Chris Christie: I'd consider being on GOP ticket

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks as Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, listens at left during a campaign rally in Exeter, N.H., Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012.

/ AP Photo/Elise Amendola

(CBS News) Amid speculation that he could be tapped to join the Republican ticket with presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Chris Christie, the outspoken New Jersey governor who inspired some presidential speculation of his own last year, is allowing that he'd be open to the job if called.

"This is an election with one voter, Mitt Romney. He gets to decide who he thinks should be the vice president of the United States," Christie said in a Tuesday interview with CNBC. "I love being governor of New Jersey, you can tell. But the fact is, if Gov. Romney picks up the phone and calls, you have to answer the call and listen at least."

Christie, who just yesterday called a reporter an "idiot" for asking an off-topic question, was for months considered a possible presidential candidate himself, despite his insistence that he had no intentions of running.

This is not the first time Christie has said he would consider joining the Republican presidential ticket. In April, he told a New Jersey history class that Romney "might be able to convince me" to join the ticket, even though he's not really "the vice presidential type." In a recent string of television appearances, he's made similar comments.

"As I've said before, I love being governor of New Jersey, I have every intention of staying as governor," Christie said Tuesday on Fox News. But, he added, he'd "certainly listen" if Romney asked him to be number two.

The unapologetically brash first-term governor has admitted that he and Romney have little in common stylistically. As ABC News reported, the governor pressed the presumptive Republican nominee to "open up" in an interview on "Nightline" that will air Tuesday night.

"I think as time progresses in this campaign, you're going to see him open himself up more and more to the American people, and let them see who Mitt Romney really is, like I've had the opportunity to see," he said. "And I think when they do, they're going to like what they see."

Christie is believed to be high on Romney's list of potential running mates, and suggested in the ABC News interview that he is in the process of being vetted.

"I think any of that stuff is up to the Romney campaign to talk about and not up to any of the individual people who might be being vetted to discuss," he said.

He also addressed the issue of his weight - which has been cited as a possible impediment to his being picked or potentially serving as president.

"I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding among people regarding weight and regarding all those things that go into, to people being overweight," Christie said on "Nightline," according to ABC News. "I think folks say -- yeah, well he must just not be disciplined, you know, or he must not have willpower -- that kind of thing. I guess the best analogy to make is some people drink too much. Some people take drugs. Some people eat too much. See, you can go live every day without drinking. You can live every day without taking drugs. You can't live every without eating."

"It's a really difficult thing to deal with," he added of his struggle to lose weight.

[nancy_naive]

Put Chris Christie on the ticket, and it'll sink.

[RollotheNorman]

Chris Christie: overweight and outta control. Bad choice for Willard, NJ toughguy crap won't play well in any number of places including, but not limited to: OH, PA, MI, WI, FL, and most of the South, West, Midwest and Atlantic Seaboard. Be about as good a pick as Palin.

[raptor-022]

lemminghunter July 3, 2012 8:56 PM EDT
"The snarky name-calling here does a good job of reflecting the intellectual depth of the infantile left....if that's all your tiny brain can conjure up.."


So should we call you the POT or the KETTLE with your attacks?

I'll tell you what though, that chris crisco is one plump loudmouth, and I just hope he stays in NJ, since the rest of America certainly doesn't deserve his partisan divisiveness and attacks!

[nygurl1]

That's funny! In the beginning that was how all reps talked! Lies, cussing, nasty cracks; And never a fact in the bunch!

Now you are trying to accuse US of doing it when we fight you fact for fiction. HILARIOUS!

[raptor-022]

Mdsjules July 4, 2012 12:44 PM EDT
"GOP had their chance with 8 years of Bush. Messed up."



First off, the ACA is not a "government takeover," but an expansion of the for-profit insurance industry which includes health care exchanges in order to compare and price different health care options. If the ACA was a "government takeover," with "socialized" medicine, there would only be ONE OPTION for everyone. Not so!

As far as the GOP and bush go, all they did while controlling the entire government was pass tax cut after tax cut and start one endless war after another -- never once crafting any legislation to fix our health care debacle that they kept whining about. No different today, since all the republicans including mitt roMONEY, have absolutely nothing to replace the PPACA with after repealing it!

[nygurl1]

jules - What I remember is when they decided to make medical 'groups'. I tried 3 different ones and found they were shelters for incompetents! So the quality had already gone down.

Most doctors still think they are god and know better then I do about what is happening in my body! The last one I went to said high blood pressure was not caused by stress and gave me meds I didn't want that gave me migranes! This was my first and last visit!

Now I am retired and left with Medicare/Medicaid and still have to pay enormous amounts to doctors who keep getting their payments cut by government! Nice way to get rid of us inconvenient seniors who don't pay taxes any more!

[dudley58]

Please please please, Mittens, pick this walking mouth as your running mate!!!

[RollotheNorman]

You mean waddling mouth don't you?

[euge005]

Oh wonderful, imagine the idea of this fat abusive loud mouth on TV nightly on Fox ranting this crazy GOP garbage? Makes me sick to think about it. Only those with nothing to offer need to shout to do so. Hey lard butt, crawl back under the wet rock and say hello to the war criminals like Chaney when you get there.

[realist2010]

When Romney was asked why people appear to be drawn to Governor Christie, Romney replied, "Gravitational pull."

Not really, he said "He smells like bacon."

[GoUnion86]

Thank God for Obama Care. Morbidly obese people like Christie usually have some sort of pre-existing health condition.

[raptor-022]

Mdsjules July 4, 2012 1:23 PM EDT
"Most people including Christie already has healthcare."



The fatboy has government provided health care by the taxpayers!

[RighteousOffender]

Is he bigger than Taft? Christie suggests that being fat and being undisciplined are not synonymous. But in his case, it appears to be so. He said, himself, that he weighs too much because he eats too much. Get that under control, dude, and work on your nasty, roughhewn personality while you're at it.

[mick7744]

VOTE FATSO AND THE BAIN...2012

Why all this fuss over an unelectable candidate (Romney) who was merely judged to be the LEAST unelectable among the bizarre assortment of unqualified, unelectable candidates in the GOP primaries?

Me? I was pulling for Newt Gingrich all the way...I wanted to see him fulfil his self-proclaimed destiny by going down in American history as the person who finally destroyed the GOP (Greedy Obstructionist Parasites...or perhaps in Newt's case, Grotesque Old Perverts would be more appropriate)

Once the American voting public got a close look at that corrupt, perverted sleezebag...the 1%ers would all be deserting the sinking Republican ship like the rats they are...

As for Christie...New Jersey deserves him!