kelly o'donnell, also with me john piric, and bob engle, senior political columnist, and he's also author of "chris christie the in star rise to power." a lot is being made that chris christie will speak off the cuff having this kind of town hall feel. we know that's his strategy the guy he wants to present to the country. >> reporter: he is going to try to talk about his story and introduce the country to the chris christie that livingston new jersey knew first. so expect some of the biography, expect some of the family nostalgia, expect some of the stories that are familiar to those of us who have traveled around the country with him, but maybe less familiar to a wider audience today. trying to define the influences that developed that big personality that has become the brash political figure that some people like and some people don't. so by using his skills to speak more ex temp raintemporaneously in a broad field. how do you stand out? part of it is making the best of that big personality, which as we talked about, doesn't always win him friends. talking to senior advisers they described the poll in new jersey this way. get ready for the spin. because new jersey is predominantly more democratic and as christie drew closer to this day of announcing he would run for president, the democrats would feel less comfortable supporting him, a because as one adviser said he's putting the red jacket on today, being a republican. so expect him to talk about who he is and embracing that personality with the thought that you can hop from here in new jersey tamron to new hampshire where that more up front style is often reward bided by voters. that's what we'll have to see. >> let's start with the team numbers in this explanation. he's putting on his red jacket. that elected him at one point with the same red jacket. he was at 80% and now he's down to 30 i believe. so what's happened here? >> he couldn't be elected dog catcher if he ran now in new jersey. one of the things that new jersey people don't like is he's never in new jersey. after he makes the big announcement today, he's off to new hampshire for five days because he's put all his eggs in the new hampshire basket and people think they elected a full-time governor and they want to have a full-time governor. >> so this has nothing to do with his policies? because in the end, then if the theory is they are sad to see him leave, which is what chris christie said then the rest of the nation would benefit. >> i think he's joking actually, when he said that. i think it's the first thing off the top of his head but you can say absurd things and make it look like he's being serious. the state is in bad shape any way you look at it and people of new jersey aren't happy about that, either. >> it's interesting, he can say absurd things and treat them seriously, but the people of his own state doesn't know what absurdity they are. the university poll last month showed 66% of his fellow citizens felt he didn't have the temperament to be president of the united states 59%. >> i know there was huge backlash when people brought this up about senator mccain when he ran. we're not necessarily looking for the nicest guy, nicest person or nicest woman, we have two genders running in this case. you can take what's happening with the economic recovery and take it further or some issues we have from education on to even where he stands on the core curriculum. >> you're raising a very important point. if he's not going to be able to run on temperament and personality, the country is moving forward economically so that takes an argument away and the theme of telling it like it is driving all his positions to compete nationally that doesn't tell a lot, either. >> bob, let's talk about some of what people see, or certainly inconsistencies that he will need to acknowledge and clear up. climate change? >> he was for the corporate world before he was against it. >> immigration reform. >> immigration, and he would talk in new jersey about having to cut the funding for women's health clinics, and he said it was because of the money. then he would go out on the road and say, well i cut planned parenthood funds. so he can take both sides of the same story depending on where he's talking. >> john let me bring you in this conversation. as we mentioned, this is the 14th candidate in the gop field. can he have kelly o'donnell said something very interesting, that some of these candidates want to make the best of their big personalities. we're going to talk about donald trump here in a second but the idea this may boil down in some of these debates, who has the quickest lines, who has the smackdown that may go viral, how concerned are you that policy gets lost in all of this personality talk? >> i like chris christie's big personality. i think it plays well with republican base voters. i think he's going to talk about big issues which i think need to be discussed. things like entitlement reform. i think chris christie has got a problem, obviously, with his track record in new jersey but he has the right issues in his matrix that need to be raised at the debate. i hope he makes the debate stage because i think he can talk about these things in a very articulate fashion in a way that is compelling to voters and i think it's really important for him to be on that stage. >> let's talk about immigration reform. how is he compelling and how does he break through the noise when it is not very clear where, i think, he stands here. i just want to point out to our audience this is sheila goldklein. she is head of the board of education. she will introduce governor christie and his family. go ahead. >> he needs to talk about his ability to attract hispanic voters which he did in his reelection campaign and i thinkbraceabshlgs -- abrasive immigration reform. >> you said he's attracted to the base. if he starts pitching an immigration reform and some of that base is amnesty, how attractive is that? >> he's got to be able to like jeb bush and marco rubio, he's got to be able to thread that needle. >> he's not threading that needle well with your base. let's be clear on that. >> well listen i think he's attractive in his style on the base. i think the immigration reform are attractive to some elements of the base. other parts of the party, they want immigration reform. if you look at the polls, republicans do want immigration reform. they know the system is broken. >> john, once you leave new hampshire, the next 25 contacts are very heavily weighted against southern liberal states. so the very strategy you're suggesting may work for him