White House officials seemed a bit flummoxed by Christie’s bearhug. “It’s unnerving,” one laughed, noting how odd it is that a Romney big gun might help break the stubborn tie in the electorate in Obama’s favor.

They speculate that Christie, who always puts Christie first, has decided that it’s better for his presidential ambitions to be a maverick blue-state governor with a Democratic chief executive exiting in 2016 than to have President Romney and Tea-Party Republicans in Congress pulling him over to the extreme right for the next eight years. He also knows he’ll need a boatload of federal cash to make his state whole again.

Christie was in full “Sopranos”-at-the-shore mode in his blue fleece pullover. When Irene hit last year, he yelled at lingering frolickers, “Get the hell off the beach!” This time, the governor blistered the Atlantic City mayor for sending what he called “mixed messages” on evacuation orders and warned stranded residents: “We will not be able to come and help you until daylight tomorrow.”

The president is still overcompensating for his first-debate pout, determined not to be a loser. He made a false start and erred on the side of politics, wasting a round-trip to Florida. He wanted to squeeze in one more rally before the storm, so he risked flying to Orlando Sunday night for a campaign event Monday morning with Bill Clinton. Told that Air Force One pilots said he needed to leave before the rally or he might get stuck outside Washington — where sun and palms would be an unfortunate backdrop — he went back to the White House.

Just about the only criticism the president got on his storm stewardship was, amazingly enough, from “Heck of a Job, Brownie” Michael Brown, the FEMA chief during Katrina, who naturally thought Obama acted too quickly and efficiently.

With Obama forced off the trail, Clinton and Joe Biden could fulfill their shared fantasy: to be the presidential candidate. In Youngstown, Ohio, the two “Last Hurrah” pols plunged into a thrilled throng to shake hands, pose for pictures, bounce babies and sign books. Biden employed his classic move of holding the cheeks of a delighted older woman, then reaching around her in a full body hug to grab the hands of a woman behind. As “Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher” blared, the prolix, snowy-haired pair scanned for anyone to schmooze or squeeze as the arena emptied out. The Big Dog lingered even longer than C-Span cameras.