Signs and Wonders: Christie finished with Obama love fest

Christie ditches Obama. Much has been made of the relationship between New Jersey’s Republican Gov. Chris Christie and President Barack Obama, especially in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. Some said their cozy relationship was a sign of Christie’s ability to work across party lines. Others said it was a sign that he wasn’t all that conservative after all. Christie, facing re-election this fall, is now distancing himself from the president: “I don’t want him to be president,” Christie said. He also said Obama “can’t figure out how to lead” and was more wrapped up in ideology than “getting things done,” Christie said over the weekend.

Climate change. Last week, President Obama announced a new commitment to ending global warming. As I’ve pointed out several times in this space, planet Earth is a living system that heats up and cools constantly. It is possible that we are in a period of warming. Indeed we have had several periods of warming and cooling in the recent past. The real question is this: How should we react to the inevitable heating and cooling of the planet? That’s why I was particularly interested in Cal Beisner’s interview with the Family Research Council’s radio show Washington Watch. Beisner says that if the U.S. could magically and immediately cut its carbon dioxide emissions to zero, the world’s temperature would drop so little as to be barely measurable. But the cost of President Obama’s plan, according to Beisner, is enormous. He estimates the president’s plan will cost 500,000 jobs, $1,000 per American family per year. It will produce a 20 percent increase in electricity costs and a 43 percent increase in natural gas prices.

America’s defining moment. This week marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the defining moment in the war that was the defining experience for our nation. President Dwight Eisenhower was so fascinated by the battle that in retirement he moved to a farm adjacent to the battlefield. In more recent pop culture, the movie Remember The Titans has a pivotal scene set on the battlefield. Today, more than 15,000 re-enactors will portray the defining moment of that battle: Pickett’s Charge. It’s a moment that Faulkner captured—famously, movingly—in his novel Intruder in the Dust, a passage I commend to your hearing. (Check back tomorrow for Edward Lee Pitts’ account of the reenactment.)