CHRISTIE SAYS ‘NO’ (AGAIN)
UPDATE: ‘Now Is Not My Time’

Posted on | October 4, 2011 | 70 Comments

UPDATE 1:07 p.m. ET: “Now is not my time,” the New Jersey governor says in his press conference statement. “This is not the time to leave unfinished business. . . . Like it or not, New Jersey, you’re stuck with me.”

In response to reporters’ questions, he says, “It did not feel right” to quit a job he’d worked so hard to get.

UPDATE 1:15 p.m. ET: “I’m not prepared to make any endorsements today,” he says, by which he means, Romney hasn’t asked yet.

UPDATE 1:22 p.m. ET: “I am who I am — there’s not a lot of varnish here,” Christie says. In response to a question, he dismisses talk of himself as the GOP running mate, saying there’s nobody in America who thinks he’s temperamentally suited to being No. 2.

UPDATE 1:27 p.m. ET: Talking of his his conversations with other people who had run for president — including, by inference, the Bushes — Christie says, “No one to me endorsed the joy of running for president.” This rather confirms my suspicion that some Team Bush people (e.g., Bill Kristol) were key figures behind the Christie boomlet.

* * PREVIOUSLY (11:10 a.m. ET) * *

Robert Costa of National Review broke the story this morning.

UPDATE: The New Jersey governor has said “no” many times before, but Monday the story got out that he would make an announcement Thursday. Now there is a 1 p.m. press conference scheduled today in Trenton.

UPDATE II: Jonathan Karl of ABC News confirms:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will not run for president, according to a source with direct knowledge of the governor’s thinking.
By deciding not to run Christie is refusing the pleas of many establishment Republicans who have been urging him — even pleading with him to jump into the race. Dozens of high-level GOP donors have been paying visits to Christie since this spring in the hopes of changing his mind. . . .
On Sept. 24 sources close to the Republican governor told ABC News that “the pressure from donors and other people has intensified,” and that the “volume of calls” urging Christie to run had increased.
That was before Christie came face-to-face with some of the big-money GOP contributors who were hoping to lure him into the race during week-long fundraising tour that took him to Missouri, California and Louisiana. But it was at a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., last Tuesday where Christie heard some of the most passionate please to date. . . .

Why did pressure for Christie to run intensify Sept. 24? That was two days after Rick Perry’s meltdown in the Orlando debate, and the same day Herman Cain won the Florida straw poll.

UPDATE III: The Washington Post:

Christie was heavily courted to reconsider by large Republican donors as well as a handful of elected officials and party activists in key states. That recruitment process picked up steam following several mediocre debate performances by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, showings that raised doubts about his ability to unite the party and beat President Obama next fall. . . .

(“Mediocre debate performances”? Like the Hindenburg had a “mediocre” landing at Lakehurst, N.J.)

The lone figure yet to announce her plans for 2012 is former Alaska governor Sarah Palin who has pushed back her timeline to make a decision from September to November.

So unless Sarah gets in, this is the final field. I’m sure ~~Chris Crocker~~ T.C. Lynch will be relieved.

UPDATE IV: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

The only way a late entry will work is with someone with high name recognition and a positive intensity among Republicans, and that’s not the position in which Christie finds himself today.

If Palin would say “no,” we could rally conservatives behind Herman Cain. If Palin would endorse Herman Cain, it would be a full-tilt boogie all the way to the nomination in Tampa. But as long as Palin is a “maybe,” there will be tens of thousands of grassroots conservatives waiting and praying for her to say “yes.”

UPDATE V: Headline of the day by Gabriel Malor at AOSHQ:

Today’s Schedule:
Chris Christie Presser at 1:00pm;
Bill Kristol Suicide at 1:05pm

PREVIOUSLY:

Oct. 3: Attention, Bandwagon Jumpers: All Aboard the Fatty McAwesome Express!
Sept. 28: Like Chris Crocker and Britney
Sept. 24: Dear Bill Kristol …

Category: Chris Christie, Election 2012, New Jersey

Comments

70 Responses to “CHRISTIE SAYS ‘NO’ (AGAIN)
UPDATE: ‘Now Is Not My Time’”

Anonymous
October 4th, 2011 @ 8:12 pm

Don’t you see? It’s all part of their CUNNING PLAN!
Dianna Deeley
October 4th, 2011 @ 8:13 pm

Does she drink beer? I thought she was more a Manhattan kind of girl?
Dianna Deeley
October 4th, 2011 @ 8:19 pm

Which work out like all such plans? Ha!
McGehee
October 4th, 2011 @ 8:26 pm

For all the animus some people have toward it, this “Republican Establishment” has been singularly ineffective in getting its people nominated.

