where the grassroots of the party are. so do you think really it s running on good governance or record, or that his record really is just not in line. i wonder if you could compare him to somebody like chris christie who seems to be getting momentum and also is running on a record. glad you brought up christie. but with regard to kasich and his record, i think you re right that he does not pass the ideological test of the republicans. in new hampshire, that doesn t seem to be kasich s problem. when he talks to people about expanding medicaid as part of the affordable care act while he s been governor of ohio, he s been able to talk voters through this sort of thing. and so i don t think it s risen to an ideological matter. for that matter, i would suggest that none of this is really about ideology. it s about attitude. and chris christie in a lot of ways is emblematic of that. we ve heard from christie is him
he wouldn t be very happy. he would have a lot to say. we re going to have a good conversation with reverend al and martin luther king iii later. joining us with the politico playbook john harris. good morning. lead story, good morning, the question are democrats missing an opportunity by giving the new jersey governor an easy road to re-election? yeah. there s this kind of interesting debate going on within democratic circles. some democrats who think the party s blowing an opportunity. there s no way governor christie on his current path will not roll to election with a big, big margin. but the fact is, some democrats think they could reduce that margin, basically rough up christie, raise his negatives, put a couple dents in his fender and he would be a less formidable candidate into 2016 when everybody thinks he s going to run for president. effectively the party s top strategist has decided that s money not well spent. giving christie a pass.
you know, it is it seems to me that it is recovering. people did not like that hug. i think maybe there were two hugs last fall between obama and christie. but christie is basically his connection with the base is about attitude and mindset. he s seen as a tough guy. he s seen as somebody that s willing to kind of offend liberal sensibilities, willing to break china, and that attitude that he conveyed is able to help him overcome what would be a lot of really difficult ideological problems for a conventional republican because of his views on certain issues. definitely to the left on some issues compared to the base. politico also reporting this morning how house republicans are planning to handle the anticipated fight over the debt ceiling. anything new on that one? basically it s groundhog day. we re going to have another version of this debt ceiling fight that s going to preoccupy the fall. john boehner got on a conference
not pumping money into new jersey to fund negative ads. who would be able to do that job, to rough christie up in this election and what would be the price to pay if it were unsuccessful? i mean, you know the democratic national committee could be spending diverting money there. the democratic governors association spending a little bit, not much. and basically they would run negative ads. they would fund an operation, come up with, you know, bruises in christie s record an then they would really promote those. people say we ve been hearing this guy is so great. i didn t know these other bad things about him. effectively they would be running a national campaign rather than a new jersey campaign. anyway, the smarter money says that s foolish. let republicans fight it out. christie versus paul fight and we don t need to get in the middle of it. john, what is the relationship at this point between christie and the base?