Tony Soprano in Brideshead Revisited

From “Chris Christie’s flop at the GOP convention,” John Harris and Tim Mak, Politico:

“There is no mistaking what a successful keynote speech for Chris Christie would have looked and sounded like. There would have been an electric reaction from the crowd in the convention hall. It would have been followed by waves of effusive media commentary about how people had just heard the future of the Republican Party.

“Judged by these standards, there is also no mistaking what the New Jersey governor delivered instead: A prime-time belly-flop, one that notably failed to clear either of those two high bars.

“The fallout on Wednesday was the talk of Tampa and left Christie on the defensive to avoid lasting damage to his political fortunes. It also revealed tensions between the Christie and Mitt Romney camps.”

I would add that Christie’s me-myself-and-I approach is especially galling and alien to Mitt, given his personality and background.  Mitt comes from that privileged, prep-school upbringing, based on British upper class values, that emphasizes being self-effacing and never bragging or calling attention to yourself in any way.  It’s just “bad form.”  It’s similar to how Bush 41 was raised, and much of the criticism about Mitt as a candidate is similar to that faced by 41.   A huge culture clash between Waspy and Jersey.  Kind of like having Tony Soprano appear in Brideshead Revisited.