Playing the expectations game? Not Chris Christie.

In fact, amid pre-debate campaign banter on both sides aimed at raising expectations for the opposing candidate, Christie showed unfiltered confidence in GOP nominee Mitt Romney's ability to best President Barack Obama in the debates.

Christie, a top surrogate for the Romney campaign, hit the talk show circuit hard, appearing Sunday on ABC, CBS and NBC.

On ABC's "This Week," the New Jersey governor predicted the aftermath of Wednesday's first presidential debate.

"When we get to Thursday morning, you'll be saying it's a brand new race with 33 days to go," Christie said.

"Every time Mitt Romney has been confronted in this campaign with one of these moments, he has come through in the debate and performed extraordinarily well - laying out his vision very clearly and also contrasting himself and his vision with whoever his opponent was at the time," said Christie, referring to a series of hotly contested debates with a pack of fiery conservative opponents during the Republican primaries.

Christie repeated his confidence in the GOP nominee's debate prowess on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"He's going to contrast what his view is and the president's record, and the president's view for the future. And this whole race is going to be turned upside down come Thursday morning," he said, pointing to Romney's experience in the primary debates as evidence of the candidate's ability to shine even when backed into the proverbial corner.

Christie reiterated: "Thursday morning you're all going to be scratching your heads and saying, 'Wow, we have a barn burner for the next 33 days!'"

"Let's be honest," he conceded. "I'm not going to sit here and come on this morning and sugarcoat the last couple of weeks. They've been tough. But here's the great news for Republicans - we have a candidate who is going to do extraordinarily well on Wednesday night."

In recent weeks, the Romney campaign has faced pointed criticism from both sides of the aisle following reports of a campaign in disarray and the candidate's questionable response to the administration's handling of attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans.

More notably, Romney's now-infamous "47%" comments, caught on secretly recorded video at a private fund-raiser in May, have caused a major late-campaign-season stir. While courting a group of top-dollar donors at a Florida fund-raiser, Romney claimed that nearly half of Americans would not vote for him because they are dependent on government services and consider themselves "victims."

But Christie believes these gaffes and a recent spate of conservative criticism will not dog the campaign after Romney's predicted stellar showing in the debates.

"The campaign hasn't had a good two weeks," he said on CBS. "The bottom line is, it changes on Wednesday night."

Christie pushed back on spin from Democrats, who have contrasted Romney's more recent debate experience against the president's alleged lack thereof, since he's four years removed from a national debate stage.

"(Obama has) only been the leader of the free world and commander in chief of our military for that time," said Christie on ABC. "I think he's had a few debates inside the White House over time, and I think he'll be very good."

Regarding several recent polls showing the president with a solid advantage over the GOP candidate, Christie noted the campaign's rocky past few weeks, but predicted Wednesday night would be the "restart" and, ultimately, begin a shift in the polls.

After all, Christie said on NBC's "Meet the Press," Americans are just beginning to pay attention to the race.

"They're going to start tuning in on Wednesday night. And when they do, Gov. Romney will lay out his vision for a better and greater America, for greater opportunity, for all of our citizens. And I think that's when you're going to see this race really start to tighten and then move in Gov. Romney's direction," Christie said on NBC.

But how can Romney boost his likability - a factor the president has consistently bested him on in the polls - while remaining tough on the president's record?

Christie said all Romney needs to do is tell the truth and that, in and of itself, will reflect on the president's record.

"Romney can walk and chew gum at the same time," said Christie on ABC. "I'm not worried."

Last week, Christie campaigned for Republican gubernatorial nominee Ovide Lamontagne in New Hampshire, igniting speculation about whether Christie has presidential aspirations for 2016.

On CBS, Christie balked at that idea, saying he hopes to be working for Romney's re-election in 2016, and "any conversation about anything else is going to turn out not to be necessary, because Mitt Romney is going to be elected president November 6."