New Jersey governor Chris Christie hasn't yet announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. But why wait for an official candidacy to start pandering to the country's dumbest elements? Today, just months after trying to imprison an an ebola-exposed nurse, Christie came out against mandatory vaccinations.

The Washington Post reports Christie's statement came just after President Obama said parents should vaccinate their kids against measles, because otherwise the kids could get measles and die but also kill other kids:

"Mary Pat and I have had our children vaccinated and we think that it's an important part of being sure we protect their health and the public health," Christie told reporters here Monday. But the likely Republican presidential candidate added: "I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well, so that's the balance that the government has to decide."

The right of parents to let their kids die of diseases for which we've had vaccines for half a century—and to endanger other kids—shall not be infringed. This is a serious contrast from the Christie whose idea of governmental "balance" was an involuntary quarantine for Kaci Hickox, detained in a Newark hospital after treating ebola patients in West Africa. This was only back in October:

"My first and foremost obligation is to protect the public health and safety of the people of New Jersey," Christie said.

"And so I'm sorry if in anyway she was inconvenienced, but the inconvenience that could occur from having folks who are symptomatic and ill out and amongst the public is a much, much greater concern of mine," he said.

In another statement:

"I don't believe when you're dealing with something as serious as this that we can count on a voluntary system," he said. "This is government's job. If anything else, the government's job is to protect safety and health of our citizens."

In other words, public health trumps individual discomfort. Except in the case of the ebola nurse, it was unfounded and unscientific. If only Christie could take his I'm the boss, fuckin' deal with it stance against paranoid, negligent anti-vaxx parents, instead of a nurse with a fever.

Photo: Getty