JERSEY DAY ON THE STUMP – AT 8:57 A.M. ET:  We reported over the weekend that Marco Rubio seemed to be auditioning for the role of v.p.  He was out campaigning, and slamming Obama eloquently.

Not to be outdone, another guy mentioned often for v.p. by the Great Mentioner, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, was out and about, and mouthing off about Obama pretty well, in Christie style:

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told Kentucky Republicans on Saturday that President Barack Obama was “posing and preening” instead of working to resolve pressing issues facing the country.

“He is the most ill-prepared person to assume the presidency in my lifetime,” Christie told some 600 Kentucky Republicans at a Lexington hotel. “This is a guy who literally is walking around in a dark room trying to find the light switch of leadership.”

Christie was in Kentucky to deliver a pep talk to state GOP leaders. The state’s presidential primary is Tuesday, though it will have no significant impact. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

In his remarks, Christie focused entirely on the general election, drawing a standing ovation for his biting remarks about Obama.

“He has sat in the Oval Office and cared more about posing and preening and making partisan politics the rule of the day in Washington D.C. than he’s cared about progress,” the New Jersey Republican, now in his third year in office, said of Obama.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who invited Christie to Kentucky, called him “the perfect conservative messenger to inspire and energize Kentuckians” to help defeat Obama this fall.

Christie wasn't the only Jerseyite on the attack this weekend, but the other one is surprising.  Mayor Cory Booker of Newark is a really good guy with obvious state and national ambitions.  He's black, a Democrat, and ostensibly an ally of President Obama.  But he didn't sound much like an ally this weekend, and his comments are all over the internet this morning:

Newark Mayor Cory Booker credited Bain Capital with growing businesses and said attacks on private equity must stop, during “Meet the Press” Sunday.

"As far as that stuff, I have to say from a very personal level, I’m not about to sit here and indict private equity. It’s—to me, we’re just getting to a ridiculous point in America. Especially, I know, I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, they’ve done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses."

COMMENT:  Defending Bain Capital, which was headed by Mitt Romney, is not generally what Democrats do.  Maybe Booker, a very bright guy, sees the future and realizes that the old anti-business ways of the 1960s Democrats aren't part of that future.  I suspect Booker will get a phone call and warned not to stray from the party line, but he's shown independence before and is showing it now, in the face of a black president.  Keep an eye on Cory Booker.

May 21, 2012