But after months of waiting, Christie was far behind his rivals in fundraising and particularly in organizing on the ground in key early states like Iowa and New Hampshire. Florida's decision to move its primary to the end of January cut another month off of the time he would have to catch up. And Perry's experience offered a cautionary tale. He announced in August and immediately shot to the top of the polls, but has seen his support fade after a few shaky debate performances and repeated attacks from Romney's campaign.

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But while Tuesday's announcement ended the will-he-or-won't-he drama for now, his endorsement this year will still hold sway; he declined to back any of the declared candidates on Tuesday.

If Obama wins re-election, he'll likely be at the top of the list of presidential hopefuls in 2016. And Christie's timing has been right in the past.
In 2005, many Republicans were begging him to run for governor. He didn't.

But in 2009, he was seen as probably the only Republican in the state capable of unseating Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine. He ran and won.

He's since become a hero to fiscally conservative and tea party Republicans because of the policies he's fought for as governor.

He has imposed a 2 percent cap on annual growth of New Jersey's highest-in-the-nation property taxes and refused to give into Democrats' calls to restore a lapsed income tax surcharge on high-income residents.

He's clashed with public workers' unions as he has reined in their pension and health insurance benefits and taken away collective bargaining rights on some issues. He also overhauled pensions and benefits for state workers - and convinced Democrats to go along with him.

He has also fought publicly with Washington: He canceled a plan to build a new rail tunnel to New York City and fought federal efforts to seek reimbursement for the work that was done. In September, he struck a deal for the state to pay state to pay $95 million of the $271 million the federal government said it was owed.

Still, he deviates from conservative orthodoxy.

He opposes abortion rights, but didn't always. He is against gay marriage and has said he would support an amendment to the state constitution to ban it, but favors civil unions. He says he supports medical marijuana for patients who need it, but he's delayed implementation of a New Jersey medical marijuana law.