He thanked him for the help, but still said he was voting for Romney.

I saw Christie say what @Adirondackwannabe wrote above. Bloomberg came out in support of Obama.

The Romney campaign got pissy because Christie praised Obama’s storm response, but Christie never endorsed Obama.

Christie has been very supportive of the way the Obama has been handling Hurricane Sandy; however, he is still endorsing Romney. Here is one news story I just located that deals with this issue.

Christie did not endorse Obama explicitly, but he heaped a lot of praise on him for his Sandy response. There are some in the Republican Party who think Christie went way too far, and now, it seems, they may be vindicated, with this rumor that Christie endorsed Obama.

Another thing Christie did was refuse to share the stage with Romney in New Jersey on the last day of campaigning. There was going to be a rally near Trenton, and Romney wanted Christie to show up, but he refused. Again, many Republicans think this snub of Romney was going too far. They wonder if Christie really did not support Romney at the end.

Indeed, since Obama’s poll numbers started moving sharply up at the time of Sandy, there are some who are saying that if Romney loses, it is Christie’s fault for being so buddy buddy with Obama and so negative to Romney during the last few days.

I think there’s enough there to make you wonder. Does Christie really support Obama? Or is he just being pragmatic? He knows he needs a lot of help from the feds, and he knows that the polls are showing Obama as a prohibitive favorite, despite the closeness of the race. Maybe he’s thinking he better stay good with Obama because he wants to shake loose as much help as he can from FEMA.

Christie also knows that Romney is against FEMA. Romney does not believe in federal handouts for people who are hurting. Romney believes people should take care of their own. So he would not be a friend of New Jersey if he were in the White House.

@PhiNotPi thanks for the link. That makes his position very clear.

@wundayatta Do you actually think Obama, or any President from the opposing party, would retaliate against a state because the Governor didn’t support him?

@JLeslie Not retaliate. But ignore? Sure. I don’t think Bush took Louisiana seriously. And I don’t think any Republican takes FEMA seriously. It’s against their ideology to provide handouts to people who are hurting, whether they are hurting from a disaster or hurting from the economy.

Republicans believe they should help rich people because rich people create jobs, and that’s how you help people who are hurting. So they focus on giving handouts to the rich, not on helping the poor, directly. They don’t believe government is good at helping anyone. So it is an attitude of benign neglect, not retaliation. Although, I’m sure some people do experience it as retaliation.

@wundayatta Bush has stated his regret about not doing more for New Orleans initially. He believes he should have ignored the laws and gone in to help. But, I don’t think Bush ignored New Orleans because the Governor was a Democrat. I’ll go with there might be more efforts made in states where there is a comradary with the political officials there, but I think it is probably on some sort of subconscious unintentional level. I don’t think it is a rich and poor thing, although it might partly have to do with being able to personally identify with the situation or the individuals. I wonder how many people up north who were very affected by Sandy, who chose not to evacuate out of evacuation areas have been critical in the past about Floridians, Mississippians, and Louisanians (is that a word) when they did not evacuate? When they wanted to rebuild after the damage. Now they identify with people in the south who live on the shore more I am sure.

I’m not in favor of rebuilding down the shore. Neither was I in favor for New Orleans. I don’t think we should be living in places that are going to be hit over and over. We know we will have to rescue people again. We know more people will die. We know we will make huge efforts to save people and keep people safe and people will ignore it and get in trouble.

And then we will reach out and help them, only it won’t be good enough. People are never satisfied. FEMA is never good enough. And maybe Christie is making nice to Obama in order to see if it helps. Maybe it will help. Who can say?

Maybe Christie is shooting straight from the hip like always, answering hnestly. Or, maybe Christie wants to run for President in 4 years. I agree any and all possibilities are possible. My main point was a generalization that I don’t think any Democrat expects a Reublican to come out and say they support them, and that if they don’t they hold it against the other. The same goes in the reverse, no repiblican exects a Dem to verbally. Say theysupport them for the office they are running for. I wasn’t accusing you of not wanted to rebuild the shore or wanting to, just in case you misunderstood, my point with that was Bush may have been more likely to help in places where he identified with the people himself, so maybe you are right that he would help the rich first ina disaster, because he sees himself in them.

Maybe Christie is not quite as dumb as his neo-com clownery lets on. It must be obvious that someone who will gut FEMA ain’t doing New Jersey any favors. If it wasn’t obvious two weeks ago, it’s obvious today.

I think Christie wants the presidency in 4 years, so this election doesn’t mean that much to him. It’d be easier for him to get the Republican nomination if there’s not a Republican incumbent.

Also, I think since Christie has not taken the ATR Pledge, he is free to act in the true interest of his constituency.

Just saw Guliani on Fox say FEMA is not delivering in NJ and NY. That Obama’s visit more or less did not make a difference. It would be interesting to see Christie’s take on how things are really happening over there.

I just saw on TV New Jersey residents can request today to vote late, and Jersey won’t count all votes until Friday! I’m glad. I support that decision.

@mazingerz88 I saw Bloomberg a few days ago saying Obama had asked if they need more help, and Bloomberg said they have it under control. I was kind of pissed! My aunt still had no power, water, or heat. My sister was climbing 8 flights of stairs to make sure my aunt had water, and had to carry water nine flights for herself. If would have been nice to have the national guard bring supplies to those who are disabled, who can not get out to help themselves. It’s easy to get a list, my aunt gets help from an aide daily (who of course could not get to her for days) the agency can easily give a list to the government of their clients.

Pretty sure the national guard is about.

@bolwerk I didn’t mean they weren’t there, I meant it would have been nice to have even more help specifically helping the disabled.

@JLeslie: that wouldn’t be very ruggedly individualist. They should lift themselves up by the bootstraps, like a red state.

@bolwerk You mean my infirmed aunt should lift herself up? Or, the city/state? I know you are being sarcastic, but just wondering what you meant. NYC has done plenty to help themselves and each other during this time.

Hats off to Christie for openly thanking Obama for his help, and ignoring the current election.

I just saw they are calling Obama for New Jersey.