of the week, and his strategy will reportedly rely heavily on blanketing the Granite State like a breath of fresh turnpike exhaust.

Unfortunately, despite Christie's painfully extended entry into presidential politics, his administration hasn't taken any noticeable steps to expand the role or profile of Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, a former federal prosecutor and county sheriff who has served nearly six years as the gubernatorial understudy. Nevertheless, voters created her office in 2006 - Guadagno is its first occupant - to ease succession in situations like this. Christie, being a native New Jerseyan, should know when he has reached his exit.