If New Jersey Governor Chris Christie decides to get out of politics he might consider a second career in stand up comedy. One of the key skills required in that field is the ability to deal with rowdy hecklers, a situation which cropped up this weekend when Christie was out stumping for Mitt Romney in New Hampshire.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie fired back at protesters at a rally Sunday for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in New Hampshire.

The brash Republican governor – speaking on behalf of Romney, whom he has endorsed, ahead of Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary – responded to chants from a group of attendees yelling “Mitt kills jobs, Christie kills jobs.”

“Really? You know something may go down tonight, but it ain’t gonna be jobs sweetheart,” Christie said, before pointing to his record of job creation in the Garden State and predicting the economic growth possible in a future Romney administration.

Christie blamed President Barack Obama for encouraging the actions of such protesters, who continued to chant sporadically throughout the rally.

Plenty of people seem to really like Christie’s rough and tumble, shoot from the hip style, but at times it makes me wonder exactly how well he would have done if he’d gotten into the primary himself. His famous “none of your business” response to a question about where his children went to school was another such example. Great one liners which draw a lot of headlines, but probably not such an effective style when trying to win over wavering independents.

In any event, Romney – and the rest of the candidates – have to expect some flack at their appearances in such a hotly contested primary. But were the hecklers really there at the behest of President Obama? Maybe there was some confirmation of that which I missed, but my first thought was that they were probably supporters of another primary candidate. Part of the Ron Paul Army, maybe? Disgruntled Newt supporters still angry about the barrage of negative ads in Iowa?

It would be interesting to see just how well Christie polls in New Hampshire, at least in terms of how effective of a surrogate he is in the Granite State. But I don’t suppose anyone is wasting the time and resources to run those particular numbers.