As I joked last week, wash, rinse, repeat:
Members of Gov. Chris Christie's inner circle said today he won't run for president, batting down increased speculation that spiked on Monday when former Gov. Tom Kean said Christie was thinking about throwing his hat in the ring. Christie's brother, a well-connected Republican fundraiser, said the governor hasn't changed his mind. "I'm sure that he's not going to run," Todd Christie said. "If he's lying to me, I'll be as stunned as I've ever been in my life."
Fox is reporting the same thing -- which is to say, Christie has been telling the truth ever since this question first came up:
Chris Christie say he has finally made a definitive decision, once and for all, not to run for president in 2012, sources close to the New Jersey governor told Fox News on Tuesday. Despite the intensity that has heightened in recent days as the New Jersey governor prepares to deliver a speech Tuesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, several people close to the governor insist he has not changed his mind to forego a presidential bid.
Can we please stop talking about this now? The man isn't running. Plus, even if he pulled a shocking about-face, he'd inevitably run into some policy problems on the Right, as this condescending
NY Magazine piece describes. The good news for Christie fans? His popularity
is soaring in New Jersey -- you know, the state he was elected to govern a few years ago:
Gov. Chris Christie's approval rating has increased dramatically since he signed the pension and health benefit overhaul for public workers and publicly led the state through Hurricane Irene. A Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll released this morning shows 54 percent of New Jersey voters approve of Christie's performance, while 36 percent disapprove. That's up from a 44 percent even split in May.
Christie's numbers have benefitted from 2-to-1 approval margins among men and non-public employee households. His popularity has skyrocketed ever since he co-opted enough Democrats in Trenton to pass landmark public pension reform in June. But wait, shouldn't all that fuel even more Christie presidential rumors?
Hell yes,
says ABC News,
and maybe he hasn't quite decided yet after all! It never ends. Christie is scheduled to deliver a speech at the Reagan Library tonight, and
Rich Lowry wonders if he might use the occasion to issue a "crushingly nuclear" denial. With all due respect to Rich, Christie has already said that nothing short of his self-inflicted death would quell the rumors. Now much more nuclear could he possibly go? Here's
one idea.
