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Working for the Best President Ever... @BarackObama
10:17 AM - 25 Feb 2014 24 Retweets 22 favorites
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When Chris Christie started to talk over a complaining questioner, a signature tactic of the bellicose, pre-scandal governor, the audience here briefly turned on him. “Answer the question,” some shouted.

When he took a microphone from a long-winded speaker, the man startled Mr. Christie by snatching it right back.

And when he singled out a young woman as his inspiration for repairing the Hurricane Sandy-battered coastline, he failed to grasp that the girl’s mother — sitting just a few feet from Mr. Christie — was angry with him for not doing enough.

“He’s full of it,” she said.

It worked — at least for a while. Christie entered his 110th town-hall-style event in Port Monmouth, a blue-collar Shore town battered by the storm, without his self-promotional video. The Springsteen soundtrack was dialed down. So was the Christie swagger and sarcasm.

But then Tom Largey, a Sea Bright resident whose home was badly damaged by the storm and who is living with relatives, confronted Christie.

Why was so much money, Largey asked, being spent on private contractors to handle the storm recovery, particularly Hammerman & Gainer, the Louisiana-based company that was quietly let go by the administration in December? After all, New York did just fine without hiring outsiders.

The crowd lustily applauded Largey, not Christie. The calm empathizer was now seething, defensive.

"What's your suggestion on how I should have done it?" Christie shot back. "Should I have hired thousands of new government employees to be able to administer these programs?"

"Answer the question!" barked one woman. Heads turned in irritation. Two men loudly cleared their throats