Last night's Republican primary debate was a lot like Atlantic City: there were lots of sad white people making bad decisions and losing to Donald Trump.
Sure, Trump was his usual testy, bloviating self, and the man kicked off the night by betraying his own party and calling Rosie O'Donnell a "fat pig," but if you looked only at today's media coverage and the public's response, you'd think the Donald absolutely crushed it.
Yes, Trump thinks he won, and millions seem to agree, but there were nine other candidates on the dais with him last night, and several showed that they've got quite a bit of fight left in them.
One of the most memorable moments came when Governor Chris Christie squared off with Senator Rand Paul over the question of national security (clip above).
Paul is famously opposed to the NSA's collection of phone records, and Christie has gone so far as to say the laissez faire libertarian should be called before congress in the event of another terrorist attack.
Christie went into full-blown attack mode against Paul, accusing him of "blowing hot air" and musing about constitutional law while guys like Christie are out in the trenches fighting terrorists.
“I was appointed U.S. Attorney by President Bush on September 10th, 2001, and the world changed enormously the next day, and that happened in my state. This is not theoretical to me,” Christie said at one point.
It was a powerful indictment of politicians who can afford to be cavalier because they've never experienced the tragedy of a terrorist attack firsthand.
The only problem is that it's total BS.
According to both Wikipedia and his own website, Christie didn't take office as US Attorney for the District of New Jersey until 2012.
Naturally, the wounds of 9/11 were still fresh, and we have no doubt that Christie had a hand in dealing with the legal fallout, but claiming the attack took place on his first day in office is the sort of valor theft that cost Brian Williams his job.
Several media outlets have pointed out that Christie wasn't even nominated for the post until December of 2001.
You've gotta give the guy credit for thinking he could get away with such a colossal whopper on national TV (fill in joke about Christie and colossal Whoppers), and we'd rather hear him fabricate his past than listen to him lecture us about pulling out any day.
That said, lying about 9/11 heroism would be the sort of thing that bring a campaign to an abrupt halt...if everyone wasn't too busy gawking at Donald Trump to notice.
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