It doesn't matter whether someone is the CEO of a company, the captain of a ship, the general of an army, the mayor of a city, the governor of a state or the president of a country. A leader cannot be everywhere at once, and so, one of the most important qualities of leadership is the attitude and atmosphere that the leader imposes on those who comprise the leader's inner circle and everyone else on down to the lowly stockboy, soldier or garbage collector. Does the leader insist on his people acting maturely, professionally and selflessly — or petty, emotionally and selfishly?
Contrary to responsible government practice, New Jersey state officials did not notify local area officials, emergency services officers, and the general public of the upcoming lane closures. Christie's advisers and staff, including the governor's deputy chief of staff, press secretary, and campaign manager, as well as three of his senior appointees to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (which manages the bridge traffic), apparently attempted to cover up these actions and suppress disclosures. The lane closure delayed emergency services responses (which involved at least one death), disrupted schools by delaying the arrivals of students and teachers caught in the traffic jams, caused overall economic distress due to lost work and wages, and caused physical and emotional distress for drivers and riders who had to get up hours early and sit in traffic for hours in order to get to work or other obligations on time.
Several of Christie's appointees and aides later resigned or were forced out. David Wildstein, who directly ordered the traffic lanes closures, resigned, as did Bill Baroni, who told the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee that the closures had been for a traffic study after accused of violating protocols and trying to hide their plans for the lane closure. Christie himself fired his deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly, who had emailed Wildstein advising him that it was "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee". Christie also withdrew support for his former campaign manager Bill Stepien to become the state Republican Party chair.
I say that the fact that Gov Christie's underlings seemed to have orchestrated the Fort Lee lane closures for no legitimate reason has ruined his run for president whether or not he ordered them to do it, or he only learned about it from media sources after it was all said and done. Why?
I think it petty and farcical that Christie has now attacked David Wildstein by claiming that their high school social studies teacher had, back then, accused Wildstein of being deceptive. Additionally, back then, Christie wanted to bring a lawsuit in high school to prevent another student from transferring to Christie's school because the student would probably bump Christie from his position as catcher on the school's baseball team.
- He's the boss, and so, he's generally responsible for everything his administration does.
- He appointed these people, some he knew rather well, who apparently didn't know the serious problems that the lane closures would produce even if caused by a legitimate traffic study. That is, some sort of cabal "schizophrenia" (a disconnect from reality). And they thought they could get away with it.
- It seems that Christie's underlings thought that the lane closures would help him or please him.
- It gives the impression that Christie wanted the people and/or the government of Fort Lee to suffer — that is, it portrays Christie as petty, emotional and selfish.
- Christie cannot realistically defend his claim that he first learned about the lane closures from media sources after they had ended. That's somewhat like President Bush trying to claim that he first learned of the 9-11 attacks from watching the news the day after they occurred.
- If Christie first learned about the closures as he claimed, then it exposes a serious problem with the flow of information through his administration about disasters, whether natural or man-made.
The only way Christie will get to see the inside of the White House is on a public tour.