The folks at MSNBC have egg on their face — not a splatter, more like a drip, drip, drip.
After obsessing over the “Bridgegate” scandal involving N.J. Gov. Chris Christie for weeks and weeks earlier this year — and suggesting that Christie’s political career may be over — MSNBC’s crew must be stunned that a newly completed inquiry finds no evidence to implicate the governor and a new poll shows that, despite everything, he remains a pretty popular guy across the nation.

A New Jersey legislative inquiry into the George Washington Bridge “scandal,” reported on today by the Wall Street Journal, couldn’t find evidence that Christie knew about the controversial lane closures. 
Other reports have reached the same conclusion and the scuttlebutt in Jersey is that the ongoing federal investigation will find nothing. 
As I wrote in January, the breathless coverage by the media at the time was so far beyond what was warranted for a traffic jam: 
“Here’s a bit of perspective that would probably shock the New York-centric press corps – I would guess that at least half of Americans never knew before now that there is a George Washington Bridge (the “GW”) in New York City.

“Nearly three years from now, when voters in Middle America head to the polls in November ’16, I can’t imagine that a traffic jam in New Jersey in 2013 will have any impact on how they cast their ballot.”
What I could never have imagined at the time was that the frenzied coverage would continue for months, especially on MSNBC, where the anchors seemed eager to demonize a possible presidential candidate.
Which brings us to the poll commissioned by NJ.com that was released earlier this week. The poll, which focused entirely on Christie and the public’s perception of him, found that the moderate Republican is actually fairly popular. Respondents said they found the bombastic governor aggressive, and dynamic, as well as influential.
That last label may have been due to Christie’s chairmanship of the Republican Governor’s Association, which raised $100 million during the campaign and helped save several GOP governors, including Rick Snyder, whose re-election chances were considered shaky.
Here’s another factor to consider for MSNBC after expending so much time and effort on a story about closed bridge lanes: 52 percent of Americans still do not know who Chris Christie is.

The president of the California firm, E-Poll Market Research, that conducts these in-depth looks at public figures said he pays less attention to the data than to the overall message that seems to come out of each poll:
“It’s funny – I don’t go off the score. I go off gut instinct … I think he’s already got something going for him. He’s very appealing to a lot of ‘regular’ Americans. (Bridgegate) might mean more to us in New York and New Jersey, but I think he’s a national pop culture figure who will become more popular; I can see that trending. He’s got the ability to gain popularity. People find him appealing.”

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