Can Christie Recover?

First Read: “But it’s also important to emphasize that we don’t know what this will ultimately mean for Christie’s White House ambitions. After all, we’ve seen plenty of successful politicians survive scandals and controversies — Gennifer Flowers for Bill Clinton. Tony Rezko and Jeremiah Wright for Barack Obama. But make no mistake: This is a serious story for Christie. By the way, if you are on Team Christie right now, you should know, plenty of folks will now be looking at other interactions between the Christie administration and local officials. If mayors were punished for not supporting Christie in his landslide bid for re-election, what did mayors get who DID endorse? The point is — everything Christie did and does locally will be viewed through a different prism now and with more suspicion. If this controversy has done one thing, it’s cost Christie that ‘benefit of the doubt’ aspect politicians need sometimes to weather controversies.”