New Jerseyans Tiring of Christie's Schtick?

The latest polling seems to suggest as much:

New Jerseyans’ opinion of Gov. Chris Christie has dropped 10 points since December, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll made public Monday.

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Following his Feb. 22 budget speech, opinions of Christie are nearly evenly split with 46 percent holding a favorable impression and 44 percent holding an unfavorable view. The 46 percent is down from 56 percent in December.

“While some polls showed Governor Christie’s support increasing before the budget speech, reaction to the budget itself is mixed, which appears to be reflected in a decline in his post-speech favorability and job performance ratings,” Prof. David Redlawsk, the poll’s director, said.

The theory among some circles in Washington is that Chris Christie is extremely popular, and that Scott Walker's unpopularity in Wisconsin only makes Christie look even better by comparison. But both of these theories are wrong. Christie has never been overwhelmingly popular, with middling ratings that belie the type of positive coverage he receives from the establishment media. What is more, although Walker is clearly turning off voters both inside and outside of Wisconsin, he isn't providing a shift in the Overton window so much as he is providing voters with a warning of what is possible out of the highly ideological brand of Republicanism that has swept the nation in the Obama era. While many may be uncomfortable with some of the changes the President has ushered in, they are even more repulsed by what the GOP is offering as an alternative. As such, voters may actually be waking up -- thus the dipping numbers for the poster-boy of the movement, Chris Christie.