Christie rallies California delegates, skewers Gov. Brown

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie clearly doesn't think highly of his California counterpart, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.

"California made a bad choice by going with an old retread," Christie told a crowd of California delegates at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. "I mean he won the New Jersey presidential primary over Jimmy Carter when I was 14 years old."

The age references energized the crowd, as Christie encouraged the California delegates to elect conservatives in their typically blue state, just as blue-state New Jersey did by voting for Christie.

Christie, dismissing President Obama as little more than a Chicago ward politician, shared his thoughts on why Mitt Romney is the right man for president.

"This is the guy who fits my two tests: He's the guy who has the best chance to beat President Obama, and he is the guy who will lead America in a marketedly different direction and knows how to get it done."

He urged the crowd to call a friend in key battleground states once they get home, mining their contacts, because "this is not a spectator sport."