On Tuesday, Christie returned to his alma mater’s gymnasium to announce his long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination with a speech that fused his trademark pugnacity with a pragmatic pitch.
“I am ready to fight for the people of the United States of America,” Christie, 52, thundered to hundreds gathered on the basketball court holding signs and phones aloft. He said that “both parties have failed our country,” and he promised to use his experience as a Republican navigating a deep-blue state to restore a “country built on compromise.”
Christie’s attempt to pair those two personas — part political warrior, part unifier — came off as discordant at times. One moment, he tossed a barb at President Obama for living in his “own world, not in our world,” then pivoted to a call for bipartisanship.
