New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican once touted as a possible running mate for Mitt Romney, on Wednesday continued to praise President Barack Obama for the federal government’s disaster relief efforts.

“Our challenge now is to get back to normalcy,” Christie said during a joint press conference with the President to discuss relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

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“The things we need to do to get power restored as quickly as possible,” he continued. “Make sure people have clean drinking water and that waste water treatment plants are working. Hospitals are taken care of the way we need to and kids back to school. So I discussed all those issues today with the President and I’m pleased to report that he has sprung into action immediately to help get us those things while we were in the car riding together. I want to thank him for that. He has worked incredibly closely with me since before the storm hit.”

“I think this is our sixth conversation since the weekend and it’s been a great working relationship to make sure that we’re doing the jobs people elected us to do,” Christie said.” And I cannot thank the President enough for his personal concern and compassion for our state and for the people of our state.”

On Tuesday, the New Jersey governor made appearances on several networks to praise the federal response to Hurricane Sandy. Christie said Obama had helped “tremendously” and that he didn’t “give a damn” about campaigning on behalf of Romney.

Watch video, courtesy of CNN, below: