And so the unraveling of a campaign begins with the blame game.
Insiders in the Romney campaign are saying that Mitt wanted Christie all along.
Romney was so close to picking Christie that some top advisers at the campaign’s Boston headquarters believed the governor had been offered the job. The campaign made tentative plans to announce a pick in late July, just before Romney headed off on his overseas trip, starting with a stop at the London Olympics.
“Mitt liked him because he saw him as a street fighter,” a Romney official said. “It’s the kind of political mentality that Romney doesn’t have, but admires. He wanted someone who could play the Chicago game [like Obama headquarters] on its own terms.”
more below the orange squiggle
Looks like in the end, Christie being more about Christie did him in:
Some aides around Romney began to sour on Christie when he was late to a couple of events where they were appearing together. “Chris is a sort of cavalier New York, New Jersey guy: ‘If I’m a few minutes behind, I’ll blame it on traffic,’” said a person who knows him well. “That’s just who he is.”
The tardiness rankled the by-the-book folks around Romney. As the vice-presidential selection ramped up, Christie was always at the top of the list, but always with an asterisk.
It seems that the convention speech confirms that Christie probably has too big of an ego to be #2 on the ticket, but then that could have been sour grapes.
So, leaking this story, TurdBlossom blaming Hurricane Sandy, it looks like the public unraveling of the Romney/Ryan ticket has begun. I can't wait for the carnage on Wednesday.
6:12 AM PT: UPDATE: First trip to the rec list! Thanks, peeps!