Why Chris Christie's Crony Capitalism Has Cratered

Chris Christie hasn't been very popular in GOP circles since he praised Barack Obama at the Jersey Shore on the eve of the presidential election. But Christie's national luster should be fading for a much better reason: He has one of the worst economic records of any governor in the United States. 

New Jersey has the seventh highest unemployment rate in the country -- 9.3 percent.

Of course, Christie is not entirely to blame for his state's economy. Larger forces are holding back growth in a lot of places, most notably the fact that middle class consumers are tapped out and aren't generating enough demand so that employers hire. 

But Christie has made a bad situation worse by embracing economic ideas that, in fact, have no basis in logic.