Bruce Springsteen Isn't Going To Back Chris Christie's Presidential Run-- And Neither Will Wall Street

I was in the music business much of my life and I can tell you, everyone loves the fans-- the ones waiting on line to buy the records and tickets even before they're on sale, the ones who know more about the artists than the artists do, the ones who make the press realize that there's something going on out there they haven't tuned in to yet. But sometimes it gets a little too much and the difference between a fan and a stalker starts to blur... sometimes ominously. No one likes that. In the late 70s some friends and I had a small indie label in San Francisco, 415 Records. The bands appreciated their fans-- even groupies to some extent-- but I remember how they all used to complain to me about one pernicious groupie who just would not take no for an answer. She was a real little monster and although I was the president of the label, I also helped carry equipment top shows and I got assigned to keep the pernicious little monster out of the dressing room. I didn't know her or judge her or care one way or the other; I just followed orders. One night after a local Wire Train show at which I had told her she couldn't come backstage, I was awoken by an explosion outside my apartment on a busy Mission District street around 3AM. I went back to sleep. In the morning I went downstairs and saw that the explosion had been my car. Many years later, Courtney Love, drunk or stoned, blurted out that she had blown my car up... back when she was a pernicious little monster/groupie. Chris Christie's bizarre relationship with Bruce Springsteen reminds me of how Courtney was (pre-Kurt) back then. Christie's devotion to Springsteen is unrequited. He claims he's been to at least 129 Springsteen concerts and that he knows every word to every Springsteen song.

Christie, in the presence of Springsteen-- whom he would marry if he were gay and if gay people were allowed to marry in the state he governs-- loses himself. He is, as is well known, a very large man-- twice the width of Mitt Romney-- but he is a very large man who dances at Springsteen concerts in front of many thousands of people without giving a damn what they think.

...Despite heroic efforts by Christie, Springsteen, who is still a New Jersey resident, will not talk to him. They’ve met twice-- once on an airplane in 1999, and then at the 2010 ceremony inducting Danny DeVito into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, where they exchanged only formal pleasantries. (Christie does say that Springsteen was very kind to his children.) At concerts, even concerts in club-size venues-- the Stone Pony, in Asbury Park, most recently-- Springsteen won’t acknowledge the governor. When Christie leaves a Springsteen concert in a large arena, his state troopers move him to his motorcade through loading docks. He walks within feet of the stage, and of the dressing rooms. He’s never been invited to say hello. On occasion, he’ll make a public plea to Springsteen, as he did earlier this spring, when Christie asked him to play at a new casino in Atlantic City. “He says he’s for the revitalization of the Jersey Shore, so this seems obvious,” Christie told me. I asked him if he’s received a response to his request. “No, we got nothing back from them,” he said unhappily, “not even a ‘Fuck you.’”

...Christie isn’t surprised by Springsteen’s snub. He is, after all, a Republican, and Bruce Springsteen is known as an enemy of Republicans. Christie has cut taxes, demonized the teachers unions, and slashed spending on social services. Springsteen makes it clear he believes that the wealthy should pay to fix the tears in the social safety net... Though Springsteen studiously ignores Christie at shows, he has, on one occasion, let his feelings about the governor be known. In a letter to the Asbury Park Press published a year ago, Springsteen complained of state budget cuts that “are eating away at the lower edges of the middle class, not just those already classified as in poverty, and are likely to continue to get worse over the next few years.” He didn’t mention Christie by name, but the governor was the person doing the cutting.

The Boss isn't Christie's only unrequited love. So is Wall Street. Lately there have been rumblings about Christie taking money from hedge fund managers to whom he handed over the state's pension assets and from shady contractors who were doing business with the state. But-- despite pay-to-play prohibitions in New Jersey campaign finance law-- Christie, who doesn't believe there should be any regulations on how much a candidate can take in and from whom, has always managed to be on the receiving end of vast amounts of money from the bankster class. Last week, though, the Newark Star-Ledger opined that Wall Street isn't all that enamored of the bungling and über-incompetent loud-mouthed governor of New Jersey. Beyond the speculation that they might not finance his campaign for the presidency, no one likes to imagine someone who has been so disastrous for the New Jersey economy getting into the White House.

Here’s the latest word from Wall Street about the disastrous state of New Jersey’s budget crisis: It’s probably going to get worse.

New Jersey has the nation’s second-lowest bond rating, so let’s first pause and give thanks for the rank incompetence of the leaders of Illinois.

Still, we are the second-richest state in the country, so there is no excuse for this. And the latest report, from Fitch Ratings, warns that New Jersey’s credit rating is likely to drop again unless Gov. Chris Christie finds a way to stabilize the ship of state.

The fact that Christie is a leading candidate for president, despite this record, is enough to make your head explode. Granted, he is the best political performer on the scene today, in the same league as Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan.

But he’s been a mediocre governor, and that should matter. Job growth since he took office has been among the lowest in the country. Our credit rating has dropped eight times on his watch. And we are one of just three states that have seen more people fall into poverty than climb out.

There was great hope in 2011 when Christie signed a bipartisan pension and health reform. But as Fitch noted, Christie wrecked that when he broke his promise and skipped pension payments, just like his predecessors. In fact, while Gov. Jon Corzine underfunded the system by an average of $1.6 billion a year, Christie has underfunded it by $3 billion a year. He’s been twice as bad as Corzine.

Christie appointed a commission to study the pension problem. They will, no doubt, get the numbers right. But the difficulty is the politics, especially after Christie poisoned the well with his broken promise.

Wouldn’t it be nice if he would pay a visit to New Jersey once in a while and work on that?

Despite it all, the most current Quinnipiac poll of Republican voters, shows Christie still being taken seriously as a contender-- just behind Mitt Romney, who claims to not be running, and Jeb Bush, who only leads Christie by 3 points-- 11% to 8%. (Note: Christie is tied with Hate Talk Radio invention Ben Carson.)