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Input: Donald Trump and  Chris Christie  campaign in 2016. (Photo: John Minchillo  AP)
I recall  Chris Christie’s  first interview with our editorial board after he won the 2009 election. We asked what had changed in his life now that he was governor of New Jersey.
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The governor’s fight against opioid abuse won him national praise. But the standing ovation really should go to the Christie who pushed for drug courts  treatment over incarceration and the near elimination of cash bail. No other governor could have done so much to right the scales of justice for minorities and low-income defendants. None of this is sexy to voters in national primaries  which makes these initiatives so much more important in judging all that was  Christie . He was capable of being a great leader.
Then came Superstorm Sandy— the event that made  Christie  a national figure even as it pretty much set in motion everything that destroyed him. It fed his ego. The national attention he received in his blue fleece telling someone to get off the beach  the bombast that was akin to a happy King Lear  not howling at the wind  but pushing the wind back. He seemed invincible.
After Sandy  Christie was a rising Republican star. Everything he did was now seen through a rosy prism. He was the Republican governor of a blue state getting things done. To be clear: New Jersey is neither blue nor red. It’s madras. Tom Kean  Christie Whitman — Republicans had won statewide before. New Jersey wanted a reformer in 2009 and  Christie  seemed to fit that bill.
The most telling moment from  Christie’s  final State of the State address this month was a sentence he ad-libbed. The prepared text read: “We ran to be a Governor who did not just mark time. We ran to win and to be a Governor of consequence.” What  Christie  said during the speech was  “I ran to win. I always ran to win. I ran to be a governor of consequence.”
That’s it in a nutshell. The fatal flaw. A chief executive consumed with winning who would assemble a team consumed with his winning. It explains more than anything how Bridgegate could come to pass  how a smart  politically savvy man like  Christie  could put so many of the wrong people in high-profile jobs. Did he know before the George Washington Bridge lane closures  during the lane closures or shortly after the lane closures that created a massive four-day traffic jam? At this point it matters less than that he always knew too many people on his team were capable of being punitive  petty and destructive in the cause of  Christie  winning.
 Christie  tried to minimize the scandal.  He  wasted millions of taxpayer dollars on a whitewash report prepared by high-priced lawyers.  He  bled NJ Transit dry.
 He  bullied.  He  baited. And just as Sandy had made  him  a star  Bridgegate made  him  a pariah. Not all at once. But by the time  he  left New Jersey to raise money for Republican governors across the nation and then to openly pursue the presidency   he  was already failing in New Jersey.
I once was as close to a Christie cheerleader as  he  could find in the New Jersey media. There was a time when I believed  he  was the real deal.  He  was funny  well informed and enjoyed a vigorous debate on issues — at least off the record.
The brilliance of  Christie  remains somewhere inside him  but he was not the greatest natural politician I will ever see. The greatest natural politician would never forget that he was entirely dependent on the charity of others — voters.  Christie  once told a young man at a town hall who asked how to get into politics that you first have to ask people for their votes. He said a candidate had to recognize that voters could choose anyone they wanted  that receiving a vote was a gift.
The governor forgot that lesson or  as his ratings tanked  decided it no longer mattered. He became more important than anything. It was not about New Jersey winning  but  Christie  winning.
Voters elected  Christie  to serve until Jan. 16  2018  but he checked out on Election Day 2013.

Rise and fall of Chris Christie  from Superstorm Sandy to Bridgegate