You’re getting the chicken vs. egg thing backwards.
smitty
October 4th, 2011 @ 8:30 pm

Just a wee point of curiosity, Stacy: is there a post floating in this sea of updates? Crikey, mate. 🙂
ThePaganTemple
October 4th, 2011 @ 9:51 pm

So since there’s no such thing as a GOP establishment does that mean there’s not an actual Democratic Party establishment as well? So what actually happens when they decide who is going to chair various regional and county committees? Do they just gather around a room and draw straws out of a hat? How is it they decide who’s going to monitor the polling places during elections, just whoever shows up on a volunteer basis? Evidently there’s nobody in charge of the party apparatus at any level, state, regional, county, or city. You know, come to think about it, everything’s starting to make sense.
Zilla of the Resistance
October 4th, 2011 @ 10:12 pm

I’m no Romney fan (although I dislike him less than islamoblows Perry & Christie), but why is it that the same people who will pardon Scott Brown for his left of right tendencies because “that’s as Conservative as you can hope for in Massachusetts” want to hang Romney? Perhaps Mittens was “as Conservative as you can hope for in Massachusetts” too? If it’s a good excuse for SB, how come not for MR? The man DID say that what he did as a state governor is not what he’d do as a president, didn’t he?
Zilla of the Resistance
October 4th, 2011 @ 10:16 pm

But in a RINO vs RINO contest, at least he’s not running around saying that islam is a religion of peace and that you’re heartless if you don’t use tax dollars to fund the aspirations of CRIMINAL ALIEN INVADERS like Rick Perry does.
I still like Rick Santorum best & Newt’s growing on me with each debate (despite his history) because he beats up on the media who deserve a beating.
If Cain demonstrates that he’ll get some competent non-leftist, non-islamoblow advisers to help him get educated on foreign policy and the global threat to liberty that is islam, I can totally support him. I like his sunny disposition and think America could really benefit from a guy like him to break us free of the gloomendoom we’ve been suffocating under for so long.
Zilla of the Resistance
October 4th, 2011 @ 10:20 pm

Christie would also continue Obama’s islam first policies.
rosalie
October 4th, 2011 @ 11:07 pm

His appointment of Sohail Muhammad proved that.
Anonymous
October 5th, 2011 @ 12:57 am

Because he asserts that Tyranny is acceptable at the state level.
Anonymous
October 5th, 2011 @ 3:14 am

The part of Baldrick was obviously being played by Karl Rove from 2000-2004. Which tells you something about how smart the Evil Party actually is.
Anonymous
October 5th, 2011 @ 3:15 am

I *think* it the link that starts with “Robert Costa” halfway down.
Don’t quote me on that.
Bob Belvedere
October 5th, 2011 @ 8:30 am

I think she does both, like my wife.
Bob Belvedere
October 5th, 2011 @ 8:40 am

Yeah…she’s now saying good things about Mandate Mitt.

Ann in February to the [now defunct] The Daily Caller: ‘If we don’t run Chris Christie, Romney will be the nominee and we’ll lose’.

Ann is now advocating a Romney/Cain ticket.

http://www.rightspeak.net/2011/10/ann-coulter-drops-chris-for-mitt.html

Oh, how the mighty have stumbled.
Bob Belvedere
October 5th, 2011 @ 8:40 am

Spot-on.
Bob Belvedere
October 5th, 2011 @ 8:44 am

The national GOP Establishment was all excited by Romneycare because they thought it would show to the whole wide world that they were not compassion-less Simon Legrees. They encouraged him and provided him resources.

It was appalling then to watch up here in the Nor’East.
Bob Belvedere
October 5th, 2011 @ 8:49 am

Like I’ve been saying ever since I started my blog in late April of 2008: Mitt is and always has been a wimp. Don’t expect any ‘straight talk’ from this muddled milquetoast.
Bob Belvedere
October 5th, 2011 @ 8:51 am

Sarah!
Bob Belvedere
October 5th, 2011 @ 8:56 am

Be fair: Stacy’s just trying to get the information out as quickly and as accurately as possible. I see it like a very well-done news ticker.