Chris Christie appeared to get a boomlet from the Nevada debate this week. Why? For a hawkish foreign policy posture about Russians violating his proposed no-fly zone in Syria.

Here’s some love from WaPo‘s Chris Cillizza, for example, on why Christie was a winner on Tuesday:

Chris Christie: The New Jersey governor had one goal in this debate: distinguish himself from the likes of Cruz and Rubio as someone who has never spent any time in Washington. He did so — repeatedly and successfully. He effectively injected himself into an extended back and forth between Cruz and Rubio on the NSA to say, essentially, regular people don’t have any idea what the hell you guys are talking about and they don’t care.  Christie went into this debate with momentum in New Hampshire; nothing he said or did Tuesday night will hurt that roll.

What I find fascinating is how inconsistent it is with the dovish domestic policy stance he’s taken on religious liberty.

Christie wants to set an absolute line and not allow aggressors to cross it without serious consequences…in Syria. But when the absolute line of the First Amendment is at stake he won’t sign a pledge to defend it…in America. Some tough guy!

He can bluster and posture all he wants elsewhere, but he won’t be a serious candidate here to unite a disunited party with a governing vision that isn’t intellectually coherent.

Clint Cline is the president of Design4, a national media and messaging firm based in Florida.