Christie stands up against Corzine's Personal Attack

John Hanlon | October 30, 2009 7:00 AM

Several weeks ago, I wrote about how New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine went extremely negative in a political ad that subtly attacked his Republican opponent's weight

. That advertisement deservedly received national attention. Now, it seems like Chris Christie, Corzine's opponent in next week's election, is appropriately standing up against this personal attack and challenging Corzine to "man up".

A recent CNN.com article noted that "Chris Christie wants Jon Corzine to 'man up' and come right out and say the New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate is fat." The article directly quoted Christie as saying on the Don Imus program that "If you're going to do it, at least man up and say I'm fat." According to the article, Christie also spoke out about Corzine's backtracking of the criticism in recent days, which was also reported on by CNN.com .

Although I wish Christie had come out this strongly against Corzine's personal attack earlier, I am glad that he has spoken up now against Corzine's attack and run campaign. Corzine has been gaining momentum in recent days and that might have been part of the reason why he felt free to distance himself from the negative ad his campaign ran. However, Corzine should not be able to distance himself so easily from an ad that his campaign put on the airwaves. Additionally,

as Politico.com recently pointed out, that advertisement is not the only time that Corzine or his campaign have hinted at the weight issue in this campaign.

In the previous blog I wrote about this ad, I included a quotation from a David Broder column on the subject that deserves repeating today. Broder wrote that "I very much fear that if Corzine pulls out a victory next month after trailing Christie for months in the polls, the precedent will be set for a really distasteful tactic -- the 'fat boy' ploy."

If Corzine is re-elected, which he may be, Broder's fear about such campaigns in the future could come true. Ironically enough, if Corzine squeks by with a victory, one of the people he can thank for his success is President Obama, who has campaigned for Corzine several times and who, less than thirteen months ago, was openly criticizing what he perceived to be personal attacks against himself on the campaign trail.