The (sort of) redemption of Chris Christie

Let me tell you how I first came to know Chris Christie, because I think it tells you something about why he ran for president again and why he stayed in the race as long as he did.

In 2009, when Christie first ran for governor of New Jersey, I wrote a long magazine story about his opponent, the incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine. I was about as scathing toward Christie as I’d ever been to a politician. I mocked him for the vapidity of his agenda — he had none — and for trying to be all things to all people.

About a year later, at a meeting of Republican governors in San Diego, Christie invited me for coffee. This was unusual, a political figure reaching out after being pilloried in print, and I braced for unpleasantness. But Christie quoted my harshest words back to me with a chuckle and admitted I’d had a point. He asked me to come back to New Jersey and see what he was trying to do with the state’s dysfunctional budget, and so I did.