Why hitting the boardwalk Obama can help Chris Christie now, but hurt him later

Christie's perfect shot isn't the only reason for his reelection team to be smiling about today's press tour. As we saw late last year, working with President Obama has done good things for Christie's reputation in his home state.

As they toured the newly re-opened boardwalk at Asbury Park Tuesday, President Obama and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie played a game called “Touchdown Fever.” The president took 5 shots at the game, trying to throw the pig skins through a tire. Christie sunk his football on the first try.

“One and done,” the governor said as the president high fived him.

“That’s cause he’s running for office!” Obama joked.

Christie’s perfect shot isn’t the only reason for his reelection team to be smiling about today’s press tour. As we saw late last year, working with President Obama has done good things for Christie’s reputation in his home state.

In the months leading up to the October storm, numerous polls found Christie’s approval sat in the mid to low 50′s—the highest ratings he’d seen at that time, but nothing that guaranteed his reelection. After touring the Jersey shore with President Obama and working alongside him to help the area recover from the devastating impact of superstorm Sandy, his approval surged to 72%.

President Barack Obama is greeted by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie upon his arrival at Atlantic City International Airport, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012, in Atlantic City, NJ. Obama traveled to the region to take an aerial tour of the Atlantic Coast in New Jersey in areas damaged by superstorm Sandy, (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

As Christie’s ramped up his reelection campaign in recent months, that number has stayed high, even as he criticized members of his own party for refusing to support Sandy clean up funding and praised Obama for keeping his promises to Garden Staters seeking storm relief. Of course, Congressional Republicans—perhaps best known these days for their constant obstruction of the Obama agenda—only have a 22% approval rating.

Obama won the Garden State by 17 points, and in a recent NBC News/Marist poll a whopping 42% of Obama voters said they would be supporting Christie come November.

But if he wins the Governor’s mansion again, many speculate that Christie will take a shot at the White House in 2016, and these “bipartisan bromance” moments with President Obama could both help and hurt him.

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Christie enjoys high favorability ratings across party lines according to a recent PPP poll—with 41% of Republicans, 40% of Democrats, and 45% of Independent voters supporting the Jersey governor. No one, not even the popular Democratic possible Hillary Clinton, commands that level of universal support. Christie also comes closest to besting Clinton in a hypothetical match-up.

However, Christie remains locked in a four-way race with other top GOP candidates, and in the last 6 months his approval has statistically remained stagnant while Tea Party Republican Senator Rand Paul has seen a large improvement.

The biggest issue for Christie is which style of Republican his party will be ready to elect come primary season 2016. Will the campaign ads featuring multiple photos of Christie and Obama hand and hand on the Jersey shore help him with the typically more conservative voters who vote in  GOP primaries? At this point, it’s hard to see how.

Bob Dole advised his party to put up a “closed for repairs” sign and work on some policies and ideas this weekend. That move could help Christie, but the party and the GOP voters would need to be on board with that plan, and it’s not yet clear that they are.