Yay! Right?
I'll bet you can guess which 2016 Republican presidential candidate said
these words about the impact New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's lane closure scandal will have on his presidential campaign:
I think it will have none.
Yup. None other than Christie himself. And why won't it have an impact?
Because I didn’t do anything.
I'm tempted to say "wishful thinking" and leave it at that, but it's worth emphasizing this point: Even if Christie is telling the truth about not doing anything—and despite his personal assurances to the contrary, I still think the jury is out—then the best case scenario for Christie is that he cluelessly allowed senior staff to abuse the power he conferred upon them.
It's actually worse than that, because before the evidence incriminating his staff finally came to light, Christie repeatedly mocked people who said the lane closures appeared fishy. If Christie truly was clueless, he was willfully clueless, because even as he defiantly claimed everything was on the up-and-up, it was obvious to the rest of the world that the lane closures weren't just a traffic study. The only possible way he could have avoided knowledge of what his team was up to is if he wanted to avoid knowledge.
And yes, that'll be a problem for him in 2016.