Axelrod: Christie Could Be President ... if he Resists the Extreme Right

"Joe, let me pick up on a point you made before, though. When you said McCain and Romney weren't good candidates for the suburbs in northern Virginia, the fact is that they would have been good candidates, if they had run on their own records, but they were pulled to the right in order to win the nominations by the most strident voices in the Republican Party.

If Chris Christie wants to become President of the United States, he's going to have to resist that, and I would make one other point. The very thing that drives core Republicans, not sort of the base Tea Party Republicans, the fact that Chris Christie stood with the President of the United States in the midst of a disaster, and worked with him to try, and deal with New Jersey problems, was one of the reasons why he did so well last night in New Jersey. So the Republican Party has to resolve it's own internal conflict if they're going to win a national election."