A great communicator

We have hailed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in a series of posts titled “What price Christie?” The video below demonstrates that one element of his leadership is exemplary rhetorical skills. The guy is a great communicator. Is there anybody else like him on the Republican side? I don’t think anyone else comes close.
In the video below he is asked the question whether he is going to fire anyone because of a clerical error that resulted in the state’s forfeiture of several hundreds of millions of federal education dollars. At NRO’s Corner, Daniel Foster explains that the Obama administration disqualified the state of New Jersey from the federal funds “because some clerk in Trenton turned in the wrong excel spreadsheet.” Foster observes: “Democrats in Washington have already shown a willingness to withhold federal education dollars from states that don’t follow their preferred tactic for navigating the recession: giving teachers raises like it’s the Gay ’90s. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is more punishment for a state that committed the crime of balancing its budget.”
Foster suggests that the Obama administration has made a mistake here: “they’ve given Chris Christie an opening, a reason to take them on directly. And how does the old saying go? Never go up against a Sicilian, when political credibility is on the line?”
Watch Governor Christie explain what happened, allocate fault and respond to the reporter’s question regarding a possible firing below.

UPDATE: UPDATE: Christie has fired New Jersey Education Commissioner Bret Schundler over the issue addressed in the video. It appears that Christie had been misled by Schundler.