Now, the political odd couple are having a reunion.
On Tuesday, Mr. Obama and Mr. Christie will pose for cameras again, this time to demonstrate how much the Jersey Shore has recovered since the devastating storm barreled into the boardwalks and oceanfront neighborhoods along the Atlantic coast at the end of October.
On one level, the visit is nothing extraordinary: a president and a governor touting the success of their cooperation. Billions of state and federal dollars have aided the rebuilding of homes and businesses along New Jersey's coast. By most accounts, the federal agencies and their state counterparts have worked well together.
But the Obama-Christie bromance is about so much more than that.
For the president, last year's post-hurricane images of the stroll with Mr. Christie were political gold. They demonstrated the president's willingness to be bipartisan at just the right moment. They made him look presidential. And Mr. Christie's effusive praise — he called the president's response "wonderful," "excellent" and "outstanding" — provided a last-minute boost.
For Mr. Christie — a tough-as-nails Republican in a union-loving, Democratic state — being seen standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Democratic president helped lift his approval ratings back into the stratosphere just before his re-election campaign this year.
After their joint appearance last fall, both men took some heat from their own parties. Some Republicans quietly bashed Mr. Christie for making life tougher on Mitt Romney, the president's Republican rival in the 2012 election. And Mr. Obama's praise of Mr. Christie has not helped Democrats in the state find a way to knock the governor off his pedestal.
But the benefits of the political fellowship clearly outweigh the costs.
The president does not face another election, but being seen as willing to work with Republicans could help him pass the rest of his agenda through a bitterly divided Congress. And beyond the immediate election in November, Mr. Christie may harbor hopes of running for president in 2016. Standing next to the president again adds to the sense of gravitas that Mr. Christie will need if he hopes to land in the Oval Office someday.
Mr. Christie clearly needs to walk a careful line. If he appears too chummy with the president, his Republican rivals could use it against him during the party's nomination fight. On the other hand, it could come in handy when it comes to winning over swing voters if he becomes the party's nominee.
For the moment, the trick for both men is to appear as if they do not care about the politics.
Mr. Christie has spent the last week speaking about the recovery along the coast. He appeared on NBC's "Today" show last week to officially reopen part of the boardwalk by cutting a five-mile-long, blue ribbon with big scissors on live television.
"Anybody who lives in New Jersey," the governor said on the show, "the Jersey Shore is in your heart. And so to see this back open means everything to our state."
Aides to Mr. Christie have offered plenty of evidence of recovery, even as they acknowledge that many people displaced by the storm are still struggling to rebuild their homes.
According to New Jersey officials, more than $3.5 billion from the National Flood Insurance Program has been paid out so far and $1 billion in federal money has been set aside for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help restore the shore.
The state has removed about 8 million cubic yards of sand and debris and completed 126,416 housing inspections. Grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for New Jersey individuals and households totals $396,000,000, according to the tally by state officials.
When Mr. Obama arrives, he will cite similar figures as evidence that the federal government did not vanish once the television cameras shifted their attention away from New Jersey. Speaking in Oklahoma on Sunday at the site of similar devastation from a tornado, Mr. Obama cited New Jersey as evidence of the federal government's commitment.
"When I say that we've got your back, we keep our word," Mr. Obama said at a demolished school in Oklahoma.
When Mr. Christie was asked about the president's coming visit and the potential for Republicans to be upset again, he waved aside such concerns.
"The president wants to come back here and see the progress and see it for himself," Mr. Christie told Matt Lauer during a "Today" show interview. "I never worry about that stuff."
