Top GOP 2016 Candidate Chris Christie Comes Out Swinging Against Same-Sex Marriage

Leading in the 2016 GOP presidential candidate polls, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has decided to embrace his inner far right wing conservative.

The GOP has been ignoring its greatest problem: views so out of date that Hillary Clinton would beat any GOP challenger for president by a large margin. Rather than attempt to counter that trend, Chris Christie, now leading in the polls despite “Bridgegate,” came out this weekend and in one fell swoop marked his territory in his likely 2016 campaign as one centered on opposing same-sex marriage and Obamacare.

Despite his decision to not appeal a court ruling that finally ushered same-sex marriage into the Garden State, Christie announced this weekend that the battle for marriage equality is not over — at least in his mind.

“I don’t think that there’s going to be some major referee who’s going to say now it’s time to stop,” said Christie, speaking at the National Governors Association in Tennessee on Saturday. “Certainly I’m not going to, because these are opinions that I feel strongly about…The country will resolve this over a period of time. But do I think it’s resolved now? No.”

But Christie seemed to be holding out for hope on derailing marriage in his home state.

“Absent a change in the legislature,” the New Jersey Governor who’s been impacted by the scandals in his administration told reporters, “I think at the moment it’s settled law in New Jersey.”

Writing at Salon today, Joan Walsh said Christie is “still hoping to hustle the loons in 2016.” She adds she doesn’t see “the religious fanatics who oppose marriage equality being satisfied with Christie’s ‘I didn’t fight it but you guys should’ answer. Sure, they’re aligned with anti-tax austerity fetishists in the GOP, but when it comes to gay marriage, they’re zealots, and conceding to the courts in the name of protecting tax dollars isn’t likely to win them over. But Christie’s going to try anyway. He doesn’t have another route to the nomination.”

Christie, meanwhile, at the same conference Saturday also announced that he believes Obamacare is a “failure on a whole number of levels” that Congress should “repeal.”

“But has to be repeal and replace with what. It can’t just be about repeal,” Christie said. “What I’ve said before is, what Republicans need to be doing is putting forth alternatives for what should be a better healthcare system.”

Meanwhile, in America, for years a strong majority of voters have supported same-sex marriage. Currently that number stands at 59 percent nationwide. 

And the majority of Americans want the Affordable Care Act to stay. A CNN poll from May finds “61% want Congress to leave the Affordable Care Act alone (12%) or make some changes to the law in an attempt to make it work better (49%).” 

If Christie wants to win the White House, he will first need to enter this decade — because despite the perception many have of the 51-year old two-term GOP governor, he is neither moderate nor bipartisan, nor living in this decade.

 

Image by Steve Fallon via Flickr