There was a time when I honestly thought that Chris Christie posed the most serious threat to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.  He’s smart, dynamic, and occupies the center better than the firebrand tea partiers.  He showed a willingness to be… uh… what’s the word…. reasonable.

But then two things happened:

(1)  Bridgegate

(2)  Hurricane Sandy

You would think that a major scandal like Bridgegate would have hurt Christie’s chances with the GOP.  After all, he was once their darling.  But nope.  What ruined Christie for the GOP was Hurricane Sandy and Christie’s behavior — he committed the unpardonable sin of not spitting on Obama.  Instead, as I wrote at the time, Christie did this:

Kudos to Republican governor Chris Christie.  “The president was great last night,” Christie said on FOX today. “He said he would get it done. At 2 a.m., I got a call fromFEMA to answer a couple of final questions and then he signed the declaration this morning. So I have to give the president great credit. He’s been on the phone with me three times in the last 24 hours. He’s been very attentive, and anything that I’ve asked for, he’s gotten to me. So, I thank the president publicly for that. He’s done — as far as I’m concerned — a great job for New Jersey.”

And THAT is what made him unpopular with the GOP.  Sad, really.

Anyway, Christie through his hat in the ring for the 2016 GOP nomination today.  He’s the 14th to declare.  And because he was nice to Obama back in October 2012, he’s dropped from a first tier to a third tier candidate.  And he was the only one I was worried about.