ANALYSIS: Everywhere You Look, Chris Christie
ANALYSIS: Everywhere You Look, Chris Christie
Jan. 9, 2013 -- In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos this morning, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of the most talked-about potential 2016 presidential candidates, said it would be "crazy" for anybody to try to "plan four years from now."
But, it's hard to take him at his word.
"The fact of the matter is I'm going to follow the advice my mother gave me, which is to do the job that you have right now as well as you can do it and the future will take care of itself," Christie said in the "Good Morning America" interview. "What I want to do now is be the governor of New Jersey, as I said, for the last three years, I'd like to do it for the next four."
Christie, who already had one of the most prominent public profiles in the country, has stepped squarely into the spotlight in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and the Congressional debate over passing a relief package for residents of the affected states.
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"One thing I hope everyone in America now clearly understands -- New Jersey, both Republicans and Democrats, will never stand silent when our citizens are being short changed," the outspoken governor said in his State of the State address in Trenton yesterday.
This week Christie is also enjoying the Time Magazine cover treatment under the enormous headline, "The Boss" and "the master of disaster."
As ABC's Shushannah Walshe reports, a Fairleigh Dickinson University Public Mind poll released Monday, showed that 73 percent of registered New Jersey voters approved of the job the governor was doing. In November, Christie officially announced his intention to run for re-election as governor, quickly raising more than $2 million for his bid.
None of the recent publicity means that Christie doesn't face steep hurdles nationally, particularly among conservative Republicans who are still steamed that he choose to embrace President Obama after Sandy hit -- so close to last November's presidential election. But he enjoys a celebrity factor that most other possible GOP presidential hopefuls can only dream of.
Democrats, of course, will be spending the next few years preparing an arsenal of opposition research against him.
Nevertheless, speaking to Stephanopoulos today, Christie said he believes he will be more prepared to run in 2016 than he was in 2016. "I will be more ready than I was in 2012 because I will have done my job for longer and hopefully gotten better," he said.
Watch a clip of George's "Good Morning America" interview HERE
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