2 more polls by Rasmussen and Rutgers: Christie by 30 and 32

[tpfkaw]

It's ironic that winning an extraordinary amount of Democratic support in his re-election bid would probably hurt him in the Republican primary. Even if he doesn't win the nomination, he has to go down as one of the most successful blue-state GOP governors in recent history.

The GOP's last four nominees were all known for receiving substantial cross-party support in their most recent election campaigns.  Like everyone, Republican voters like a winner.  They less tolerance for pandering to one's opponents, but considering that the aforementioned Dole/Bush/McCain/Romney all did just that, it's not really that big a deal.

[tpfkaw]

It's ironic that winning an extraordinary amount of Democratic support in his re-election bid would probably hurt him in the Republican primary. Even if he doesn't win the nomination, he has to go down as one of the most successful blue-state GOP governors in recent history.

The GOP's last four nominees were all known for receiving substantial cross-party support in their most recent election campaigns.  Like everyone, Republican voters like a winner.  They less tolerance for pandering to one's opponents, but considering that the aforementioned Dole/Bush/McCain/Romney all did just that, it's not really that big a deal.

None of those guys had even a tenth of the RINO reputation that Christie has been labeled with. Come on.

McCain most certainly did (perhaps more so) and Dole to a lesser extent as well.  The main GOP base objection to Christie, which is not even necessarily unfair, is that by doing photo-ops with Obama days before the election he sabotaged Romney's campaign for his own political benefit.  His second-biggest problem, more easily corrected, is that a lot of people are under the mistaken impression that he's pro-choice, since he's a Northeastern moderate.

[tpfkaw]

McCain was most widely known for McCain-Feingold and delaying the passage of Bush's tax cuts for months and forcing them to be toned down before voting against them.  Christie up until 7 months ago was the conservative hero who took on the teacher's unions and won and whom the party was frantically trying to draft for 2012.  His troubles are entirely due to the Obama back-slap.  McCain was far more negatively viewed by Republicans and his reputation as the neocon's neocon didn't help him with the base until 2007 when Romney, Huckabee, and Giuliani declined to endorse the "surge" while he did.

[tpfkaw]

Actually, McCain was either not invited to or skipped CPAC every year until 2008, where he was almost booed off the stage.  He also was tied with Mitt Romney for least popular Republican among Republicans as of August 2007, after which his numbers began to climb (fitting the "surge" thesis): http://www.gallup.com/poll/28363/Public-Rates-Giuliani-Most-Favorably-Eight-Presidential-Hopefuls.aspx