The crowd gathered at the Conservative Political Action Conference rose to its feet as Chris Christie exited stage left. 
 
 The New Jersey governor, who has been dogged by a scandal stemming from revelations that members of his administration conspired to shut down traffic lanes leading on to the George Washington Bridge, came to CPAC on Thursday in need of a reception like that, and the party faithful delivered. 
 
 Christie’s remarks were highly anticipated, not only because of the lingering scandal but also because CPAC brass dinged him last year by leaving him off of the guest list. Today, the governor was greeted with murmurs and some quiet cheers; he drew more excitement from the audience as he proceeded. 
 
 Currently the chairman of the National Governors Association, Christie used his remarks to praise the work of his colleagues across the country. 
 
 “Republican governors in this country have stood up and done things, not just talked about them,” he said. Praise for Republican governors like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Ohio’s John Kasich, and Michigan’s Rick Snyder drew cheers from the crowd. 
 
 Christie returned to a familiar theme, contrasting the labor of the GOP’s governors with the fecklessness of politicians in Washington. “The most dangerous ten feet in Washington, D.C., is between anybody who wants to talk about something and a camera,” he said. 
 
 As Republicans across the country campaign against Obamacare in advance of November’s midterm elections, the governor urged them to hit some positive notes, too. The GOP, he said, is for entrepreneurship and innovation and against the “cold, hard hand of government.” The party supports a strong national defense rather than “one that allows other countries to run us over all over the world.” 
 
 Speaking to an audience that stands to his right, Christie concluded on a cautionary note, tacitly suggesting that the GOP has hurt itself by nominating candidates that are too conservative. 
 
 “We don’t get to govern if we don’t win,” he said. “Let’s come out of this conference resolved to win elections again.” ||||| 
 
 
 
 Humbled by a scandal that has hampered his rise on the national stage, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie sought to reconnect with the Republican base on Thursday, delivering an uncharacteristically low-key speech to GOP activists that sounded traditional conservative themes. 
 
 “You know I’m shy and retiring, and I don’t like to speak my mind,” Christie joked during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual confab held at a convention center on the banks of the Potomac River outside Washington. 
 
 But the reference to his swaggering image seemed to invoke a figure who wasn’t there. Christie’s remarks were neither brusque nor stirring. He courted the crowd by ticking off familiar tropes, reminding skeptical conservatives of his anti-abortion bona fides and his record of taking on public-sector unions and instituting budget reforms. The Garden State governor assailed the media for bias, cast Democrats as “the party of intolerance,” and urged the GOP to define itself as the party of ideas. 
 
 “Our ideas are better than their ideas,” Christie told the packed ballroom. “We have to stop letting the media define who we are and what we stand for.” 
 
 Christie framed himself as a conservative who has secured a governing majority in a reliably blue state. If the GOP can win in New Jersey, he said, it can borrow the blueprint to expand the political map in coming elections. 
 
 “Governors are about getting things done,” Christie said, lumping himself in with a passel of conservative executives leading blue and purple states, while distancing himself from Washington lawmakers. “Republican governors in this country have stood up and done things — not just talked about them.” 
 
 Christie’s remarks, which lasted about 15 minutes, were a far cry from the all-about-me message he delivered at the 2012 Republican National Convention. His speech Thursday earned a polite reception from the crowd and was punctuated by several rounds of applause. He spoke off the cuff, using notes instead of a teleprompter. 
 
 But his very attendance is a sign that the frost between Christie and his party’s base has thawed. Christie addressed the group in 2012 but did not receive an invitation to CPAC last year. The snub came just months after his public embrace of President Barack Obama in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Many Republicans believed Christie’s effusive praise of the President in the final days of Obama’s re-election campaign helped lift the President over GOP nominee Mitt Romney. Christie spent much of 2013 focused on appealing to his state’s Democrats in order to run up the score of his re-election in preparation for a 2016 presidential campaign. 
 
 The reception may have reflected the media onslaught buffeting Christie, who has been under fire in recent months amid revelations that aides initiated a traffic jam in an apparent act of political retribution. The harsh spotlight from a media conservatives see as biased has earned him new affection from the right. 
 
 Working a crowd that has not always been friendly to his brand of Northeast conservatism, Christie sought to mend fences. He defended the political activity of the billionaire Koch brothers, whose spending on 2014 races has become a rallying cry for vulnerable Senate Democrats. He urged conservatives to stress an economic platform that can lift Americans out of poverty. And he lambasted Obama for standing on the sidelines when Washington required leadership. 
 
 “Mr. President,” he said, “what the hell are we paying you for?” ||||| New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was his pugnacious self at the Conservative Political Action Conference, giving plenty of red meat and conservative lines to the crowd. In an implicit argument against future political opponents, he said that politicians in Washington just talk but that “Governors are about getting things done.” He blasted those who “stand on the sidelines and spitball,” and he made the case that Republicans must “talk about what we are for, not what we’re against.” There is the message for every governor running against every senator for the GOP presidential nomination. Instead, he argued that conservatives must be confident that “our ideas are better than their [Democrats'] ideas.” He proceeded to reel off accomplishments of several GOP governors in contrast to the “dysfunction” in Congress. 
 
 This was also a speech to remind attendees that he is conservative — pro-market and pro-life. He recounted his budget cuts ($2 billion less in spending than in 2008). Pointing to some diversity of views on abortion in the GOP he declared, after describing a reporter questioning the GOP position on abortion as intolerant, “They’re the party of intolerance, not us.” He, like others, carried a message of “opportunity,” deriding the president’s income-inequality focus in favor of “opportunity inequality.” That is an intriguing theme that deserves further detail. He even defended the Koch brothers, decrying Sen. Harry Reid’s attack on two hardworking Americans! 
 
 Interestingly, he also used the media feeding frenzy at home to boost his conservative street cred, declaring that the GOP should not allow the “media to define us.” Implicit in that is the challenge not to let the mainstream media pick the party’s nominee. 
 
 Christie also took a rare foray into foreign policy, arguing in favor of “America being a leader in the world” and “a strong national defense . . . Not [a country] that allows us to get pushed around all over the world.” That, in a nutshell, is how President Obama is unifying the GOP on national security. 
 
 Christie is still an impressive speaker who knows how to hold a room’s attention. If he is no longer the GOP front-runner, neither can he be ignored in 2016.
– Chris Christie got back in the national spotlight in a way he prefers today—as a featured speaker at the annual CPAC convention for conservatives. The New Jersey governor took particular aim at the media ("We've got to stop letting the media define who we are and what we stand for") and President Obama ("Man, that's leadership, isn't it?"), reports Politico. He also advised members of the GOP and the Tea Party that it's time to "start talking about what we're for and not what we're against." The AP called it an "aggressive message," and Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post writes that he was back to his "pugnacious self," but the sentiment wasn't unanimous. Time says the "humbled" governor delivered an "uncharacteristically low-key message." Either way, the crowd seemed to warm up to Christie as he went along and rewarded him with a standing ovation at the end, writes Eliana Johnson at the National Review. Rubin sums up: "Christie is still an impressive speaker who knows how to hold a room’s attention. If he is no longer the GOP front-runner, neither can he be ignored in 2016."