President Obama was clearly having a little fun at the expense of Republican governors past and present Monday at a White House lunch that was part of the National Governors Association winter meeting.

With the likes of GOP governors Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Haley Barbour of Mississippi and, despite his protests, Chris Christie of New Jersey, being mentioned as 2012 GOP presidential possibilities, Obama couldn’t resist toying with them.

I hope today, all of you, feel free to make yourselves at home. For those of you with a particular interest in the next election, I don’t mean that literally. (Laughter.)

In other words, if you want this, you’re going to have to take it.

At another point, Obama said something which, if you’re one of Mitt Romney’s political consultants, you’d really rather not have the president say.

In fact, I agree with Mitt Romney, who recently said he’s proud of what he accomplished on health care in Massachusetts…

It was an allusion, of course, to Romney, another potential Obama challenger, as Massachusetts governor signing enacting a state health-care program that was a model for the law Obama and the previous Congress enacted with the Affordable Care Act.

It was also was a preview of part of the kiss-of-death campaign Obama would run against Romney if he becomes the GOP nominee.