In a move that shocked precisely no one, Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) announced today that he had filed paperwork to move forward with a re-election bid. His likely opponent will be Newark Mayor Corey Booker, a dynamic African-American politician with a solid base of state support and national name recognition. It is likely thanks to Booker’s candidacy that Christie, in the last week of the presidential campaign, went out of his way to slobber all over President Barack Obama, thereby jacking up both his bipartisan appeal and garnering the praise of the nation’s most prominent black politician.

Should Christie lose, Booker immediately becomes a viable presidential candidate in 2016. He is, if anything, a better speaker than President Obama, and plays the moderate far better than President Obama ever has. And should he decide to run, the significant percentage of black voters who comprise the Democratic primary base will be a serious asset on which he will plan to draw.

Christie, if he is re-elected, is also considered a possible 2016 candidate for the presidency – although in the aftermath of this embrace of President Obama, that possibility seems more and more remote.