Found

Here's the speech, courtesy of C-SPAN.

Watch it. Relish it. Remember it.

The Republican Establishment already hates it.  Already several talking heads are saying that what Chris Christie did on Tuesday at the Republican National Convention was self-serving at best and traitorous at worst.  Chris Wallace gave it a big thumbs-down.

Translation: Chris Christie is on to something.

On Tuesday we saw the Man Who Can Save America.

He did what he's done all along.  When surrounded by those - even within his own party - who want to play it safe, he has none of it.  He chooses to speak the truth, and to hell with anyone to whom that causes unease.

He said what needed to be said - that there is no more time to wait.  That we cannot pretend that the mere election of politicians will make things right.  that we have nowhere else to go - either we stay on the path we're on and destroy our country or we forge a new, uncomfortable, difficult, sometimes painful path, the end of which is the salvation of America and a real future for our children and grandchildren.

Watch the shots of Mitt Romney during the speech.  He is stunned.  Terrified.  He doesn't want Gov. Christie to be saying what he's saying.  Too difficult.

I'm not sure if Christie's motivation was purely his own self-interest (he is a politician who will likely run for president in 2016, after all) or if he simply decided enough - damn the risk to my intra-party cred - somebody has to speak up...or if it was a little of both.  I frankly don't care.

The bottom line is that on Tuesday Chris Christie shook up everybody by demonstrating to Mitt Romney and everyone else in his party what leadership is.  He said the words that no politician wants to utter - to wit:

"It's more important to be respected than it is to be loved."

"We believe in telling our Seniors the truth about our overburdended entitlements."

"I know we can fix our problems when there are people in the room who care more about doing the job they were elected to do than they worry about re-election..."

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans want their politicians to say those words.  Christie is trying to force his party to make an actual difference.

"You can follow my lead," he said by his example, "or you can stay behind and watch our country wither away."

Romney doesn't get that.  It's why he's going to lose.  That the entirety of the Republican Establishment also doesn't understand it will, one prays, mark the end of its reign and the beginning of a new American Renaissance, led by Chris Christie and the tens of thousands of leaders he will inspire.

As this will have to happen in four years, of course, and by that time there may not be much of a country left to save.  One wonders if the Governor hs realized his error in not running this year, and decided to do his penance by choosing to ask forgiveness for his honesty rather than seek permission to display it.

We may never know the answer to that question.  But on Tuesday night we were reminded what a leader looks and sounds like.  "Everybody stand up," said Christie.  And everybody did.  See how that works?

A version of this post appears on Mark's personal blog, Smoggy Don's Loudmouth Soup.