When a lighthearted Chris Christie faced the attendees at CPAC late Thursday morning, it felt almost as though Bridgegate was just a bad dream.

The New Jersey governor arrived on stage nearly an hour late. The crowd rose to greet him as Christie first stepped to the podium and it again rose to cheer him after his brief speech, which touched on topics ranging from public unions to his own pro-life beliefs. He did not, predictably, address the scandal which has threatened to bring his political career to a premature end.
Christie, his skin bronze, smiled broadly as he spoke, often drawing laughs, and frequently causing the crowd to erupt in applause.
He began his talk with the usual: boasting about his pension fight. âAs you can imagine,â he smirked, âI was extraordinarily popular with the public employee unions.â But the deep red crowd permitted the governor to abandon his normal spiel in favor of talking party ideology, which he rarely gets the opportunity to do in blue Jersey.
"Weâve got to start talking about what weâre for, and not what weâre against,â he advised the audience, which cheered. Christie, who is chairman of the Republican Governors Association, praised the work of GOP governors in Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, and Ohio to the practically hyperventilating crowd. âWe have to stop letting the media define who we are and what we stand for.â
Christie took a powerful swing at Democrats when the talk turned to his opinion on abortion. âTell me the last pro-life Democrat who was allowed to speak at a Democratic convention,â he said. âTheyâre the party of intolerance, not us.â
The governor then fired squarely at President Obama on income inequality. âWe donât need, Mr. President, your opinion on what income inequality is. We donât have an income inequality problem. We have an opportunity problem.â
Wheeling a suitcase through a mass of conservatives after his speech was one of Christieâs top political advisers, Mike DuHaime. He told me he was very pleased with the response to Christie. âI thought it was a great reaction. I thought [the speech] went over really wellâŚI was happy to see a standing ovation at the end.â DuHaime wouldnât say whether or not the positive reaction had him thinking about a possible Christie presidential campaign. âIâm worried about 2014. I know everybody else wants to talk about 2016.â
DuHaime had cause to be so happy. A warm reception for Christie was not a given at CPAC.
Last year, the controversial Republican was not invited to the event, after infuriating the GOP with his âbipartisan embraceâ of Obama in the wake of Hurricane Sandy (and just before the presidential election). Many Republicans went as far as to blame Christie for Mitt Romneyâs loss. Laura Ingraham suggested he switch parties. Ann Coulter told CPACâs crowd Christie was âoff my list.â
Outside the CPAC ballroom today, a single protester named John Bloom became a topic of much interest for encouraging the eventâs attendees to walk out during Christieâs speech. âI call him Governor Traffic Jam,â Bloom told me. âIf you believe the media, heâs abused power with the bridge fiascoâŚor, if you believe him, heâs ignorant of what his administration is doing!â Bloomâs goal, he said, is to ârestore integrityâ to the Republican Party. âChris Christie is not integrity.â
But whatâs causing Christie trouble in his home state may be making him fans among many conservatives. In the months since the scandal involving lane closures on the George Washington Bridge became one of the biggest political stories in the country, the liberal media has kept a target on his back. The death of Christieâs political career would be, in part, a victory for a place like MSNBC, which has devoted so much time to covering every little detail and conspiracy of Bridgegate.
The conservatives applauding Christie at CPAC werenât just applauding another Republican governor, they were applauding the newest enemy of the liberal media.