DO YOU REALLY THINK CHRIS CHRISTIE IS MORE ABRASIVE THAN...?

I don't know if Chris Christie's post-Sandy coziness with President Obama or his occasionally deviations from right-wing orthodoxy (like not thinking all Muslims are subhuman) will be enough to prevent him from winning the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. I think it's quite possible that Republican voters will reject him.

However, I keep reading that Christie might lose the nomination because he's too East Coast, too New Jersey, too abrasive. I keep reading that Christie's Jersey mouthiness plays well in the Northeast, but it's not going to play well in the heartland, or the South, where the Republican base mostly resides.

I would remind you that the Republican base's favorite TV talk show host is this guy, from Long Island:





And that the second-biggest star on Fox over the years has been this guy, also from Long Island:





And that the #4 right-wing radio talker in America, behind Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, and Glenn Beck, is this guy, who was born in the Bronx:





And that the #5 right-wing radio talker is this guy, who was born not far from the Jersey border in Philadelphia, and grew up in the Philly suburbs:





You really think the GOP base doesn't respond well to abrasiveness? The GOP base structures its day around abrasiveness. The base spends all its waking hours watching or listening to one abrasive radio or TV host after another, many of them from the Northeast. Chris Christie is just more of the same.