MANCHESTER, N.H. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, looking to break through the crowded GOP presidential field, told a roomful of voters Wednesday they would regret electing another first-term U.S. senator to the presidency.
“We elected [President Obama] over seven years ago and we knew that he had never run anything bigger than a 30-person Senate staff,” the two-term governor told a mix of first-responders and prospective supporters at a local fire station.
“He had never run anything of consequence, yet we, as a country, put him in charge of the largest, most complex government in the world,” Christie said, adding, “and then we wonder why government doesn’t work.”
He continued, firing off more direct hits at two of his closest opponents – Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. “Let’s not nominate a first-term U.S. senator to do this job,” Christie pleaded. “It doesn’t make any sense. We’ve seen this before.”
“The presidency is not for on-the-job training,” he doubled-down. “The presidency is not a job that comes with an owners manual in the top drawer in the Oval Office.”
Christie, who’s fifth in the Washington Examiner’s presidential power rankings, is battling three other establishment-leaning candidates for a first or second-place finish in the state’s first-in-the-nation primary. Donald Trump carries a wide lead in most state-level polls, but Christie, Rubio, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are polling within 4 percentage points of one another and each have plans to visit the Granite State in the next week.
“Not any of the candidates have been here more than me,” he noted Wednesday. “I love New Hampshire.”
