There’s an axiom in basketball that when you are playing against a gifted shot-blocker, the only effective strategy is to go right at him or her. Don’t shoot fade-aways; jump right into them.
Chris Christie is doing just that against Donald Trump as they both circle the 2024 race. Asked by Axios how he responded to an attack by Trump that Christie had left office with a single-digit approval rating, the former New Jersey governor said this: “I’m not gonna get into a back-and-forth with Donald Trump. But what I will say is this: When I ran for reelection in 2013, I got 60% of the vote. When he ran for reelection, he lost to Joe Biden.” Which, well, OK! Lest you think this was just a spontaneous line without a strategy behind it from Christie, I’d refer you to the speech he gave to a high-profile Republican Jewish Coalition crowd in Las Vegas over the weekend. “We can no longer talk about the past and the past elections — no matter where you stand on that issue, no matter where you stand, it is over,” Christie told the crowd, which was packed with major donors to conservative causes.
