New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) will enjoy a very high-profile role at the Republican National Convention next week, delivering the keynote address. He’s very likely to use one of his favorite phrases, touting a “New Jersey comeback.”
I don’t doubt Christie’s remarks will be well received in Tampa, but his “comeback” story will be undercut by the fact that New Jersey’s unemployment rate has gone up since he took office, reaching a 35-year high, even as most of the country has seen improvements. The L.A. Times added that the governor “may not be an ideal keynote speaker.”
The latest Labor Department report, released Friday, shows that New Jersey’s unemployment rate climbed to 9.8% in July, the fourth-highest in the country…. The Garden State is also one of only two states, along with neighboring New York, to have hit a new high in unemployment in the past four years. Other have seen their unemployment rates drop, in some cases significantly, from the recent highs during the economic downturn that began in 2008. […]
New Jersey’s unemployment rate stood at 9.7% when Christie took office in January 2010.
The governor blames the problem on Democrats in the legislature. Funny, when President Obama points to Congress, Chris Christie calls it a failure of leadership and a hollow excuse.
Yesterday, the New Jersey governor also told reporters, “It’s really sad that you have elements of the media and Democrats that are rooting for failure. You’ve never seen the Democrats so excited as you saw them last week when unemployment went up.”
Christie is apparently unfamiliar with the Romney campaign and congressional Republicans. He added, “The numbers of jobs we create has nothing to do with the unemployment rate.” Maybe Obama should try that line and see what happens?
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