Politics

Chris Christie wins a stuffed bear for Obama

Alexis Levinson Political Reporter
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When President Barack Obama visited the Jersey Shore on Tuesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie got him a gift: a stuffed bear, which Christie won using his superior athletic prowess at an arcade in Point Pleasant.

Obama traveled to New Jersey to survey parts of the state damaged by Hurricane Sandy Christie. One of their first stops of the day, according to the pool report, was an arcade called “TouchDown Fever” on the Point Pleasant Boardwalk, where Obama made several attempts to win himself a prize. It was a feat that could be accomplished by successfully throwing a football through a tire.

Obama’s efforts were unsuccessful. He “missed a few times.”

Christie then took a turn, and threw a clean pass through the tire, “on his first and only try.”

Obama applauded him with a “high five ending in a clasp,” and joked: “That’s because he’s running for office.” Christie faces re-election in November.

The president was the one who got the prize for Christie’s effort: a “Chicago” bear, handed to him by the guy behind the counter.

This is not the first time Obama’s hand-eye coordination has suffered with pool reporters and spectators standing by.

At the White House Easter Egg Roll in April, the President tried to shoot some hoops with some of the children present for the event. The first shot “bounced off the rim and circled it” but failed to go through. The next few shots, acccording to the pool reporter, only “got worse”: “Miss. Miss. Off the rim. Miss. Miss. Off the rim. Airball.”

All told Obama made two out of the 22 shots he took.

The last time the president joined Christie at the Jersey Shore was shortly before the November election in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy devastated the coastline of New Jersey. Christie’s praise for the president made the popular governor, who many had hoped would be Obama’s challenger that year, into a villain for some Republicans who believed his embrace of the president contributed to Obama’s victory over GOP challenger Mitt Romney.

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