Christie’s ‘Bridgegate’ exposes poor leadership

Despite the recent discovery that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s staff intentionally caused traffic problems as a form of political revenge, the potential presidential candidate’s approval ratings went largely unchanged, according to the Huffington Post.

Wendy Fu | Daily Trojan

In fact, Gov. Christie’s approval rating only dropped by eight points amid the “Bridgegate” scandal, settling at approximately 55 percent. The polls show that this drop in popularity came from mostly democrats, with republicans remaining firmly in his corner.

Regardless of polling, Gov. Christie needs to close the book on this saga and provide answers to the public’s satisfaction.

Gov. Christie has a long history of being a “straight-talker.” He has long represented himself as a man who doesn’t trifle when it comes to his language or methods. When asked during the government shutdown what he would do if he were a senator at the time, Gov. Christie responded, “If I was in the Senate right now, I’d kill myself,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. That forthright persona has long lent Gov. Christie a air of trustworthiness, a sense that he is a man who does indeed rise up when the bell tolls. He comes across as the rare politician more concerned with the people who elected him last time rather than the hypothetical people who might elect him next time.

The problem with Gov. Christie’s long history of being a straight-talker, however, is that most of the narrative was built by him in the first place. It’s that old adage about how the truly talented don’t need to say how talented they are or the humble don’t need to walk around pointing out how humble they are. If Gov. Christie is so trustworthy, so unable to mince his words, why does he feel the need to constantly remind people how trustworthy he is?

Thus, the public is left with many different narratives — a media that is saying the story isn’t over so we’ll keep watching their stations, a democratic party that alleges Gov. Christie knew about the bridge closure and Gov. Christie himself insisting that the decision was made without his knowledge. Yet unfortunately for Gov. Christie, it doesn’t really matter. Regardless of the answer, we’ve learned something about the governor, something that he can’t talk the public into unlearning.

If Gov. Christie did know about the bridge closing, there’s likely no coming back. If a governor who spends all his time talking about how he refuses to play politics is discovered to have played politics in a way that directly, and very negatively, impacted his citizens, he’ll lose all credibility going forward. It’s the kind of behavior that would be genuinely funny on the Sopranos — the kind of thing an audience would laugh about for its creativity in putting down someone who didn’t support you. The problem is that this isn’t a premium cable drama series. It’s hurting real people in a real way, even more so for those unlucky few whose emergency medical needs went unmet because of traffic. If Gov. Christie had a direct hand in that decision, he won’t just get criticism from the Democrats — he’ll get it from his own party.

In fact, the situation reflects negatively on Gov. Christie even if he didn’t know what his staffer was doing. Much of what people have criticized President Barack Obama for over the past five years is a perceived lack of control over his staff. With the president currently struggling to gain footing in his second term, no one is going to race to the polls to vote in another leader who can’t control his own employees.

Politics has to run like a ship — everything has to go through the captain or you get crew members doing conflicting things because they have conflicting ideas of how to best reach their next port. The fact of the matter is the crew hired to steer the ship. Politics is much the same. The public didn’t elect Gov. Christie’s staffers, nor President Obama’s for that matter, and we as a people haven’t given them the power to make final decisions. By and large, the people of New Jersey probably agree on what they want for their state, but the only man they have allowed to get them there from the captain’s seat is the Governor — not anyone he chooses to appoint.

Overall, no side of this looks good for the governor. Either he’s the captain purposefully steering his ship the wrong way to spite a crewmember refusing to fall in line, or the captain asleep at the wheel with a crew run amok. No matter what, Bridgegate looks like it could be a rocky ending for Gov. Christie.

Calum Hayes is a junior majoring in  broadcast and digital journalism and philosophy, politics and law.