BFFs

The skinny black intellectual from Chicago and the big white guy from Jersey make quite a pair.  Who could have predicted the unlikely camaraderie that has developed between Barack Obama and Chris Christie?  Just last week the Governor trashed the President here in the south, in both North Carolina and Virginia.  Now he's Barack Obama's best friend.

In a piercing New York Times column, "The 'I' of the Storm," Maureen Dowd explores the political advantages both men gain in their new relationship.  With biting wit she points to Governor Christie's presidential ambition as the driving force in his fawning praise of the President.  While her argument is compelling and astute, I suggest another less Machiavellian motive for Chris Christie.

The responsibility that governors must feel in these disasters has to be overwhelming.  To whom do they turn?  Other states may be in the same situation and, if not, they have their own problems.  Enter the federal government, whose role--as FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said yesterday morning on NPR--is to "support the states when the disaster exceeds their capabilities."

As Chris Christie is seeing first hand, the federal government offers a lift up to those in need, which is precisely the message President Obama has repeated throughout this presidential campaign.  Mitt Romney, on the other hand, would turn over many essential functions either to the states or to private enterprise.  A diminished FEMA, as Romney has endorsed, wouldn't have much to offer Chris Christie right now.

Best friends have a way of being there when you need them.  No wonder Chris Christie has a new BFF.