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MSNBC's Melissa-Harris Perry gave New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie a well needed break from the typical fawning we've seen over him and his high approval ratings in the wake of Hurricane Sandy -- and a dose of reality of what he's in for when voters start taking a closer look at his record if he throws his hat in there for the 2016 presidential primary race.

Pump your brakes, Gov. Christie:

Long after images of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation vanished from our television screens, one very visible–and very vocal–reminder has made it impossible to ignore the ongoing struggles of Sandy’s victims: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

His advocacy for New Jersey’s recovery effort has extended his 15 minutes of national fame far beyond his speech at the Republican National Convention. In fact, his popularity may even have him thinking he can stretch that 15 minutes all the way to the White House in 2016.

But let’s not get too hasty. Because in my open letter this week, I’d like to remind the governor of a few things that may make him–and American voters–want to think twice.

Dear Gov. Christie,

It’s me, Melissa. Well, there’s no denying it–you are definitely having a moment. Since last year when you put partisan politics aside to praise President Obama’s disaster response to the recent kick in the pants you gave House Speaker John Boehner, it seems you’ve become the voice of America’s frustration with Washington. And as a resident of a city that knows all too well what it means to rebuild in the wake of catastrophe, I know the people of New Jersey are grateful to have you as a champion.

You can tell by your 73% approval rating. And even more impressive, as a Republican governor of a blue state, you’ve managed to get 62% approval among Democrats, 70% among women, and 69% among people of color. That makes you almost a shoo-in for re-election this year. No doubt all that love has got you feeling like it’s all aboard the Christie train–next stop, the White House!

But not so fast. I’m going to need you to pump your brakes.

Your ability to lead people through the aftermath of a disaster does not qualify you to be president of the United States. Just ask Rudy Giuliani.

Oh, that Time Magazine cover line certainly had it right–you are the master of disaster. It’s just that the disaster struck long before Hurricane Sandy came ashore. Let’s hope you do a better job presiding over the state’s storm recovery than you’ve done presiding over New Jersey’s economic recovery. Because New Jersey’s economic performance ranked 47th in the nation in 2011. And right now, the [New Jersey] unemployment rate is 9.6%–surpassing the national rate by almost 2%.

It seems, governor, that residents are still waiting on that so-called “Jersey Comeback” you claimed had already begun.

And so much for your reputation for telling the hard truths–or telling the truth at all. When you ran for governor, you promised not to cut pensions, property tax rebates, or education spending. When you became governor, you promptly cut all three. Oh, and there’s also the matter of those other cuts you proposed–the tax cuts for New Jersey’s wealthiest residents. You even went so far as to veto–not once, not twice, but three times–a tax increase on millionaires.

Given your policy preferences for the wealthy, is it any wonder that it took a natural disaster and some convincing from President Obama before you could get some reciprocation in your love for Bruce Springsteen? You know his every lyric, so you also know that The Boss–I mean the real Boss–in his songs celebrates the working class. The same folks who suffer when you refuse to raise the state’s minimum wage or when you cut the earned income tax credit for low-income residents, or cut $7.4 million from reproductive health care services.

Thanks to you, the women of New Jersey now have six fewer family planning clinics. Those that remain saw 26,000 fewer patients after your budget cuts. That’s fewer breast exams, fewer cancer screenings – fewer lives that could be saved with preventative care. So yes, by all means, enjoy your moment. You’ve earned it.

But thanks to your policy record you’ve also earned what’s coming to you in 2016–and I have a feeling America’s voters are going to give you exactly what you deserve.

Sincerely,

Melissa

Check out the link above for Melissa's panel discussion on the Governor's record.

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From this Saturday's Up With Chris Hayes, Chris' Story of the Week and the Republicans who have been living in their own alternative universe these days as they refuse to accept the reality that the poll numbers in the presidential race really are not looking good for Mitt Romney.

The Republican bubble trap:

If you follow politics, you probably noticed that polling of the presidential election has swung quite decidedly in the president's favor over the last few weeks. The Real Clear Politics polling average now has Obama up 4.1 points over Mitt Romney in national polls and Nate Silver's prediction model at his FiveThirtyEight blog put Barack Obama's odds of winning the election above 80% for the first time ever. Swing state polling out just this week seems to confirm the trend.

A new Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS poll of swing states of Ohio and Florida, show surprisingly strong leads for Obama. And the Gallup tracking poll, which has showed a near dead heat for almost the entirety of the campaign now shows Obama up 6 points. It's pretty hard to survey the polling data and not come to the conclusion that Barack Obama is beating Mitt Romney, that if the election were held today Barack Obama would win, and that Romney has a relatively steep, though certainly not insurmountable, uphill climb to victory. That is, of course, unless you operate in the alternate epistemic universe of right-wing media.

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Jon Stewart took a pretty frightening look at what the Citizens United ruling from the Supreme Court has brought us and the obscene amount of fundraising that went on over just the last weekend for Mitt Romney. There was their event out in Utah that Karoli mentioned here, and a San Diego fundraiser with the Koch brothers.

Stewart joked about one of the Obama campaign's efforts to combat this, which is asking donors to make donations instead of wedding gifts. Sadly I've got to agree with his sentiment that something else needs to be done about this money pouring in, or we're f**ked. Sadly, jokes aside, the Obama campaign is not going to be able to rely on wedding money to combat what Romney is going to raise.

I'm not all that worried about the ads or robo-calls or direct mailings that a lot of this money is going to pay for when it comes to the presidential race, because frankly I think they've got diminishing returns when it comes to a race everyone is paying attention to. All they do is irritate me and cause me to hit the fast forward or mute button on my remote and the mailers are just more trash for the recycle bin. And with caller ID, if I don't recognize the number or name of who is calling me, the voice mail can pick up the call.

What worries me more is small markets and Congressional races where the money they're going to spend can make a difference. That and the voter suppression and not trusting these electronic voting machines.

If the Democrats actually cared about preventing elections from being stolen from them they'd push to make voting mandatory, make sure all felons or ex-felons can vote, force every state to give voters at least two weeks to get to the polls to vote, pass a national voting rights act with severe criminal mandatory sentences for violating it, and get rid of every electronic voting machine in this country that does not have a paper trail and that is not properly audited to make sure the vote count is not rigged in any polling place in the United States.

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CNN's Hugh Riminton catches up to Colin Powell in Hong Kong to get his reaction to Barack Obama's win yesterday. Powell is obviously very choked up at the thought of us having our first African American President.

Keith sits down with John Cleese to talk about the Presidential race, and John also shares a poem he's written.

Part 1.

Part 2.

Bill Clinton on the campaign trail with Barack Obama in Kissimmee, FL, Oct. 29, 2008 before a crowd of 35,000.

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Jon Stewart on baseball pandering by the candidates and late socialist leader John McCain.