UPDATE: A perceptive take on Christie’s appeal from a reader:

What I find so appealing about Christie is the whole vibe you get from him. He’s not the grand solution to what ails us, a la Obama in ’08. That sort of appeal leaves me both cold and very wary.
Christie describes the problem, defines the solution, and makes it seem like we all have a stake in this. I’ve heard commentators describe this as ‘common sense,’ but it is far from common. It is not even populist, because populism is too often built around resentment. In fact, given the seriousness of the problems in New Jersey and elsewhere, Christie’s appeal is almost exactly the opposite of most populists – he is profoundly optimistic.
In this way he is also Reaganesque. Even when we were confronting serious problems in the 80s, Reagan was eternally optimistic about America. So is Christie, albeit with a slightly less sunny disposition. Instead, Christie’s optimism is almost comfortable. It is reassuring to many of us to hear words that don’t seem so much to inspire as to reconfirm, admonish, self-deprecate, and look at problems sans any eyewear of the rose-colored variety. We want clarity, not pablum.
(The thought that Christie would ever say that today is when the oceans will start to recede and the Earth will begin to heal is laughable, and that fact alone is part of his enormous appeal.)