President Barack Obama appeared to be on the ropes after the beating his party took in November and his under 50% approval rating. But until the Republicans find someone who can defeat him, Obama has to be considered a favorite to for re-election. 
 
 The GOP may have the person who could beat Obama, but New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie still insists he will not be a candidate for president or vice president next year. Our polling found that Christie was the only one of seven possible Republican candidates leading Obama in a hypothetical 2012 match-up. As a spectator, I’d love to see how a race between these two men of very different personal and governing styles. 
 
 Our interactive poll conducted from Dec. 30-Jan. 3 found Christie was the top choice for 27% of Republican voters to be the 2012 nominee, putting him ahead of Mitt Romney (17%), Sarah Palin (16%) and Mike Huckabee (14%). Christie led among conservatives and Born-Again Christians, and only trailed Romney by a few points among the few moderate Republicans. 
 
 In head-to-head polls against Obama, Christie led, 43%-40%. Romney tied Obama at 40%-40%, and all the other Republican names we offered (Palin, Huckabee, John Thune, Mitch Daniels and Tim Pawlenty) trailed by from three to seven points. 
 
 Despite those results, Christie still says he won’t be running for national office. Responding to news of our poll, Christie said: “I’m sure the president is resting easy as we speak right now knowing that the only person who’s beating him in a poll will once again declare that I’m not running for president of the United States.” 
 
 Polling two years out from an election is far from definitive, and most candidates poll much better before the campaigning actually begins and weaknesses are exposed. That certainly applies to Christie, who was a U.S. Attorney before he beat John Corzine in 2009. 
 
 Now, he is well-known among the politically involved as the guy who took on New Jersey public employees. Christie cut the state budget to its smallest total in five years with major cuts to schools, municipalities, mass transit and other areas . He did this after months of conflict with a Democratic-controlled legislature. 
 
 Christie quickly became a YouTube star with his town hall dressing down of a complaining public school teacher. The video has been viewed nearly 900,000 times. Christie listens to the woman as he casually takes off his jacket and sips a bottle of water. When she chuckles at his saying he has not “lambasted” teachers, he says he will take another question if she “just wants to put on a show.” Christie then riffs for seven minutes on how the teachers’ union has refused to compromise and is responsible for layoffs of its members. He remains composed, but direct, as he gives his explanation about why he believes New Jersey can’t afford current levels of pay and benefits for public employees; and closes with controlled indignation about how the head of a local teachers’ union asked members to pray for his death. 
 
 That video has made Christie the face of the GOP’s campaign to reduce the number and compensation of public employees. That is a very popular campaign with independents; and one that Christie’s new Democratic gubernatorial neighbor in New York State, Andrew Cuomo, seems to be joining. 
 
 Christie is a physically big man with a blunt, confrontational style; the complete opposite of Obama. Christie has never lived farther from New Jersey than Delaware, where he got his undergrad degree before coming home to get his law degree at Seton Hall. Obama was born in Hawaii, lived for a time as a child in Indonesia, received both his undergrad and law degrees from Ivy League schools and taught law at the equally prestigious University of Chicago. 
 
 Debates between the two would bring out all those differences. If Christie held up under the pressure, he would appeal to working class Democrats (a group where Obama is already weak) and put into play Blue states such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan. 
 
 If Christie changed his mind about running for President, he might not be far enough to the right on some issues to win the GOP nomination. He supports New Jersey’s strict gun control laws, which alone might be enough to defeat him in some GOP primaries. Christie says he is “pro-life,” but has also said he would not “force that down people’s throats.” He supports civil unions, but not same sex marriage. 
 
 So maybe Christie is making the correct choice in staying out in 2012. On the other hand, he may someday look back and repeat the line of a fictional guy from Jersey and say “I coulda been a contender.” 

 New Jersey Governor-elect Chris Christie greets supporters before delivering his victory speech at election night headquarters in Parsippany, New Jersey, in this November 3, 2009 file photo. 
 
 NEW YORK | 
 
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is a rising star of the Republican Party seen as having a shot at a White House run, raising questions whether his obesity could impede his chances. 
 
 American views on overweight candidates may help determine the political future of Christie, an alternative to fit fellow-Republican Sarah Palin. While Americans like female candidates slim, they seem to better tolerate their male politicians on the heavy side. 
 
 Christie rose to prominence on the national scene after his 2009 election when he closed an $11 billion deficit on a $29 billion budget while putting a cap on property tax increases. 
 
 Now a recent Zogby poll of hypothetical Republican candidates showed him first in the field, ahead of Palin, and the only Republican beating President Barack Obama. 
 
 Although Bill Clinton was teased for being overweight, America has not had a truly obese president since William Howard Taft a century ago. 
 
 "Image does matter. ... That is something that is in the voters' subconscious whether they want to admit it or not," said Patrick Murray, director of New Jersey's Monmouth University Polling Institute. 
 
 Political analysts are hesitant to suggest weight will harm Christie's political future. 
 
 "Are you looking for somebody who can run a marathon or somebody who can run a state?" said Republican strategist Rich Galen. 
 
 But research has found bias against the overweight has risen steadily in recent years. Some 42.5 percent of severely obese people report bias, according to the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States. 
 
 Stereotypes persist that fat people are lazy, unintelligent and unsuccessful. The bias is even worse for women. 
 
 "You would think that attitudes might improve as obesity rates increase but we're finding the exact opposite," said Rebecca Puhl, a Yale University researcher. 
 
 More than one-third of American adults are obese, a rate that doubled from 1980 to 2008, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity is defined as having a "body mass index" of 30 or higher, with a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 considered healthy. 
 
 THE POLITICS OF FAT 
 
 Christie, 48, is a very large man, and not because of his height of 5-foot-11. He has publicly acknowledged struggling with his weight while also joking about it. He told radio host Don Imus in mock exaggeration that he weighed 550 pounds (250 kg). 
 
 Christie's spokesman declined to comment.
– Chris Christie is widely seen as a leading GOP contender for 2012 but some analysts see a hefty obstacle in the way: Chris Christie. America hasn't had an obese president since William Howard Taft a century ago and bias against the overweight could count against the New Jersey governor." Image does matter," a pollster tells Reuters. "That is something that is in the voters' subconscious whether they want to admit it or not." A recent Zogby poll, however, placed Christie first in a field of hypothetical GOP presidential candidates—ahead of Sarah Palin—and found him to be the only Republican contender who would beat the relatively svelte President Obama. Research has found that bias against the overweight has increased in recent years, despite the rise in obesity, although one study found that the public tends to prefer chubbier politicians—but only if they're men.