Christie, Like Obamacare, Isn't Down for the Count

Earlier today Bloomberg View columnists Margaret Carlson and Ramesh Ponnuru met online to chat about Chris Christie's continuing troubles, Robert Gates and the viability of Obamacare. Below is a lightly edited transcript.

Margaret: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie couldn't win the headlines yesterday. If he hadn't mentioned the traffic jam during his State of the State speech, that would have been the headline; the fact that he did led every paper. I wouldn't have been watching the speech but for the mess and I was impressed by what he's done. Voters love his efficiencies -- getting towns and counties to merge to save $3 million in one case, becoming a more agile bureaucracy. His approval numbers are down from the low 70s a year ago to about 55 percent now, which would be good for anyone else. His speech yesterday is the last forum he'll control for a while. The most surprising reaction was from Bruce Springsteen, the hometown hero who Christie fawns over, jamming with Jimmy Fallon to the tune of "Born to Run" with the lyrics changed to reflect the scandal in Fort Lee. You can lose your political allies (my favorite was Christie's dismissal of David Wildstein: "I was the class president and athlete; I don't know what David was doing [in high school]"), but you don't want to lose the cultural icon you linked yourself to.