RIGHT SPEAK: Chris Christie wants the Republican Party to Update Its Image

A measured Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, returning to the national political spotlight at a convention of conservative activists Thursday, chided Washington for its political dysfunction, played up his social conservatism, and urged the Republican Party to broaden its electoral appeal, warning that “we’ve got to start to talk about what we are for and not what we are against.”

Christie, long a proponent of pragmatism over ideology, told the Conservative Political Action Conference that “we don’t get to govern if we don’t win.”

“Please, let’s come out of this conference not only resolved to stand for our principles, but let’s come out of this conference resolved to win elections again,” he said.

But Christie did not use the closely watched speech to offer a full-throated challenge to his party’s conservative wing, as he had in the past.

Instead, he seemed to take a more cautious approach at a moment when he remains politically vulnerable, amid a bruising scandal in New Jersey over his administration’s role in the closing of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge.

He devoted much of the speech to reinforcing traditional Republican messages, frequently sounding as much like a conventional Republican looking to endear himself to his party’s base as a blunt conveyor of uncomfortable truths, Christie’s familiar and favored role.