Yes, This Can All Be Explained Like This . . .

OK, so let's talk about it and do a bit of a day-after review.

What happened here is that the people of New Jersey came to feel like someone who'd been through a whirlwind romance only to be jilted in the end.
New Jerseyans don't fall in love easily. Ya see, they're too cynical for that -- or maybe too wise to the ways of the world. Either way, they're relentlessly skeptical. They've had to be just to survive.
But they fell for Chris Christie. And they fell hard. He made them feel validated, cutting-edge, even famous and admired.

It was heady stuff.

But then they came to feel that Christie let them down. Even though he explained the GW Bridge fiasco every which way but Sunday and answered every possible question and survived a through investigation, people just didn't like the way it smelled. It seemed too much like the old politics that Christie decried -- the politics that he had people believing he wasn't a part of. And the media egged people on, churning the pot as they always do.

And then Christie still insisted on running for president. Yes, just a few years earlier New Jerseyans seemed honored and flattered that their governor was considered a leading contender for the highest office in the land. But now, after the bridge imbroglio, people expected some remorse, some evidence of contrition from Christie and they just weren't seeing it. At the very least, this irritated them and made them feel somewhat used.

And then came that horrid scene on the beach with the sagging thighs, draped torso and seemingly indifferent attitude. That was sort of the ultimate meme.

And the people saw all this and they'd pretty much had enough. It wasn't really about substance. It wasn't about policy. In the end, as it usually is these days, it was about style, about image, about optics. And since people couldn't vote against Chris Christie they voted solidly against his Lieutenant Governor, Kim Guadagno. All things considered, it's amazing that Guadagno captured nine of New Jersey's 21 counties an 42 percent of the vote.

But the bottom line was that Guadagno was an easy target and she really never had a fighting chance. So, maybe the GOP should have thought about all this and chosen one of her primary opponents. That arguably would have been a clean break from the past and might have improved prospects. But this was a long shot, no matter.

A few things to consider during the hangover:

• No one has been better at courting the media than Chris Christie. But the media love to build you up, only to tear you down -- especially if you're a Republican. Christie knew this and understood this. He played a high stakes game. He walked into the lion's den, seemingly tamed the lions, charmed the audience and elevated expectations. But the lions were always watching and waiting and the longer it went on, the more ferocious their comeuppance would be.
• Christie actually has a big and impressive record of accomplishment. He's been a dynamic leader and a consequential governor who has chalked up a very positive record overall. Unfortunately, he'll get little credit for this in the current environment. But time is likely to be very kind to him. He understands this and he'll be fine.
• Two-term GOP governors in New Jersey are succeeded by Democrat governors. That's just the way it's been since the modern New Jersey constitution was adopted in 1947, giving governors four-year terms.
• For 40 years no Democrat governor of New Jersey has been elected to a second term.
• Since 1947, New Jersey has pretty much switched back and forth between Democrat and Republican governors. The only break in that pattern occurred from 1954 to 1970 when Democrats held the office for 16 years.
• New Jersey remains a very blue state. It's liberal and is disinclined to vote for GOP presidential or senatorial candidates.