( CNN ) -- It 's a cliche of American presidential politics -- the president we elect is always a reaction to what came before . As in : Nixonian shenanigans eventually gave rise to Jimmy Carter 's self-righteousness . Clintonesque parsing gave way to George W. Bush 's plain speaking . Bush 's plain speaking begat Barack Obama 's lofty speechifying . Oversimplified ? Yes . But true nonetheless . And so we head into 2016 ( yes , already ) and Chris Christie 's ready-made narrative : If Obama is lofty , Christie is down to earth . If Obama was n't tough enough , he 's hard-hitting . If Obama could n't run his complex health care rollout , he 's a strong manager . If Obama was partisan , he 's worked across party lines . In sum : Christie can lead in the precise ways that Obama disappointed . Until a traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge . Then came another stark contrast : the vindictive -- and more important , petty -- Christie culture as opposed to the stature the presidency demands . So far , the New Jersey melodrama looks like the worst side of the Christie ethos . The apparent reprisals against Democratic mayors . The vanity of featuring the Christie family in taxpayer-funded commercials . The environment in which retribution reigned when Christie did not get what he wanted . The arrogance of believing he was deserving of it all , and to hell with the rest of 'em . The grand storyline behind all of this , of course , is the design on the presidency : Christie wanted to be re-elected by such an overwhelming margin that it would launch his national aspirations into the stratosphere . The plan was to get bipartisan support to show his viability as a national candidate . All who stood in the way were official enemies . This is not to say that presidents do n't have enemies . Of course they do . You do n't get elected to any office in this country , much less president of the United States , without accumulating political enemies . But the real question is WHY you consider someone an enemy , and then , how you deal with it . As president , LBJ had always had a bunch , but the enmity -- and payback -- generally came over issues , not self-aggrandizement . It 's Politics 101 : If you want to pass a civil rights bill and you do n't get a `` yes '' vote from an opponent who wants a bridge in his state , no bridge . That 's very different from saying if you do n't endorse my candidacy I will shut down your bridge . That 's not politics ; it 's puny payback . And , worse , the impact is felt not only by the opponent , but by his -- and your -- constituents . A bridge way too far . Then consider Bill Clinton , who had plenty of enemies . A former senior Clinton adviser reminds me that `` it became a joke that the best thing to be was Clinton 's enemy . If 99 people in a room were for him , and one was against him , he would spend all his time trying to persuade that one guy he was wrong . And he was always willing to argue the substance . Always . In fact , he enjoyed it . '' This is not to turn Clinton and LBJ into saintly role models and Christie into the devil . But it is to say that Christie 's staff shenanigans -- which he says he did not know about -- have raised enormous questions about his temperament and how he would run a White House . In fact , a Monmouth University poll released this week shows that only 44 % of New Jersey voters believe that their governor has the right temperament for the Oval Office . The characterization of Christie and Obama as opposite numbers is accurate in many ways . There 's this : When then-Sen. Joe Lieberman , the Democrat-turned-independent , endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain for the presidency in 2008 -- and became his outspoken travel buddy -- there were calls for retribution after Obama won . So what did Obama do ? He kept Lieberman on as chairman of an important committee . It kept an enemy close , not a bad strategy . Obama is cool and Christie is all drama . And now a line of argument against him as petty and vindictive has been opened up that will become the default narrative . But Christie will be defined as much by how he deals with this episode as the episode itself . No one expects -- or really wants -- Chris Christie to morph into a false version of himself . But how about some elevation -- and some perspective -- that flies way above the traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge ? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gloria Borger .
Gloria Brown : On paper , Christie seemed a strong candidate for 2016 . She says the Washington Bridge scandal raises questions about his temperament . Every major politician has issues , but this is how you deal with them , she says . Brown : If Christie is seen as vindictive , that weakens his claim to presidential office .