LEBANON, N.H. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said his endorsement of Mitt Romney had been an easy choice.
“I’m
here in New Hampshire for a simple reason: America cannot survive
another four years with Barack Obama,” Christie said. “Mitt Romney is
the man we need to lead America and we need him know — that’s why I’m
here,” Christie said.
The New Jersey governor
praised Romney’s experience both as a governor and in the private sector
“running businesses, turning businesses around, going in there telling
people the truth about what needed to be done, coming up with the plan
to get it done.”
“We know that he brings the best
of both to what we need for America right now,” he said. Romney, he
said, is “not a legislator trying to figure out how to use executive
power, but an executive who has used executive power and will use it to
make American lives better — that’s why I’m endorsing Mitt Romney for
president of the United States.”
Christie
criticized what he described as Obama’s campaign strategy “to divide
America.” Americans he said would believe in optimism over division:
“They want to believe in somebody who believes America’s future can be
greater; not someone who is trying to divide an ever shrinking pie among
the American people.”
Christie also defended
Romney’s health care plan in Massachusetts, noting that he did not raise
taxes to pay for his plan. “I’m proud of him for standing up for what
he believed was right. Do not try to equate what’s happened in Obamacare
with what Gov. Romney did in Massachusetts.”
Romney called Christie “a hero” who had been forthright in trying to turn around New Jersey’s economy.
“He’s
a man who has a following of a lot of folks across this country and so
when he indicated a willingness to join my team, I couldn’t have been
more pleased and more happy.”
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©2011 the Los Angeles Times
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