I cannot argue against anything you wrote. About candidates having to be telegenic..interesting that you mention Nixon later in your post. The first televised Pres. debate(I think) was between young handsome JFK...and Nixon who looked haggard by comparison. I remember decades later that John Kerry had plastic surgery after his looks becoming an issue on the Pres. campaign trail. Dissing overweight people is the LAST acceptable form of discrimination in this country, so it would have been an uphill battle for Christie, you're right about that. But he expertly made himself part of the joke and laughed at himself and diffused a lot of the negative comments. There's a clip of him on Letterman, where he surprises Dave by pulling a donut out of his pocket mid interview and biting it. What I found even more hilarious than the donut bit, was that Letterman.....who weighs maybe 160....was lecturing CC about health and weight loss, after he (Letterman) had double bypass surgery years ago.
And you're right..Christie is no more of a bully than any of the examples you've used....but besides his party affiliation..he comes across as a bully when he deals with the local media and citizens at press conferences and town hall meetings(with cameras rolling), so it's an easier sell.
He was actually a pretty effective governor....in spite of being a Republican in a traditionally Blue state. He cut through a lot of stalling and bs with the state senate.
Perhaps somebody taking blame wouldn't have made it go away, but the way it's been dragged out has definitely made it worse. Vox and Salon,etc have agendas...and they would have tried to either stoke that fire or some other story.
