“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. 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. 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. 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. If the GOP can win in New Jersey, he said, it can borrow the blueprint to expand the political map in coming elections. 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. “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. 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. He defended the political activity of the billionaire Koch brothers, whose spending on 2014 races has become a rallying cry for vulnerable Senate Democrats. 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.
– 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."