He argued that unscripted, even adversarial exchanges with reporters and the public are essential to judging a candidate, and that if Sarah Palin continues to avoid them, “she’ll never be president.”

At a lunch with New York Times journalists and the newspaper’s publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., Mr. Christie was asked about the Sarah Palin video, released earlier in the day, that had caused a stir. He said he had not yet seen it, but he doubted that it would shed much light on her character.

“I think people need to be judged by the way they conduct themselves in the public arena, in a way that is as minimally staged as possible,” he said. “That’s where you really get to know people.”