Christie can't regain people's trust unless he changes his personality and becomes a nice guy. Snort-- not likely

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The Three Mistakes That May Doom Chris Christie's Political Career
By Susan Adams, January 23, 2014

Paul Argenti is a pioneer of corporate communication. [snipped] Today he stopped by my office [snipped]

Though his specialty is business, I couldn’t resist asking Argenti about New Jersey Governor and would-be Republican presidential nominee Chris Christie and what is now being called Bridgegate, the September shutdown of two lanes of the George Washington Bridge, allegedly as retribution to Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, who had refused to endorse Christie’s re-election bid. After Christie held an hour-long press conference on January 8 and fired Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly, it looked like the scandal might simmer down—until the following week, when the mayor of Hoboken, Dawn Zimmer, met with investigators from the U. S. Attorney’s office and alleged that Christie’s lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, told her that Hoboken would not get promised Hurricane Sandy recovery funds unless Zimmer pledged to support a proposed real estate development.

Here are the three things Argenti says Governor Christie should have done to save his public career:

1. To borrow a phrase from Socrates, always endeavor to be what you desire to appear. Christie failed this test. “Governor Christie is a bully,” says Argenti. “One of the first rules of corporate communications is to stop doing bad things before they become problems.” While Christie still deserves a fair hearing, it seems clear that, at the very least, he set a tone where people on his staff felt like they could strong-arm mayors and interfere with traffic flow on the busiest bridge in the U.S. He wants people to think he’s not a bully, but he’s made that very hard.

2. When something bad happens, talk about it immediately. It took nearly four months after the lane closure  for Christie to hold a news conference, a rambling hour-long affair where he peppered his speech with phrases like, “mistakes were made,” and insisted his staff had lied to him, rather than accepting responsibility himself.


3. Admit that you made the mistake. “He should have come out and said, ‘I’m sorry this happened. I created the atmosphere where this occurred. I need to look within my soul and figure out how to change that. I’m very sorry.’”

Christie has tied himself into a knot that can’t be undone, says Argenti: “There’s absolutely no way he can regain trust unless he changes his personality. But that would make him a less interesting person. People like how he’s such a bombastic, hard-charging guy. He’d have to become a nice guy.”
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