(by Marissa Babin)

I continue to be baffled by all the love New Jersey’s Republican governor Chris Christie’s getting among the chattering class. Here’s a typically fawning piece about his speech at AEI yesterday.

The speech was titled “It’s Time to do the Big Things,” and Christie suggested the items that Obama called for as “investments” in his State of the Union address were “not the big things” that need Washington’s focus.

“Ladies and gentlemen, that is the candy of American politics,” Christie declared, adding that it appeared to be a “political strategy” – or game of budgetary chicken – that both Republicans and Democrats are playing.

“My children’s future and your children’s future is more important than some political strategy,” he said.

“Big things” to Christie simply means less money for old people, children, and the poor.

See, like Christie, I too am concerned about my children’s future, but I don’t happen to think slashing public education budgets is the way to make them brighter. I don’t believe that consigning them to fossil-fuel burning automobiles is a particularly effective way to ensure a better future for them either — especially while simultaneously cutting taxes for millionaires.

Aside from the fact that he’s a rather large Irish-Italian man, and has a knack for the bullying soundbite, I see nothing at all unique about Christie.

Am I missing something?