I agree with Matt Lewis <\/a>of the Daily Beast <\/a>when he credits Chris Christie<\/a> with having the best take on the current political moment \u2013 simply because he realizes it\u2019s a decision between \u201cTrump or not Trump<\/em><\/a>,\u201d and is acting on that assumption<\/em>.<\/p>\n But Christie also has the one talent anyone who wants to beat Trump must <\/em>have \u2013 an innate, Rickles-like ability to use one-liners to shoot him down. That factor has always seemed obvious to me. In fact it\u2019s only because of politicians like the hapless (and oblivious) Marco Rubio <\/a>that that strategy came to seem unworkable. But then again, Rubio\u2019s haplessness has become legendary, in part because it also helped give Christie his one shining moment of 2016, when it allowed him to single-handedly blast Rubio onto the trash heap of presidential history.<\/p>\n In some ways, that incident also helps illustrate the other reason Lewis cites for giving Christie a big fat leg up. He\u2019s entertaining. Which means Christie has more going for him than any candidate other than Trump. So why is he lagging in the polls? And why is he ultimately likely to fail to win the nomination?<\/p>\n Because he doesn\u2019t know how to truly connect with Trump voters.<\/p>\n Sure, he knows how to sling the one-liners, and in a way that anyone not named Donald Trump can appreciate. But in order for him to be successful, he will need to bring Trump country Republicans over to him. And he just doesn\u2019t seem to have the touch for that.<\/p>\n So who does?<\/p>\n Regrettably, no one to this point \u2013 at least not in the real world. And the only way to appreciate what I mean by that, is to listen to Charlie Wyatt, the former stand up comic in my novel The Contrarian Candidate<\/em><\/a>. And I\u2019m being serious here. Because it\u2019s impossible to understand what\u2019s truly missing, even from an otherwise talented politician like Chis Christie, unless you listen to someone who has what it takes \u2013 however fictional he may be.<\/p>\n And along with a political comedian\u2019s acerbic wit, Wyatt has the ability to connect with Trump\u2019s voters in a way that only someone who grew up in Trump country can. And sure, there are plenty of politicians who say that\u2019s where they\u2019re from. But few of them really seem to know how to connect with the people we\u2019re talking about here. And as David Books<\/a> of the New York Times <\/a>and others have pointed out<\/a>, that\u2019s because today\u2019s politicians seem to have grown up on the other side of the tracks from those folks, and then, as their lives (and careers outside politics) progressed, did whatever they could to drift further from them. And as a result, they just don\u2019t seem to know those folks; know how they think, know how they talk, know how they feel.<\/p>\n That takes someone like Wyatt, someone who can talk to them about anything from assault rifles to sexual abuse, with the kind of barroom banter they appreciate and understand \u2013 all the while empathizing, even sympathising, with their understanding of the world. And that allows Wyatt to show that he\u2019s one of them and knows where they\u2019re coming from \u2013 in part because he really comes from there too.<\/p>\n Christie will never have that kind of backhome touch. Which is why Trump voters will never really warm to him, the way they might to someone like Wyatt. Christie is too smart-mouthed-New Yorker for them, too sharp and edgy. Plus he\u2019s too well educated and willing to show it \u2013 unlike Trump who (despite his own assessment) seems too dumb to know anything about anything truly worth knowing.<\/p>\n All of which lines up very nicely with a line of attack Christie\u2019s very adept at using \u2013 a line of attack which is particularly effective against someone like Trump \u2013 showing what an ignorant, incompetent, loser Trump really is.<\/p>\n But most Trump supporters think he\u2019s smart \u2013 at least in a foggy and confused, what-did-he-just-say kind of way. And unfortunately Christie doesn\u2019t know how to campaign outside his attack mode in a way that allows him to appeal to voters who think and feel that way about Trump.<\/p>\n Plus they will always see Christie as a politician, since that\u2019s how they first met him \u2013 and as a politician they didn\u2019t particularly like. In fact he\u2019s one of the most disliked Republicans (at least among Republicans). Democrats and Independents like him better. But that\u2019s not exactly a winning profile for someone who\u2019s seeking the Republican nomination.<\/p>\n No doubt Christie\u2019s presence will weaken Trump to some extent. But who\u2019s he going to weaken Trump for \u2013 to who\u2019s benefit?<\/p>\n That\u2019s complicated by the fact that this race isn\u2019t about the usual left\/right dynamic. It\u2019s about the more historical \u201chaves versus have-nots,\u201d and the dividing line between the classes \u2013 or in its modern context, those riding-high-on-the-global-economy, versus those getting-left-behind-by-it-all. And that definitely leaves Christie out. Because there\u2019s nothing \u201cgetting left behind\u201d about that guy, except maybe the trailing wobble of his butt.<\/p>\n So how has a rich New Yorker like Trump gotten away with it. He\u2019s done it by convincing his supporters the world is out to get him \u2013 an idea that comes naturally to him, thanks to having been rejected by New York\u2019s elite for so long. But again, New Jersey\u2019s former top prosecutor and governor is never going to pass the smell test as a left-behinder. So he can forget about it.<\/p>\n And so can Tim Scott <\/a>and Doug Burgum<\/a> and Nikki Haley <\/a>and Vivek Ramaswamy <\/a>and anyone else who takes so much as a desirous glance at the rags to riches card. Because for the most part, Trump voters aren\u2019t interested. To them it\u2019s about the fact that you\u2019ve made it and they haven\u2019t. And that\u2019s probably as a result of something you\u2019ve done to people like them.<\/p>\n And who does that leave as the likely nominee? You guessed it.<\/p>\n