Friends, Americans, countrymen, hear me out.
I come to praise Christie, not criticize him.
The good that men do lives on after them,
While their mistakes typically die with them.
He is an honorable man, who has at heart
The welfare of the people. His critics cry,
He has ambition. But did he not embrace
Even Obama, prince of the other party,
After Sandy? Ambition should be made
Of sterner stuff. Did he not excoriate –
Excoriate, I tell you – John Boehner,
Leader of his own party? This is not
A man who puts his own ambition Ahead
Of the people’s weal. His enemies complain
He’s costing the state $24 million
For two special elections to fill Lautenberg’s
Senate seat. To save the people’s money,
Did he not cut pensions and health benefits,
Slash $8 million in college tuition subsidies,
$10 million in after-school programs
And $12 million more in charity care?
Would a man of overweening ambition so flaunt
The common people’s needs? Just to “win big”
In his own re-election and impress the fat cats
Who dominate presidential politics?
Chris Christie, my friends, has the people’s good
At heart, and he is an honorable man.
Llyn Clague’s poems have been published widely, including in Atlanta Review, Wisconsin Review, California Quarterly, Main Street Rag, New York Quarterly, Ibbetson Street. His sixth book, The I in India and US, was published by Main Street Rag in 2012.