Chris Christie: ‘Mitt Romney is the man we need to lead’

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said his endorsement of Mitt Romney had been an easy choice.

“I’m in here in New Hampshire for a simple reason: America cannot survive another four years with Barack Obama,” Christie said. “Mitt Romney is the man we need to lead America and we need him now – that’s why I’m here,” Christie said.

The New Jersey governor praised Romney’s experience both as a governor and in the private sector “running businesses, turning businesses around, going in there telling people the truth about what needed to be done, coming up with the plan to get it done.”

“We know that he brings the best of both to what we need for America right now,” he said. Romney, he said, is “not a legislator trying to figure out how to use executive power, but an executive who has used executive power and will use it to make American lives better—that’s why I’m endorsing Mitt Romney for president of the United States.”

Christie criticized what he described as Obama’s campaign strategy “to divide America.” Americans he said would believe in optimism over division: “They want to believe in somebody who believes America’s future can be greater; not someone who is trying to divide an ever shrinking pie among the American people.”

Christie also defended Romney’s healthcare plan in Massachusetts, noting that he did not raise taxes to pay for his plan. “I’m proud of him for standing up for what he believed was right. Do not try to equate what’s happened in Obamacare with what Gov. Romney did in Massachusetts.”

Romney called Christie “a hero” who had been forthright in trying to turn around New Jersey’s economy.

“He’s a man who has a following of a lot of folks across this country and so when he indicated a willingness to join my team, I couldn’t have been more pleased and more happy.”

Christie will appear on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” Tuesday evening in an effort, perhaps, to explain his endorsement to conservatives who may be unhappy with his choice.

maeve.reston@latimes.com