The following editorial appears on Bloomberg View.

Chris Christie made a name for himself as the quintessential New Jersey tough guy: a loud, brash, don’t-take-nuthin’-from-nobody bruiser who, beneath it all, has a deep (and mostly unrequited) love of Bruce Springsteen. In his first term as governor, he became a YouTube star by delivering tongue-lashings to critics, leading some Republicans to urge him to enter the 2012 presidential race. He declined, and the Christie boomlet soon petered out. But his presidential ambitions didn’t.

On Tuesday, Christie announced he will run for the White House on a platform of “telling it like it is.” If he follows through on that promise, voters will finally learn what really happened at the George Washington Bridge in 2013. They’ll also learn why Christie flip-flopped on the Common Core education standards that he had long supported, why the credit rating agencies have repeatedly downgraded New Jersey’s bonds, why the governor who wants to keep Social Security solvent has skipped out on the state’s pension bills, and why he has a penchant for accepting expensive gifts (including from people who have business before the state).

Christie’s candor will come with limits, of course. But that doesn’t mean his candidacy is without promise. Christie is the rare would-be president touting his ability to cooperate with the other party. He has prided himself on striking deals with the state’s Democratic-controlled legislature, although not all of them have turned out as hoped.

Appealing to bipartisanship is a risky primary election strategy, but Christie’s attempt to convince voters that he can get people in Washington to work together by force of his personality may resonate with those tired of politics as usual.

To his credit, Christie has backed up his promise of candor with an unusually specific plan to rein in Social Security spending — a topic that most candidates run from. Candor also requires Christie to level with voters about climate change. Hurricane Sandy’s devastating impact on his state puts him in a strong position to explain the dangers of rising sea levels and warming oceans to skeptical Republican audiences.

With his approval rating at home standing at only 30 percent, Christie’s pinning his hopes on a strong showing in New Hampshire. Currently, another candidate who relishes a schoolyard fight almost as much as Christie is polling well in New Hampshire. This could get interesting — and ugly. America, you got a problem with that?