in new hampshire where there is a more libertarian, economically conservative state. but that rationale alienates him from the rest of the party, i think. >> it's going to be a very interesting contest because you have jeb bush going for those very same voters. we have to have the ability to not only win the primary but the general election. i think chris christie can help with that debate and shift it back towards the middle where we need that debate. >> i think we have that new hampshire poll, and if we do we can put it up because it highlights some of the conversation that jeb bush is leading in that poll and second is donald trump in that latest poll there. at the cutoff mark i don't recall because i don't think we have it here with us this is the poll. you've got jeb bush donald trump, rand paul scott walker carly fiorina, and page two, smr is -- somewhere is chris christie. >> tamron, if chris christie could do one thing for me in this entire race is take out donald trump, who is a disaster for this party. >> we'll talk about that shortly, but right now donald trump in that new hampshire poll, they don't want him taken out. >> i understand that and i think he's a fundamental problem for us. also, these polls are usually done on personality and who people have heard of. the polls are very fixable at this juncture. >> we go back to that word personality. let me play a montage of what has been referred to as some of the chris christie's biggest hits greatest hits. let's play that. >> did i stay on topic? are you stupid? on topic, on topic. next question. thank you all very much and i'm sorry for the idiot over there. it's people who raise their voices and yell and scream like you that are dividing this country. we're here to bring this country together, not to divide it. [ cheers and applause ] >> if she wants to get on a plane and come here to new jersey and ask me if she wants to examine me and review my medical history, i'll have a conversation with her about that. until that time she should shut up. you want to have the conversation later, i'm happy to have it, buddy. until that time sit down and shut up. [ cheers and applause ] >> so, john i think all he needed to say was "you're fired" and he might have sounded like your favorite guy donald trump. >> he's not mr. congeniality. that's very appealing to some people and very unappealing to other people and i think that's chris christie's biggest problem. how can he be a big personality without being a big turnoff? i think that's something we haven't answered yet. >> i don't want to get too stuck in the ground on this personality issue. i do think it is about policy and where chris christie will stand. and we've not heard, quite honestly, a lot of that. he's going to go off the cuff. his campaign slogan is "telling it like it is" which again to me goes back to this same song about being this brash guy. what are you telling the voter what it is? what are we talking about? what's his stance on what's happening right now in greece and the global impact it's having on the markets? isis. what are we going to do about the crisis in syria? when will we get these answers and some of this from chris christie and these other big personality characters on the list of 14? >> we're still waiting in new jersey and he's been in office for six years. this is his mode us.o. this is his show and this is what he does. you don't get a lot of depth. >> this is lynn groene a former classmate of governor christie at livingston high school and delaware university. kelly o'donnell? >> reporter: well, tamron one of the points i wanted to add to what you're saying is on the policy issue. christie has been traveling the country. he's done about four major policy speeches so far where he did use the teleprompter, where he did lay out his views. he'll touch on a little bit of that today as part of his vision for the country. but this will be a shorter address, and when we talk about it being off the cuff he has a prepared outline, he just won't be using a page-by-page reading along kind of method. i'm told he'll do additional topics as he travels on the road. so far he's talked about foreign policy, he's talked about education reform economic growth, and he will get into some of those ideas today, but today isn't about the super in-depth sort of thing. so style is a big part of it but the policy ideas are there, too. what he will try to talk about is being a conservative in a blue state, which has been part of your conversation so far. how will that play? in the republican nominating process, new jersey is not the factor that he's going for. he sure needed new jersey voters to get him over 60% when he was reelected, but he's really trying to communicate to those persuadable republicans in early states like new hampshire, but also places like nevada. not likely to do well in iowa. that's going to be tough. but he's trying to sort of appeal in a new way to voters who maybe haven't been paying attention to it. >> to that point, though kelly, as you mentioned, he's given a series of marriage speeches. what was -- major speeches. what was the headline from his foreign policy speech? >> he believes in going stronger than our current president. he was pretty tough on president obama, and he was also very tough on a figure like rand paul of the republican party, believing there has to be a bit more of the reagan style of strength and that kind of thing. he's been studying with foreign policy advisers who come more from the reagan book if you will and he believes in foreign policy from those points. he believes there is weakness on different targets, with iran with syria, with dealing with isis. that's just a taste of it. but he's got to formulate these policies and he's got to lay them out and then defend them. >> kelly, not to continue to make this comparison with donald trump, but exactly what you laid out as the headline for governor christie, the exact line we're hearing from donald trump, that the current president is not tough, that he's going to bring stronger words and the united states is in a weakened position. here's governor christie a seasoned politician basically from what you said using the same rhetoric as a tv star who is no longer now on tv. >> reporter: well i think you'll also see jeb bush would accuse the president of not being strong enough. it is within the mainstream of the republican party where i think you find chris christie's foreign policy views are more in line with establishment republicans. he'll break away from a rand paul, but i hear the applause so i want to be mindful. i believe he's