Boastful and Unabashed, Christie Gives Final State of the State Address

I have lived in NJ all my life. Governor Christie was not the evil, self-centered person your Digital reporter reported. He did what was required to try to keep our tax rate as low as possible and sometimes it took a lot of patience to offset the constant criticism from the unions. newspapers and Democrats. The bridge issue resulted in a traffic jam, but no one died or was injured as a result. It's often a daily occurrence. The journalist Corasaniti declared that NJ's unemployment was a poor 4.9 percent vs. USA 4.1. NYS unemployment was 4.8 percent in 2017, hardly better than NJ,

Hit the road!

Mr. Christie probably would have made a decent governor, he is smart and politically is more of an old-style Republican who understands the need for effective government. He worked with Obama after Sandy and was dedicated to ending the heroin epidemic. His corruption was probably no worse than Cuomo's and a host of other politicians, though the private prison thing was a big strike against and of course his abandoning of NJ while seeking the presidency and kowtowing to Trump was inexcusable. And too bad he resorted to being a bully. I also believe he was not helped by how he looks. People will gang up on overweight people, once they have an excuse; it's a kind of prejudice. Just think of the widely distributed photo of his family on the beach. Given "permission" by Christie's unpopularity, people didn't hesitate ridiculing his "fat thighs". Maybe the whole bully thing was a kind of defensiveness.

Not one word about his biggest, despicable action? No mention of Bridgegate, which was a travesty put on the shoulders of commuters for days, put people with health issues in danger, not to mention ruin the lives of two of his staff members, one of which was a single mother. Did the thug, at least, pardon them before he rolled out the door? Incomplete reporting.

Weep for New Jersey and what might have been: a nearly completed ARC tunnel for one thing.

Reviled by his constituents is as kind as one can be to this bag of wind. It takes a special sort of inane hubris to waste 90 minutes of a legislatures time.

I guess he never did get to the bottom of bridgegate as he promised he would do.

Good riddance. Maybe now the tunnel construction can begin. Would have been completed by now if not for this useless blowhard.

Hang on to your wallets New Jersey! Big man Murph is comin' to town, with grand and expensive plans. In 2 years you'll wish you had Christie back, because he's had his finger in the dike for the last 8 years. Hang on! JimF from Sewell

Hmmm... No mention of Fort Lee, nor of indicted senior officials. Odd.

Christie is a boastful bully, as self-centered as Trump except for a few more neurons to recognize his own bluff. Good riddance. New Jersey deserves better, no question about that.

Gone and immediately forgotten, a blowhard with a style and lack of substance right out of the Trump playbook.

Christie was a terrible governor, who did terrible policies and New Jersey stumbled along for 8yrs...the last year and a half of his governorship he was barely around as he crossed the country humping for Donald Trump after he gave up his own Presidential hopes. Christie is not a nice person, and I believe that was evident in his ungracious speech, dumping on his predecessors and being condescending toward the new governor. Over the years I have worked in a position where I meet and get to know the New Jersey governors ....Christie has been one of the worse. He earned the distain of the New Jersey voters by being arrogant, nasty and self serving...he will not be missed.

Christie got a bad rap because he took on the Unions and had the nerve to ask teachers to contribute to their own health care. There are old people in this state who have to give up the houses their great grandparents were born in because they can't afford the ever rising property taxes. Christie at least tried to rein in the some of the spending. The last thing NJ taxpayers need to pay for is a redundant rail tunnel and cancelling it was probably the best move he ever did. Even with Federal and State Funding, NJ Transit is still highly dysfunctional. It has not the equipment nor capability to fully utilize the tracks that are already there. (Amtrak is partially to blame for this also) Let's hope Mr. Murphy will also show some financial restraint as well.

Mr. Christie, Now that your Republican buddies in Washington have backed off a "commitment" to fund a new tunnel into New York do you finally see the error of your ways. You sold out the East Coast for your dream of being President and so you aligned yourself with the likes of Sarah Palin. Now that New Jersey is going to be wrecked with elimination of the SALT deduction, and a failure of public transportation, your speech yesterday should have been a mea culpa followed by a long apology. No use ignoring the tunnel issue. It's what many will remember you for doing. You have been a bridge to nowhere.

“I ran to be different,” he said. “I ran to speak bluntly. I ran to shine lights on all of New Jersey’s real problems.” Chris Christie Well done, Christie. You indeed shone lights on New Jersey's real problems, and you were state's number one problem from cancelling the Gateway project, through Bridgegate, to camping for almost a year in New Hampshire in preparation for presidential run, only to be followed by sitting on Trump's transition team. The last two activities were taking place while New Jersey taxpayers were paying your salary, in addition to millions of dollars that went into the wallets of your private lawyers concluding that there was no collusion between you and Bridgegate. The New Jersey voters couldn't be more happy that their real number problem is no more.

History will not be kind to Christie. Nor should it be.

can he just fade away into well-deserved obscurity

He and Trump have one thing in common: loudmouth liars and bullies when it comes to politics. And let's not forget that one reason the railways are the way they are in this area are due to Christie's decision not to go forward with the project once he became governor of New Jersey.