http://www.cnn.com/...
It looks oddly familiar....
Oh yeah! It's sincerity. It's been such a long election season, I almost didn't recognize it.
Below the fold, my personal opinion as to why the hyper-functional partnership between Gov. Christie and the President in the wake of Hurricane Sandy is so politically important.
I've always thought that the way President Obama could be a transformational figure would be by putting government back on a gradual path toward statesmanship, the good of country over party.
His first year or two of office embodied that attempt, but it was successfully squashed by Republicans who calculated that a lack of legislative victories (resulting from compromise) would be the best way to one-term Obama.
Instead of working for the common good, Republicans cynically stonewalled the President's policies, even when it came to getting the economy back on track.
And that strategy has been dishearteningly effective. Many, if not most Americans, have come to view the President as unable to accomplish big things. This process (Obama reaches out, the GOP roadblocks everything, and then the public blames both parties equally) has been frustrating to watch, repeated throughout the past four years.
Now we're in an epic battle for the presidency and one of the very last news cycles with the potential to tip the scales...is the GOP governor of New Jersey heaping praise on the president for putting politics aside and focusing on his job for the good of the country during Hurricane Sandy.
At the last minute, the President's basic reasonableness -- his statesmanship, integrity and common sense during a crisis-- broke through and clearly impacted Governor Christie.
As an avid poll-watcher, I can see Christie's words helping to push the President over the edge in these last critical days.
It will be so very gratifying if the thing I always loved about Obama the most is what, against all odds, secures his re-election.
P.S. My thoughts and best-wishes to those dealing with the aftermath of the storm.