Christie: A Typical (Male) Politician

Governor Christie of New Jersey’s office has managed to lose his state $400 million in education funding because they filled in a form wrong. It was all part of Obama’s laudable “Race To The Top”, a competition to reward states with exemplary educational ideas and practice, in the hopes that other states will adopt similar practices.

Christie, in textbook political (and very typically male) fashion, has gone on the offensive and blamed Washington, not himself.

Oh please. If you are applying for $400 million and you’re in competition with other people, surely the onus is on you to make sure your application is correct? For $400 million believe you me, I’d be doubly, triply, checking the numbers. All the other States seemed to manage OK. Christie has complained that the application was 1000 pages long.

For $400 million I would hope it was 1000 pages long. $400,000 a page seems to me positively cheap.

Men. Just occasionally when you are in the wrong, admit you are wrong. An “I’m sorry” is not weak: it demands so much more of strength of character to say.