Jim VandeHei sees dead people. On today's Morning Joe, the Politico honcho agreed with Joe Scarborough's suggestion that Chris Christie is like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense: [politically] dead but doesn't know it.
Ironically, Scarborough distanced himself from his own suggestion, twice saying that he didn't believe it. But when he asked his guest if the characterization was fair, Vandehei replied "I think it is. At best he's a live man stumbling."
Scarborough said "you talk to people in the Republican party and they say Chris Christie is already politically dead. . . . Since everybody is saying this off camera, let's talk about it on camera."
Note: Almost a year ago, Chuck Todd declared that Christie was "over" and didn't even belong in the 2016 conversation. But that was during the height of the media's Bridgegate furor. For VandeHei to be saying something similar now that the matter has largely fizzled is noteworthy.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You've got Chris Christie, he's going to be headlining an event in Iowa this weekend that both Jeb and Mitt are not going to because its host Steve King is seen as kind of toxic by the Republican establishment. But in Chris Christie, is the Iowa congressman getting a candidate who is a political equivalent of what Bruce Willis was like in The Sixth Sense: a man who is dead but who doesn't know it yet? Jim Vandehei: is that a little harsh?
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: What??
SCARBOROUSH: Is this guy -- because Jim, that's what this show is about. I don't think that's the case. But you talk to people in the Republican party and they say Chris Christie is already politically dead. That this is for his ego or this is for some other reason.
BRZEZINSKI: Or he still believes it.
SCARBOROUGH: Since everybody is saying this off-camera, let's talk about it on camera. I don't believe it. But that's what the establishment types are saying. Is that fair?
JIM VANDEHEI: I think it is. At best he's a live man stumbling. If you look at the finances of his state, if you look at his poll Numbers, and if you look at those donors who used to be so attracted to him I think they find Jeb Bush much more attractive right now. So it's hard to see where his opening is. The Steve King crowd isn't going to love Chris Christie. He's too moderate for them. And I think for moderates, there's going to be other choices that they prefer, namely Jeb Bush who looks like he's definitely in.
