In the strongest indication that Christie has now won friends among former enemies, the Conservative Political Action Conference that previously snubbed Christie for being too liberal has invited him to speak at this year’s gathering.

Explaining the snub last year, American Conservative Union head Al Cardenas said of Christie: “This past year he strongly advocated for the passage of a $60+ billion pork barrel bill, containing only $9 billion in disaster assistance and he signed up with the federal government to expand Medicaid at a time when his state can ill afford it, so he was not invited to speak.”

None of those complaints have changed since then, but now that Christie finds himself in the liberal media’s crosshairs, CPAC and the governor now have a common enemy.

While Christie is losing support among independents who previously supported him, he’s shoring up the very voters who might have opposed him in the primary — and he didn’t even have to change his politics to do so.