New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie continues to win wide acclaim for his heroic efforts both before and after Hurricane Sandy.
He’s been much more than comforter-in-chief to those devastated by the storm.
He’s been on top of the rescue efforts, and he’s been decisive.
But what many admire in Christie was best symbolized by his sincere embrace of President Obama.
Christie proved that despite his oft-combative partisanship, he knows when to reach out to find solutions. His praise of the president provided a riveting national lesson in gracious leadership.
No surprise, but this was not universally admired. Some Republicans — and not just Republicans — thought he leaned a tad too far in the president’s direction.
But Christie’s GOP bona fides are not open to question: Before the storm struck, he’d campaigned hard for Mitt Romney.
He’s certainly no Mike Bloomberg — who claims to have had a political epiphany as a result of Hurricane Sandy.
But Christie does need to go one step further and reassure his party — and not just his party — that he hasn’t turned coat.
He needs to bring Romney into the discussion by reminding voters — some of whom may have been swayed by media partisans who eagerly spun Obama’s Jersey trip as a quasi-endorsement — just who his candidate is.
To shine some of his star power, in other words, on Mitt Romney.
Yes, Christie has forcefully avoided politicking post-Sandy — as he noted when asked about his praise for Obama.
And he was right to do so.
But true bipartisanship includes the need to make clear his belief that the incumbent’s vigorous response to the disaster would have been more than matched by Mitt Romney had he been president.
Bipartisanship can’t just work in one direction — as partisans usually demand.
Voters got a reminder of that Friday when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid derided as “laughable” Romney’s “fantasy that Senate Democrats will work with him.”
We’re not talking about bringing Romney in for a tour of Jersey’s devastation — just a brief, but clear, reminder of where Chris Christie stands.
If he doesn’t do that, the Republican Party will never forgive him.