Chris Christie Isn't Much of a Star

The establishment media may love him, but apparently the people of New Jersey don't.

The polls, from Quinnipiac and Rutgers-Eagleton, show Christie's approval rating in New Jersey slipping a bit, with significant majorities skeptical that he'd make a good president or vice-president. The polling shows that Christie is one of the most polarizing governors in recent New Jersey history, with more voters holding both a very favorable view of him and an extremely negative view.

The slippage comes as his national profile continues to rise (his "60 Minutes" interview the latest in the media blitz), and as he's taken on the state Supreme Court for being excessively liberal.

The Quinnipiac survey shows Christie with a 46 percent job approval rating, with 44 percent disapproving. That's down from his 51 percent approval rating last month. He also now holds a net negative rating on education, with 45 percent approving and 49 percent disapproving of his reform efforts, taking on the teachers' unions and educational establishment in the process.

For the first time in many months, Obama's approval rating has inched ahead of Christie's. The president's approval in New Jersey is now at 50 percent, up four points from last month - and the first time he's gotten majority approval since June.

The Rutgers poll found 39 percent giving Christie positive ratings, with 54 percent rating him negatively. The 28 percent of voters who consider his job performance "poor" is the second-highest for any first-year governor in the history of the poll.

Ezra Klein says that Chris Christie has a "Pepsi problem" -- that is while voters may like him in small tastes, they don't particularly like him when they see more of his schtick.

I think that's right, but it also misses something: Policy matters, too, not just style. Christie presided over an administration that made a mistake costing his state $400 million in federal education money. He has taken further steps to reject federal dollars in a way that killed tens of thousands of jobs. Those aren't popular steps. Those are the types of steps that lead to a politician earning negative ratings.