ELMHURST, Ill. - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie stumped on behalf of Mitt Romney in a Chicago suburb today, telling the crowd packed into a student center at Elmhurst College that it would be a bad idea to send a member of Congress to the Oval Office.

"In our Republican primary, let's be very leery, very wary of sending another member of Congress to the White House. Now see members of Congress they can be okay, but they don't know the first thing most of the time about using executive authority. They don't know the first thing about getting things done," said Christie. "We don't need Ron Paul, we don't need Newt Gingrich , and we don't need Rick Santorum. We need an executive. We need Mitt Romney in the White House."

Christie hailed Romney's personal success, arguing that his record as a job creator and as an executive has extended wealth to other Americans.

"He didn't just create wealth for himself. He did what American entrepreneurs have done better than any entrepreneurs around the world in the history of the world. He created wealth for himself and he created wealth for lots of other people," said Christie.

The blunt talking Christie also took a swipe at President Obama and his background as a community organizer.

"Do we really want a failure in the White House?" asked Christie. "Let me just tell you this, here's one set of people I don't think belong in the White House anymore - community organizers."

Christie told the crowd that he's "inherently optimistic" about the future of the country, particularly under Romney's leadership, and he squeezed in some teasing at the expense of his favorite baseball team - the Mets - and a popular, yet unlucky team in Chicago - the Cubs.

"I see a guy sitting out in the audience who's got to be inherently optimistic too. He's wearing a Cubs T-shirt," said Christie. "I'm a Mets fan, and we're worse off than you are. Yeah it's okay to boo us. It's all right. We stink anyway."