“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”
So it’s therefore perversely appropriate, Save Jerseyans, to learn that New Jersey’s morbidly obese ex-Governor Chris Christie is the newest member of the Yale University faculty. His seminar offering? “How to Run a Political Campaign” for both undergraduate and graduate students at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs.
Here’s the official description for the single-credit course:
“Political campaigns in the 2020s are becoming more technology dependent, more confusing and difficult from a communications perspective and even more fraught with pitfalls and personal challenges. When deciding whether to run for any office all of these issues must be confronted in addition to the core considerations of issue positions, fundraising and the most important question of all: If I do win, what do I want to accomplish and what kind of leader do I want to be? This course examines all of these issues with direct input from professionals who have confronted all of these issues and more as candidates themselves and the professional practitioners who help them to victory at the local, state and national level.”
Christie’s expertise on the topic is… questionable.
His political career began with a brief stint as a Morris County freeholder before losing an Assembly primary and being run out of county politics – for a time – in the 1990s. Everyone hated his guts, and he flip-flopped more than a fish stranded on a dry dock. His first gubernatorial victory over Jon Corzine in 2009 was admittedly impressive, though using the U.S. Attorney’s office – won through family political donations and maneuvering – to prosecute his way to a public profile represented a path of dubious moral quality. But Chris Christie’s much-celebrated reelection win in 2013 was purely a product of Superstorm Sandy, deals cut with corrupt Democrat bosses, and the compromising of his alleged principles. With the benefit of hindsight, I’m not sure he ever had any core principles.
Most recently and infamously, the former Republican superstar got his sizable ass handed to him in two Republican presidential races: 2016 in 2024. He didn’t make it out of New Hampshire in 2016 despite going all-in there, and he didn’t even make it to New Hampshire in 2024 despite, once again, practically moving to the Granite State.
If this course turns out to be an overly-priced but nevertheless valuable cautionary tale? Illustrating vividly for future leaders what can – and will – happen if you sell your soul in pursuit of the highest office in the land? It could be a seminar for the ages. I’d audit it!
But accepting responsibility has never been Chris’s strong suit, so if I was a Yale student scanning the course catalog this week, I’d probably opt for that music history class instead of Chris Christie’s latest attempt to grift off of a self-serving reinvention of his tragic political career. There’s more truth in music than you should hope to find in this failed politician’s same old, tired tune.
