TOW #17

            On September 9^th through the 13^th traffic pileups were caused by restrictions to a single lane of traffic entering the George Washington Bridge.  Subsequently this lead to pileups in Fort Lee and Spreading south to Edgewater, lasting a week.   This traffic prevented many people from reaching work, school buses  from reaching students and first responders from reaching hospitals.  This is thought to be political retribution against Fort Lee mayor, Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who endorsed Governor Chris Christie's opponent in 2013.   Chris Christie, New Jersey Governor, has denied any connection to the closings but emails between his staff beg the question, does Gov. Christie have a hand in this?  In the face of impeachment and political turmoil Christie tried desperately to wipe his hands of this issue, addressing the state of New Jersey, particularly Fort Lee,  In his State of the State Address.

            Gov. Christie uses alternating diction to push the blame in another direction, towards his administration and staff rather then him self in order to save face.  In one instance he explains, “Mistakes were clearly made. And as a result, we let down the people we are entrusted to serve.” Gov. Christie uses the word “We” to direct blame away from himself and towards his administration.  This is a common tactic used by politicians, that is often successful, too make the individual citizen see “the administration” as a group of individuals with their own mindset instead of a single figure head (Gov. Christie).  Later in his speech Gov. Christie instead uses the word “I” when referring to things his administration has done in the past, like dealing with Sandy.  This Is in contrast to his earlier statements and use of “we” were he uses it when he explains the bad things that have happened but uses “I” to take credit of the entirety of his administrative team’s work.  Overall, with the accompanying use of statistics, Christie was able to conduct a rousing speech, and save face, amidst this current scandal.

http://thetruthaboutplas.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Christie-Time-Boss_lightbox1.jpg

Full Text: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/full-text-of-new-jersey-gov-chris-christies-2014-state-of-the-state-speech/2014/01/14/8fd12f08-7d55-11e3-9556-4a4bf7bcbd84_story.html