The tough-talking Republican also sought to sell his New Jersey leadership style as a model for what can be done on the national level, and took on perceptions his persona can’t take hold in a place like Iowa.
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“What we’re doing in New Jersey can be done across the entire country, but it takes strength,” he said at a Dallas County GOP event in West Des Moines. “And it takes straight and direct talk to people.”
‘Man in a dark room’
Christie, who reminded the audience that it was his 13th time to Iowa since 2011, talked at length about foreign policy, mostly accusing the President of pulling back from the world while taking credit for trying to root out terrorism.
“You see the President taking bows, saying he has terrorism on the run, yet ISIS is beheading people and burning foreign soldiers alive,” he said.
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‘I like Iowa a lot’
John Strathman, co-chair of the Dallas County GOP, said he thinks Christie “helped himself” with his remarks Monday night, saying the governor does better in smaller settings like the conference room at the Marriott Hotel in West Des Moines.
But Christie will face the challenge in Iowa of trying not to fall into the mold of Romney, another northeast governor who turned off a lot of conservatives in 2012, Strathman said. He also pointed out that Wisconsin’s Scott Walker is also the governor of a blueish state and will be competing against Christie on that front.
Christie, who met with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad on Monday, said he plans to return to the Hawkeye State next month for an agriculture summit where a slate of other Republican candidates will also speak.
“I’m still working through the decision making process of whether to run or not. I haven’t made those kinds of decisions. I’ll make them when I need to,” he told reporters as he was getting in his car. “I have no reluctance about being here. I like Iowa a lot.”
