The following is from the NY Post:
President Obama’s re-election campaign is trying to dig up dirt in the Garden State.
Despite New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s repeated pronouncements that he will not seek the GOP presidential nomination, Obama operatives are compiling a dossier of what they call “opposition research” — material that could be used to damage Christie if he changes his mind, The Post has learned.
The Obama campaign is trying to keep its efforts from public view, concerned they would only elevate Christie’s already impressive standing within the Republican Party, sources said.
The operatives have chosen not to dispatch their own people to New Jersey, but instead are talking to people there and in New York who know Christie from his time in the governor’s office, as a gubernatorial candidate and as US attorney.
Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, did not respond to messages.
Christie has repeatedly — and colorfully –said he is not running for president in 2012.
“Short of suicide, I don’t really know what I’d have to do to convince you people that I’m not running. I’m not running,” he’s insisted.
But party leaders have been pushing Christie to enter the race, saying his brand of New Jersey tough talk could put the White House within reach for the GOP.
Republican leaders from Henry Kissinger to House Speaker John Boehner have encouraged him to run.
And well-heeled GOP donors in New York have been spreading word that Christie has privately shown a willingness to consider it.
They say Christie might enter the race if he can get part of his pension-reform agenda passed in Trenton and score a GOP takeover of one of the Democratic-controlled houses of the state Legislature in November.
Christie spokesman Mike DuHaime said, “This is just wishful thinking . . . He is not running, and he is not cracking the door open even a little bit.”
But, DuHaime said, the efforts of the Obama camp are flattering.
He said it’s “an acknowledgment that Christie is a bold leader successfully taking on big challenges as governor. A leader who cuts spending and takes on the special interests tends to earn notice at the highest levels.”
Top Dems applauded Team Obama’s preparation.
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
12 Responses
Impossible. Those are Karl Rove tactics; Obama would never engage in such a negative and disgusting act!
Politics can get ugly and dirty #1. Who are u kidding?
Obama’s aides are pursuing a theory that Chrisie was born in a bakery in Naples, Italy, and ate only cannoli and espresso until he was 5 years old.
ItsuptoHashm,
I agree with you, but we heard the liberals saying how Obama is ‘above’ negativity.
Additionally, I doubt that this is just an innocent report; this is an orchestrated attempt to scare off potential candidates that can pounce Obama.
nfgo3,
Did he hire the Clinton aides who theorized that Obama was born in Kenya?
Dave,
Would you care to flesh out your theory here? Christie knows that if he runs Obama will do oppo research on him, like every campaign does, so this story isn’t going to scare anyone (nor do I think the Obama campaign starts many orchestrated campaigns with leaks to the New York Post of all papers). The only person who benefits from this story is Christie, because it makes it look like he’s the candidate Obama is really scared of. I’d think a political analyst as esteemed as you are would get that.
What’s the worst that they can find?
Its not like Christie was born in Kenya, is a Muslim, or that he attended a Church who’s pastor is one of the biggest anti American racist and antisemitic pastors in the USA!!
mosheemes,
What you’re saying is totally true. This report is in Christie’s favor and it keeps him in the spotlight.
However, my theory isn’t simply based on Christie and this report. The Obama Administration, the DNC, along with the ‘mainstream media,’ have begun a new strategy (they said it themselves!). They are meddling in the internal GOP primary to fend off strong candidates. This is why Obama and the Dems are ‘praising’ RomneyCare, highlighting Pawlenty’s Cap & Trade position and ‘thanking’ Huntsman. Why would a sitting president with no primary opponent spend money on a candidate who ‘might’ enter the race and ‘might’ become the eventual nominee? Why would they waste money months before an election on a man who closed the good on a run? Ever heard of the Clinton Machine?!
Negativity can stop a candidate. The public may rally around the candidate because of the cheap attacks and it helps them fundraise, but it’s something that candidates must consider. They also have to know the magnitude of negativity that will be coming at them. In this election cycle, far too many candidates have declined to run after having fire in the belly; it was because of the negativity in the press. They, of course, knew that they would be in the spotlight, but they didn’t know to what extent and that it would begin even before they announced!
mida k’neged mida
Dave, there hasn’t been any negativity yet. If there’s an orchestrated campaign to create negativity about Christie (as opposed to just standard opposition research) wouldn’t they do that instead of releasing information about their intent to do that some time in the future if he becomes a candidate and they find stuff?
I’m also not clear on what the distinction your drawing between “meddling in the internal GOP primary” and running for president is. Does Obama need to wait until there’s a nominee before he starts to paint him as a waffling hypocrite? Why?
There’s really no reason to be outraged. Digging up dirt on opposing candidates has been a campaign strategy since the early 1900s.
This is nothing new, I assure you.
No. 5: I think the Clinton aides who cooked up the Obama-born-in-Kenya story are considered too wimpy for the devious Obama. After all, the Clinton folks dropped their pursuit of the issue when Obama produced his Hawaiin birth certificate in 2008. They even settled for the short form.
I think for the Christie-born-in-a-Naples-bakery story, they need the people Donald Trump had looking into Obama’s birth certificate a month ago. As I recall, Mr. T said they were finding unbelievable things. Maybe that was the problem – they found only things that were not believable.