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Chris Christie smacks down heckler | The Upshot Yahoo! News - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100924/el_yblog_upshot/chris-christie-smacks-down-heckler;_ylt=AtkTg.5DlgtJmjNrSiVkMwKs0NUE;_ylu=X3o DMTFpb21qZmVwBHBvcwMzOARzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX21vc3Rfc G9wdWxhcgRzbGsDY2hyaXNjaHJpc3Rp - broken link)
I think that his lecture just gave free publicity to the fact that candidate Meg Whitman refuses to answer any questions from her audiences.
I miss the days when politicians would actually take questions from common American citizens. Every politician makes "canned" statements and plays it safe.
I recall a situation once where candidate Pres Jimmy Carter came to Corpus Christi, Tex in 1980. I think that it was probably the first year that I can remember where an actual Presidential candidate came to our humble city. Before then, we only received the First Ladies or V-P.
Pres Carter took unscreened questions from students at a local Catholic high school. The student asked him why his parents should have to pay taxes when they were paying full tuition at a private school. The Pres hesitated (too long in the opinions of most people) and then said that he "wanted to make sure that public schools were available in case he couldn't go a private school" or something like that. that kid was known as the kid that stumped a President!
But at least, the President nor his staff pre-screened the questions like they do now. I respect President Carter for that.
I hate those who yell when someone is making a speech. Christie lowered his voice as soon as the guy settled down. RESPECTFUL asking is one thing, yelling to shut down a speaker is something else. Good for Christie.
"You want to yell? Yell at me, but don't give her a hard time," Christie said into his microphone. But Christie didn't stop there: "It's people who raise their voices and yell and scream like you that are dividing this country," he said. "We're here to bring this country together, not divide it." The audience roared with cheers and applause."
After the despicable display of loud interruptions at town hall meetings all over the country when we were trying to have reasonable discussions about health care reform, all I can say is, he's got a lot of effing nerve!
For crying out loud, in some cases the police had to be called!
I too long for the days when there were no 'canned' questions and 'canned' responses; no pre-screening of questions. I couldn't care lesshow long President Carter took to formulate an answer...that is typical of thoughtful, introverted people who think before they speak. You couldn't get a snappy sound-bite from him if your life depended on it.
Every single politician on the scene now, from Palin with her dodging questions, refusing to be interviewed by a non-adoring reporter to someone on the other extreme doing the same thing (pre-screening questions, etc.) is on the same level as I'm concerned. Useless.
Just look at the shouting on this forum if one posts a differing opinion - it's an all out attack, insults and a concerted effort to complain to the Mods.
Yes, I miss the days when we could have civil discussion and be civil to one another without insulting others' beliefs.
Christie? Specific to this incident, I say good for him. Very Jersey!
EDIT: Never underestimate the impact of an audience plant. I wouldn't put it past politicians/opposing parties to do that.
'Most of us...'? Got something to back that up? My take is that the guy's pretty popular with New Jerseyans (teachers' union excepted.)
The majority of people I know in NJ (my family still lives there, and a lot of my friends) are not fans of Christie. They think he just blows a lot of hot air to get airtime rather then coming up with good solutions for the problems facing the state. His approval ratings according to the local papers, have been right around 42%ish for a while.
Seems like the majority of people who like him are from out of State.
BTW, if you are not using Christie in NJ, can we borrow him in IL? We seem to have bad luck with governors....
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