Democrats' Real Problem: Chris Christie

The Democrats have a genuine problem on their hands, and it's not the Tea Party. It's Chris Christie, the blunt-talking New Jersey governor who "just closed an $11 billion budget gap without raising taxes," writes Peggy Noonan. He's one of the only GOP leaders willing to eschew the conventional political wisdom that Republicans should avoid talking in specifics while the Democrats flounder.

Christie has gotten "closer than most national Republicans have come—or Democrats will come—to satisfying the public desire that someone step forward, define the problem, apply common sense, devise a way through, do what's needed," writes Noonan in the Wall Street Journal. "He's going to break through in a big way. The answer to our political problems lies in clarity, competence, and courage, not a visit to crazy town." (More Chris Christie stories.)