As George, Allan and others have brought up, there are quite a few parallels between the situation Christie finds himself in with the situation Obama found himself in a year ago. Christie would do well to pay close attention to the pitfalls which have led to Obama's current situation.

While the economic tailwinds are admittedly more favorable for Christie than they were for Obama, I would say the two key lessons for Christie would be: (1) limit your priorities to meat-and-potato issues (perhaps just the budget and school vouchers) and invest your time and efforts largely into ensuring you have meaningful accomplishments in those issues; and, (2) stay true your principles and personality. The electorate is likely to be more satisfied with a leader whose priorities they clearly understand and who has delivered on those priorities, even if they don't always agree with his methods.