The power of the image could not have been lost on a politician as savvy as Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey: With days to go before a cliffhanger election, a Democratic president was giving the handshake-back pat to his Republican opponent’s most aggressive campaigner as they prepared to embark on a tour of damage from a catastrophic storm.
Mr. Christie had been scheduled to campaign for Mitt Romney, but he embraced the moment. When President Obama praised the governor after they finished their tour — “I want to let you know your governor is working overtime” — the two were soon swapping compliments.
“It’s been a great working relationship,” Mr. Christie said.
“I cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for our state,” he added during a brief news conference. He said it was “my honor” to turn the podium over to the president and then stood just behind him, occasionally nodding and smiling at his jokes.
For all the disruptions caused by Hurricane Sandy, the most unexpected may have been its unsettling effect on a presidential campaign winding into its final days. Perhaps nothing demonstrated the sudden upending of a political landscape years in the making so much as Mr. Christie’s unexpected and effusive praise of Mr. Obama. Only last week he dismissed the president as “clutching for the light switch of leadership.”
The scene played out on televisions around the country like a stirring campaign ad that hit themes of bipartisanship and crisis management — only it was run free of charge. And for those who missed it, Mr. Christie repeated his praise again and again in television interviews, saying the president had been “outstanding,” “incredibly supportive” and “deserves great credit.”
As pundits mused about the political implications for the presidential race, few of those watching, including campaign aides to the president and Mr. Romney, could do more than guess about the latest wild-card move from a wild-card governor.
Was he just a selfless leader making sure that he and his state had the ear of the man holding the federal purse strings? Or a selfish climber who figured he could run for president in 2016 if Mr. Romney were to lose this year? Or maybe he saw it in purely local terms, as a way to scare away a potentially strong Democratic challenger, like the popular Newark mayor, Cory A. Booker, at a time when the state’s unemployment rate hovers well above the national average.
As Mr. Obama stood beside Mr. Christie and gushed about “his extraordinary leadership,” Romney aides were eager to make nothing of the partnership.
“He’s a governor focused on his job,” said Kevin Madden, a Romney adviser. “He has said he’s not looking at this through the lens of politics. He’s right, and I expect most folks are looking at it just like the governor is.”
Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said the visit should not be seen as a political event. “This is a time to focus on what was a devastating storm and the terrible aftermath of that storm,” he said.
But Mr. Christie did not completely set aside politics: he has blasted Democrats in the State Legislature for not allowing him to raise fines on utilities that do not respond quickly enough to power failures, and he has picked a fight with the Democratic mayor of Atlantic City.
Part of it may be that Mr. Christie still feels like a youngster in a candy shop about being governor — he tells audiences at home that when he sees his name and title etched in gold on his office door, he asks himself, “How the hell did this happen?” When the president calls, it’s still a pinch-me moment. Even when he wakes you up.
“It’s O.K., he’s allowed to,” he told reporters.
Before the visit Wednesday, Mr. Christie mentioned several times that he and the president had talked “just the two of us,” and that the president had insisted that if he had any problems, he was to call him directly.
Mike DuHaime, an adviser to Mr. Christie, said the governor was acting true to form. “He calls ’em as he sees ’em,” he said. “If they’re working well together, he’s going to say it.”
Mr. Christie has not announced whether he will run for a second term, but if he does, Election Day is a mere year and five days away. His approval ratings are high in New Jersey, but Mr. Obama’s are higher.
It would not be the first time that Republicans have accused him of putting his own interests first: many criticized him after he delivered the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention, when it took him 15 minutes to mention Mr. Romney’s name.
But one Republican close to Mr. Romney said that Mr. Christie would have been accused of playing politics if he had said no to the president’s post-storm visit, as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York had.
Still he seemed at times almost dismissive of Mr. Romney. When a host of Fox and Friends asked whether Mr. Romney would come visit New Jersey, the governor replied sternly: “I have no idea,” he said. “Nor am I the least bit concerned or interested.”
As the president and the governor flew over the devastated Jersey Shore, at least one resident seemed to be staying on message. At the north end of Point Pleasant Beach, someone had etched in the sand: “ROMNEY.”
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