The world may or may not have closure on the IRS' targeting of Conservative groups (it doesn't), but by the time the media is finished with Chris Christie, he will be too. Case in point: today's report from the Hill [3]that as a result of Bridgegate, the New Jersey Govenor has seen his popularity plummet in a head-to-head match-up against Hillary Clinton, based on a new Quinnipiac poll. "Christie dropped 9 percentage points in the poll, and now trails Clinton 46 percent to 38 percent in a potential general election matchup. That reverses a December poll that showed Christie leading Clinton 42 percent to 41 percent."
Where Christie suffered the biggest loss is the one constituency that would be critical if the governor is to be successful in the 2016 elections against Hiillary: independents.
The biggest turnaround comes from independent voters. Christie bested Clinton among independents by 15 percentage points in December. Now he trails her by 1 percentage point.
The amount of voters who believe Christie would make a good president has also dropped by 14 points in a month. Thirty-five percent of people think he would make a good president — down from 49 percent in December.
Thirty-six percent of voters think he would not make a good president, up from 31 percent last month.
Within the GOP, Christie's status remains stable, where he ranks in third place with 12% of the vote, behind Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the same as last month.
However, the damage may be worse. As was made abundantly clear over the weekend, the mayor of Hoboken, N.J. Dawn Zimmer, accused Christie’s administration of threatening to hold up Hurricane Sandy relief funds, unless a private development was approved. This despite her tweet from just this very August saying that "I am very glad Governor Christie has been our (governor)."
Since the Qunnipiac poll was conducted before those allegations were made, the ultimate damage for Christie may be far greater... Or far less, depending if independents see Democrats as now piling in indiscriminately (including, somehow, Olympic sprinter Carl Lewis [4]).
That said, all of this is nothing but entertaining fodder for easily-distracted masses. For those curious about the "important" people, we direct your attention to Davos where those who really matter are situated. That said, good luck getting within 500 meters without the proper, very expensive accreditation confirming one is a sycophant member of the fawning, "access-starved" media, or a bulletproof vest...