Christie: I'd beat Hillary Clinton just like I defeated Buono

Our weird weather hasn't ended. I encountered fog on Woodland Street in Tenafly on Monday morning.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie isn't even the GOP candidate, yet The Record today devotes a long front-page story to the wannabe president's saber rattling and talk of taking on China, Iran, Russia and Syria.

And buried deep in the story by Salvador Rizzo is the biggest laugh line of all:

The GOP bully said "he would be able to beat Hillary Clinton, if he decided to run for president, because it would be similar to the race he ran against another Democratic female senator, Barbara Buono" (A-6).

Who is this State House Bureau reporter, Rizzo? "Another Democratic female senator"?

Clinton was President Obama's first secretary of state, not "another Democratic female senator," and Buono was a state senator, not in the U.S. Senate, which is where the onetime first lady served.

By the way, the byline on the story says "Salvador," but a credit at the end of another Page 1 story says, "Salvatore."

Big defeat ahead

Christie is just setting himself up for the biggest humiliation of his political life, if he thinks beating Clinton would be as easy as his 2013 defeat of Buono, who was put up as a sacrificial lamb by the sheepish state Democratic Party.

For one thing, Christie was so desperate for a second term he exacted political retribution against Democrats who didn't endorse him for reelection.

And all the reporting on politics by Charles Stile of The Record and other media turned off registered voters to the point that fewer than four in 10 cast ballots in the gubernatorial race -- the lowest turnout in history for such an election.

Obama in Camden

The president visited Camden, showing the kind of leadership in addressing police violence against blacks that Christie could never display (A-1).

In fact, Christie, from his second home in New Hampshire, belatedly referred to all of the gun violence in Paterson, where three young blacks were gunned down in drive-by shootings in about 15 months.

Christie said he is ready to work with Paterson to create the same kind of community policing credited with cutting crime in Camden.

But the last of the three blacks slain in Paterson, basketball star Armoni Sexton, 15, died about a month ago, so why is Christie just now making the offer?

Teaneck horse

Multimillionaire Ahmed Zayat was born in Egypt and owns race horses, including American Pharoah.

But Zayat, a Sephardic Jew, has lived among other Orthodox Jews in Teaneck for 30 years.

Now, the editors are making a half-hearted effort to show township residents are behind him and his horse, and are rooting for American Pharoah to win the Triple Crown (L-1).

That's likely because twice on the front page recently, victories by the horse have been called "wins" for Teaneck. That's preposterous.

The story by Mary Diduch reports Zayat Stables are in Hackensack. Boy, does that make me feel good.

And I got a good laugh out of her first line: "Bergen County isn't exactly horse country."

Of course it is. 

The Bergen Equestrian Center at Overpeck Park, Leonia, has a long history, and many Bergen residents actually stable their horses there and ride them frequently.

A second county horseback riding facility is in Franklin Lakes.

Here's a line that is irrefutable: 

Local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza -- who assigned this stupid story to a clueless reporter and then embarrassed themselves no end by missing her ridiculous first sentence -- are horse's asses.

Better Living

Today's story on the popularity and health benefits of olive oil omits one important fact:

Unlike the vast majority of corn, soy and rapeseed (canola) used in cooking oils, olives aren't genetically modified and olive oil doesn't contain GMOs (BL-2).

There is no explanation why this piece runs under the heading of 15 MINUTE CHEF.