Your Morning Brief for July 1, 2015.

Jeff Zelevansky, Getty Images
Jeff Zelevansky, Getty Images
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Christie Is In

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced yesterday that he is indeed running for President. Christie was once considered a favorite in the Republican Party but since 2012 he has seen his popularity and poll numbers collapse. According to POLITICO, Christie on Tuesday sought to remind people what mad him popular.

“If we’re going to lead, we have to stop worrying about being loved and start worrying about being respected again. I’m not running for president of the United States as a surrogate for being elected prom king of America,” he said. “When I stand up on a stage like this in front of all of you there is one thing you will know for sure: I mean what I say and I say what I mean. And unlike some people who offer themselves for the presidency in 2016, you’re not going to have to wonder whether I can do it or not.”

The event was designed to showcase Christie’s unvarnished approach. He spoke without the help of a teleprompter, and frequently didn’t make use of the notes that were sitting on the podium. Throughout most of the 27-minute speech, he wandered the stage while his wife, Mary Pat, and four sons and daughters stood behind him.

Once considered a future Republican Party standard bearer, Christie has suffered a precipitous fall from grace. He was particularly damaged by revelations that in 2013 his top aides authorized the closing of lanes on the George Washington Bridge in retaliation against a local mayor who refused to endorse the governor’s reelection bid.

Christie didn’t make explicit mention of the scandal, which has overshadowed much of his second term and has diminished his standing in polls. But, he indirectly acknowledged his imperfections. “I don’t do something great every day. I’m human.” At another point, he said that, as a candidate, he might say things that could make “you cringe every once in a while.”

Christie enters the race as a decided underdog. In recent months, he’s been eclipsed in the polls by Republican rivals like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. While he didn’t mention any of his opponents by name, at times, he offered implicit contrasts with his opponents.

In a jab at Bush, Christie highlighted his blue-collar background, outlining his father’s time spent working at a Breyer’s ice cream plant. His parents, he said, “came from nothing, except for hard work.” The event, complete with rollicking Jon Bon Jovi music and introductory speeches from high school classmates, underscored the governor’s humble roots.

In a jab at Rubio, he said that the federal government had failed the country. “It’s the fault of our bickering leaders in Washington, D.C., who are no longer listening to us.”

Christie is about to embark on a campaign that will look nothing like the one he once envisioned. His advisers had once hoped to run an expansive state-by-state primary campaign. Now, he’s preparing a push that will largely focus on Northeastern states, where he has the most appeal.

Christie is a long shot and a candidate that no one seems to care about. If he had run in 2012, I think he could have done well against Mitt Romney but instead he sat it out. The Republican Party seems to have moved on, but that doesn't mean Christie can't do some damage early on.

Ted Cruz Unloads

Ted Cruz has a new book out and in it he not only takes on President Obama and the Democrats, but he also has a few things to say about his fellow Republicans. According to POLITICO, Cruz takes on Mitch McConnell and fellow candidate for President, Rand Paul

Cruz accuses McConnell and GOP leadership of maneuvering to dry up his fundraising and plant hit pieces in the press aimed at hurting him politically. He says GOP leaders cowered from joining him in big fights over the debt ceiling, Obamacare and gun control, accusing his colleagues of “mendacity” and capitulating to Democrats to avoid bad headlines.

He contends that McConnell misled him in vowing to stay out of primaries when Cruz accepted a senior-level position at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. And he accuses a GOP rival, Rand Paul of Kentucky, of parroting McConnell’s talking points by seeking to “undermine” his efforts to defund Obamacare during the 2013 fight that led to the government shutdown.

“During my time in the Senate, I’ve been amazed how many senators pose one way in public — as fiscal conservatives or staunch tea party supporters — and then in private do little or nothing to advance those principles,” Cruz writes in his 342-page book.

Disparaging Washington, of course, is one of the more timeworn campaign tactics of presidential hopefuls. What’s less typical is the personal, pointed way Cruz is doing it as his campaign ramps up. He’s leaning heavily into his brand of unapologetic and confrontational conservatism, arguing that GOP leadership’s compromises with Democrats are nothing more than “surrender.”

Yet presenting himself as a polarizing figure at war with the party establishment is a risky way to try to become the Republican presidential nominee. Plus, Republicans are beginning to undercut several of Cruz’s assertions, including over his role at the NRSC, which received a giant donation from the senator’s campaign committee last fall, despite his sharp criticism of the group in his book.

Vintage Ted Cruz, but I'm not sure how far he will get constantly criticizing the Republicans. Voters wants to hear some DC bashing, but they also want to hear ideas as well.

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