For a while there, Chris Christie had a certain glamour about him. To the average voter, he seemed like a politician who was above politics, who wasn't petty, who said unpopular things and became more popular for it, because he said what he believed to be true. That kind of politician is a mythical beast, but it's a mythical beast that America loves. Christie was virtually the only Republican in the country who transcended the mire of hatred and greed that every other Republican had gotten caught up in.

That magical moment seems to be over for Christie now. The allegations that Christie bullied the mayor of Hoboken into spending Sandy relief funds the way he wanted have added another layer of corruption to the bridge scandal, and none of it shows any sign of going away any time soon. In fact, a new Pew Poll indicates that Christie's negatives are way, way up across the board:

I don't know how you earn that trust back. It's true that most Americans don't pay serious attention to this kind of news, but Christie's base is eroding, and he's losing independents. Those numbers are seriously bad news for Christie, and now that his protective glamour is gone, I expect his rivals to start stabbing him in the back any second now.