Christie: If Called to Be on Republican Ticket 'I'll Listen'

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says if he is called upon by the eventual Republican presidential nominee to run as the vice-presidential candidate “I’ll listen,” but adds he would find it difficult to leave his job as chief executive of the Garden State. Christie also told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Thursday despite the tightening race, he believes that Mitt Romney will be that eventual nominee.

 “Well, listen. I think it’s always going to tighten up — when you get down to essentially what's become a two or three person race now, it’s always going to get tighter,” said Christie, who is backing and campaigning for the former Massachusetts governor. “And Republicans are really focused this year Sean, as you know, on trying to pick the best person to defeat the president. And so, they aren’t going to decide until very late who that best person is.

“I believe in the end they’re going to decide it’s Governor Romney — but what I tell you is, I think they are doing a lot of shopping and they’re making sure,” Christie said. “I was on a telephone town hall for Governor Romney in South Carolina last night and two of the callers said to me: ‘Governor, I’m really torn between Mitt and Newt Gingrich. Tell me why I should vote for Mitt Romney.’ What I said to them was, that we need somebody in the Oval Office who has executive experience both as a governor and in the private sector.

“We’ve had a legislator for the past three years,” he continued. “And my experience, while legislators are nice people, they generally do not know how to use executive power most effectively. We need a president who is going to go in there and take this thing by the throat.”

Hannity noted that whoever is the GOP nominee, Christie would be on the short list for the Number Two slot and asked the New Jersey governor where he stands on that possibility.

“I don’t give it any thought now because in the end I have no control over it — one person, one man is going to make that decision,” Christie said. “And if I get the call, what I have said to everybody is I’ll listen. But I love this job, Sean. And I have a hard time imagining myself leaving it — that’s why I didn’t leave it to run for president. I find it hard to imagine that I would leave it to run for vice president, but I love my country enough — and I love my party enough — that if the nominee of my party picked up the phone and called, I think I owe it to myself and to my country to listen and that’s what I’ll do.”