Big bump on road from Trenton to D.C.

Call it Chris Christie’s strongman moment.

The formidable New Jersey governor has found himself embroiled in a kerfuffle over the closing of three entrance lanes to the George Washington Bridge in September.

Allegedly, it is all connected to a raging beef between Christie and the mayor of Fort Lee, a foe whose city was gridlocked by the mess the lane closing created. New emails showing senior Christie staffers discussing — and in one case, chortling over — their role in creating the mayor’s traffic problems have been fueling a media firestorm.

Late yesterday, Christie released a statement expressing surprise, outrage and disappointment that his staffers engaged in such behavior — and insisting they would be held responsible.

So, does bridge-and-tunnelgate really mean anything for Christie’s nascent 2016 presidential campaign? The drama itself will soon pass. The story is irresistible to the political press because Christie is the early frontrunner, if there can be such a thing, for the Republican nomination and because the idea of New Jersey’s bombastic governor dropping the gridlocking equivalent of a nuclear weapon on a small-time mayor easily fits a lazy narrative about Christie having a vindictive side.

In reality, I’ve never known a governor without a long list of local opponents, enemies and plain chuckleheads who constantly drive him or her batty. Most governors spend a lot of time tussling with their hometown versions of Seinfeld’s accursed Newman, and dreaming of fixing said irritant’s political wagon once and for all.

I’ve also never known a governor with a political staff that did not take immense joy in the political pain and suffering of said opponents. In the rough-and-tumble personality-driven cauldron of New Jersey politics, this sort of battling is particularly ordinary. While in this case the wagon-fixers may have gone overboard, I doubt many people will be that shocked, shocked that hardball is alive and well in New Jersey.

My prediction? The whole thing will blow over. Sure, the me- dia will howl for a week and the mayor of Fort Lee will spend the next two years darkly plotting ways to poison Christie’s good name in New Hampshire.

But Christie has already blasted the main chortling staffer in question. The circus will move on.

This incident does, however, give us an early peek at the likely dynamics of a Christie for President campaign.

Some critics think that Christie’s big obstacle in a GOP presidential primary will be ideology — that he will face trouble for allegedly being too comfortable with President Obama, and not comfortable enough with core conservative orthodoxy.

I think that misses the larger point, that Christie is all about persona. He is very popular because he is the anti-politician. He doesn’t ooze the bland, blowdried niceties of the stereotypical politician. Instead, he is loud, blunt and pragmatic. At a time when a record number of Americans are totally fed up with politics as usual, this makes him uniquely attractive to many voters.

The question is how Christie’s handson, full-volume personality will wear with voters over time. History shows us that from Teddy Roosevelt in the White House to Mayor Daley in Chicago and LBJ in the Congress, leaders with big personalities and strong appetites for unbridled authority have often done well in American politics. But some have stumbled badly.

Whether the persona-driven rocket fuel of the upcoming Christie for President campaign will land the popular governor on the steps of the White House, or ignite a thousand-foot-high political mushroom cloud over New Hampshire in early 2016, I do not know. But bet on this: Christie’s campaign will dominate much of the race and its coverage.

As the bruised and battered mayor of Fort Lee will testify, Chris Christie is a not politician who can go anywhere quietly.

The scandal reveals his vulnerability