WI: Chris Christie 2012!

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie runs for president in October 2011, shaking up a lackluster GOP presidential field that includes Mitt Romney, the charisma-challenged establishment frontrunner who is failing to inspire the conservative grassroots, Herman Cain, the conservative businessman and historic outsider, and other lackluster candidates. How does Christie make his entrance into the 2012 GOP presidential field, and does he win the nomination and does he defeat President Barack Obama for reelection in 2012?

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/10/as_chris_christie_considers_pr.html
 
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie runs for president in October 2011, shaking up a lackluster GOP presidential field that includes Mitt Romney, the charisma-challenged establishment frontrunner who is failing to inspire the conservative grassroots, Herman Cain, the conservative businessman and historic outsider, and other lackluster candidates. How does Christie make his entrance into the 2012 GOP presidential field, and does he win the nomination and does he defeat President Barack Obama for reelection in 2012?

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/10/as_chris_christie_considers_pr.html
October is pretty late for any candidate to announce their candidacy, take Wesley Clark in 2004 for example. Chris Christie did not run in OTL, in part because he was too inexperienced and was against resigning from being Governor of New Jersey so early. Let's say that he does as you say, and enters the Republican race in ATL 2012. He would be ripped apart for being too "liberal"/moderate, which probably prevents him from winning the nomination. Not to mention, he wouldn't be able to knock down OTL's frontrunners (Romney, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, etc.) He'd probably do well enough for Romney to tap him for the vice presidential nomination, but that's about it. If by some miracle he did steal the nomination from Romney, Barack Obama would crush him with incumbency and Obama could exploit Christie's straight shooting, shoot from the hip, anti-Washington, tell it like it is, not afraid to be a jerk style the same way they did with OTL Romney's corporatist capitalist vulture, out of touch rich guy style. This scenario would work better in a timeline where Romney loses to Obama in 2008, leaving the playing field in 2012 wide open for anyone to take advantage of.
 
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