Christie implies Obama stole his 'big things' phrase

Is President Obama stealing lines - and ideas - from New Jersey Gov. Christie?

Or do all politicians - and their message minders - just dream up the same rhetorical flourishes?

On a visit to Philadelphia last week, Christie insinuated, once again, that Obama had cribbed his phrase for the governor's signature 2011 theme, "Big Things."

Christie had christened the phrase in his State of the State address on Jan. 11, and has pushed it repeatedly since then. It refers to the governor's top three priorities: fiscal discipline, controlling pension and health benefit costs, and educational reform.

Two weeks later, the same words popped up in Obama's State of the Union address when the president trumpeted Berlin, Pa.-based Center Rock Inc., which designed the drilling equipment used to free the Chilean miners. In an October Associated Press article, a worker from Center Rock said: "We proved that Center Rock is a little company, but they do big things."

Obama referenced the worker, altered the quote to "we do big things," and took off from there, using it to bookend his closing anecdote.

"We do big things. From the earliest days of our founding, America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream. That's how we win the future. . . . We do big things."

As the president said those words, the governor was apparently watching, perhaps yelling at the TV.

The next day, at a town-hall meeting in Middletown, N.J., Christie insinuated that the president was the Copycat-In-Chief: "I didn't know whether to feel good or bad. I guess, I guess, that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I'll take it that way."

On MSNBC that morning, host Joe Scarborough also noticed the similarity. In a conversation about how Obama seemed to have cribbed another line ("winning the future") from another Republican (Newt Gingrich, who wrote a book with that title), Scarborough brought up Obama's "big things" line.

"Somebody lifted that line straight from Chris Christie," Scarborough said.

By last week, Christie still hadn't gotten over the alleged copy job. (Either that, or he saw the political mileage he could get out of it.)

During a speech at the Union League in Philadelphia, where he accepted the Lincoln Award, Christie talked about how his State of the State speech was titled "It's Time To Do the Big Things."

"And it was fascinating then to watch two weeks later that the president of the United States . . . said in his State of the Union speech, 'It's time for America to do the big things.' "

Obama actually didn't say that full sentence, but Christie is right on one score: It is fascinating to see how a good phrase gets a good workout. Witness John F. Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you" line, with its echoes of Warren G. Harding and Oliver Wendell Holmes.

What's also fascinating is the possibility, however slim, of a 2012 Obama-Christie showdown. Is Obama co-opting a potential rival's message? Or is this just a coincidence over what is, frankly, a pretty common word-pairing?

The White House is mum on the matter; a spokesman chose Monday not to respond to Christie's contentions.

The governor's office, too, did not reply to requests to elaborate on whether Christie really, truly, thinks Obama is looking to New Jersey for speech-writing inspiration.

As for 2012, Christie swears he's not running for president. But at the recent conservative CPAC conference, he finished third in a straw poll, beating out likely presidential contenders (including Gingrich). Conservative provocateur Ann Coulter even told CPAC that Christie was the only Republican who could beat Obama.

And a poll last week had Christie and Obama neck-and-neck on job-approval ratings in blue New Jersey.

Still, verbal similarities and all, these are two very different politicians speaking very different political languages - even if the same two words leave their lips. In Philadelphia last week, Christie chastised Obama for thinking "big things" included high-speed trains. (Vice President Biden was also in Philadelphia last week talking about, yes, high-speed rail.)

This week, the governor will be six blocks from the White House to give a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

The title of the speech? "It's Time To Do the Big Things."