That didn't take long. One week after officially declining entreaties to jump into the Republican presidential race, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie throws his considerable support to the man everyone presumed he would back: Mitt Romney.
Christie's endorsement was as much of a non-surprise as his decision not to run. But it's still dominating the news cycle this afternoon. And leave it to Christie to fire some Jersey straight talk in the direction of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose association with a pastor dubbing Romney's Mormonism "a cult" remains a hot campaign mess.
Religious swipes and spiritual insults, Christie declared, are "beneath the office of the president of the United States."
-- Monica Yant Kinney