entering the room here. so that's something he's going to have to lay out and defend in the weeks to come. but today is most about introducing himself, describing his leadership style and the vision he will have for the country, and it's going to be a day of rapt in jersey glory from the music that's being played and the hometown vibe. and people will judge for themselves if they like what they see. >> as kelly pointed out, in jersey glory, bob jindal in louisiana unpopular about the states they want to have glory in. >> i think the current governor is the only one who has high approval ratings. scott walker is facing the same problem, jindal and chris christie. >> but the difference here john, is that governor christie stands with donald trump in terms of most unfavorable of republicans. that's a serious issue. in fact, one poll recently out just showed that 55% of republicans said they would never consider supporting him for president. >> i think that bridgegate really hurt chris christie. >> let's listen in. i'm sorry to interrupt you. let's listen in to governor christie. >> thank you jersey. thank you. and thank you, thank you to livingston. you know, lots of people have asked me over the course of the last week why here. why here. because everything started here for me. everything started here for me. the confidence the education, the friends, the family and the love that i've always felt for and from this community. when i decided to make this announcement, there wasn't any choice. i had to come home and livingston is home for me. [ cheers and applause ] >> and i want to thank sheila goldklein, a dear friend of my mom's and a wonderful representative of this town for welcoming us here today. and i want to thank my friend lynn groene. listen some of you may be confused. it may be that you thought she was being booed by her high school classmates. she was not. for reasons that i will not explain, lynn's nickname in high school was the juice. hence, it's not a boo. it's the juice. and lynn thank you for being here. i'm also here because this is where my family raised me. you'll hear a lot and have heard a lot from me about my mother and father. all of us know that for good and for bad, where we come from is from our parents, and so you heard sheila and lynn both talk about my mom today. i'm here in livingston because all those years ago, my mother and father became the first of either of their families to lead the -- leave the city of newark and come here and make this home for us. my mom isn't here with us today, but i feel her, and my dad is here with me today, and i'm really, really privileged to have him. [ cheers and applause ] >> they raised my brother and i, brought us here to livingston when we were four years old and two years old, and then our sister dawn joined us a few years later. and this is where we grew up. these are the fields we played on, these are the playgrounds we played on this is the school we built our friends with and came and learned with and up until i left to share a room with mary pat, i shared a room with todd the entire time. it was a smooth transition. and my sister dawn and todd are as big a part of today as anybody else and they're both here and i love them both. thank you. everyone thinks i'm the politician in the family. we did a coin flip when we got married. i called tails. tails never fail so i'm the guy who ran, but the politician just as good as me in the family is the woman i met all those years ago at the university of delaware from a family of 10 people. people say, why aren't you shy in a crowd? i said, you should see the family i married into. my wife has been an indispensable part of everything that i've done with my life over the last 30 years, and she is largely responsible for the four amazing people that you see standing with her. [ cheers and applause ] >> ever since i've been governor, i've been happy to use the veto at home, too, and so far, so good. i have not been overridden there, either so i'm glad they're here today, and for andrew and sarah and patrick and bridget, i couldn't be prouder of four children than i am of them. [ cheers and applause ] >> i told you my parents moved to livingston, and they moved to livingston to make this part of their fulfillment of their dream, of their version of the american dream. they both lost their fathers at a young age and were raised by extraordinarily strong women under really difficult circumstances. my dad, one of the best students in his high school class, admitted to columbia university because his father passed away he couldn't go. they didn't have the money. he went to work and got drafted in the army and came home. and went to work at the breyer's ice cream plant in newark new jersey. and then decided after he met my mom that it was time for him to make more with his life and he went to school at night at rutgers for six years while working at those jobs during the day to get his degree in accounting, and my mother one of the proudest pictures that she ever had was the one she called our first family picture. it was my mom and dad on the day he graduated from rutgers in june of 1962 the first person in either of their families ever to get a college degree and it was the first family picture because she was six months pregnant with me. and the smiles on both their faces that day were indicative of what -- not what they had accomplished, but what they saw coming ahead of them. their smiles were about the fact that they thought that nothing was out of reach for them now. they had each other, they were building a family they worked together, and then with the help of both of those strong women, they gave them $5,000 each probably all the money they had in the world, to put a down payment on a house in this town to give their children a chance to take the dream they had started to build and to make it even bigger and even better. so i not only think about my mom and dad today, i think about my two grandmothers women who raised children largely on their own, women who knew how to work hard and knew that that hard work would deliver something for their children. and i know that both of them are watching now today and that part of today is a fulfillment of their dream, too. i'm thinking about both of them. [ cheers and applause ] >> one of the things my mother always used to say all the time to me was, christopher, if you work hard enough you can be anything. she said god's given you so many gifts if you just work hard enough you can be anything. and that story is proof. it's proof. parents who came from nearly nothing, except for tha