newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ADELE SAMMARCO

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Fallout continues on the heels of Chris Christie’s keynote address at the Republican National Convention from party leaders on both sides who believe the New Jersey Governor may have talked a bit too much about himself rather than Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.

The fallout has put Christie on the defensive, explaining his strategy, to delegates from New Hampshire and Pennsylvania at a briefing Wednesday.

“I really thought that my job last night was to lay out both the stakes in this election and the choice in this election. And as it turned out with Mrs. Romney going first … it actually freed me up to put the choice in even more general terms than I was originally gonna do,” Christie said according to the Asbury Park Press. “It allowed me to be able to let Ann Romney talk about Mitt Romney the person."

In his speech, Christie defiantly spoke about the importance of truth, telling delegates it's what the American public deserves.

“That’s what I was trying to do last night, is to lay out for our party here’s who we are and what we stand for,” he said. “We’re about telling the truth. We’re about facing up to those hard truths that need to be faced up to that have not been faced up to by either party for a long time. We’re about a party that today realized that someone’s got to be responsible, that someone’s got to look the American people in the eye and tell them: This is how bad off things are from a fiscal perspective in our country, and we better get it together because we’re running out of time.”

"I thought it was a tremendous disappointment," added Republican strategist Alex Castellanos according to the Tampa Bay Times, saying the speech did nothing to advance the ball against Obama, or for Romney.

"It didn't have any purpose that served his party and his nominee," Castellanos said. "It's almost like he wanted to prove that he wasn't just a guy who could turn tables over and speak truth to power."

In preparing for the speech, Republicans marketed high expectations, putting out a press release in advance to stir up excitement for the address. But in the end, it was Ann Romney who appeared to out-shine the Governor as she talked about her husband and her own personal, marital experiences as a wife and mother, overcoming breast cancer and living with multiple sclerosis.

For Christie, it took at least 16 minutes into his speech to even mention Mitt Romney's name and he referred to Romney only seven times by name.

Coming to Christie’s aid, fellow Republican Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who said it wasn't Christie's job to promote Romney.