Más Christie

El Philadelphia Inquirer expone algunas señales que pueden anticipar una posible candidatura de Christie:

It was one of those weeks on the Christie beat when you wonder: Could he? Is he? Will he?

Several occurrences taken together could make the more gullible among us believe the Garden State governor is on the verge of announcing his candidacy for president of the United States:

The speaking schedule. On Thursday, Christie hosted fellow not-running-for-president Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, and the two offered some mild criticism of the current GOP field of presidential contenders. On Monday, Christie is to be in Missouri for three Republican fund-raisers, and on Tuesday, he is scheduled to make a speech about "perspectives on leadership" at the GOP Holy of Holies, the Ronald Reagan Library in California. By the end of the week, he will be in Louisiana for more fund-raising.

The alleged foreign policy dinners. A column in the Wall Street Journal says Christie has been seeking advice and having dinner with foreign policy experts. Unless Trenton is invading Damascus some time soon, foreign policy experience isn't really needed in Christie's current day job.

The new advertisement. A $1.5 million pro-Christie ad campaign, sponsored at least in part by Christie's University of Delaware classmates, dropped last week and it looks/sounds/feels like a presidential campaign ad. The opening scene is of the Capitol building - in Washington.

The prediction markets. A Yahoo article last week said the "prediction markets" have Christie at a 4.7 percent chance of winning his party's nomination. That puts him in fourth place among Republicans - and he hasn't even campaigned for anything yet.

Lingering dissatisfaction with the current GOP field. In a Weekly Standard editorial headlined "Yikes" filed after Thursday night's Republican presidential debate, omnipresent conservative commentator William Kristol declared Christie the only hope - a "big man for a big job." Kristol even quoted William Butler Yeats: " 'And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?' Sounds like Chris Christie."

The game plan. Conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin laid out a game plan (where did it come from?) for how Christie would announce his candidacy at an event featuring Indiana's Daniels, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and a range of GOP heavy hitters from Congress: "The GOP all-stars explain that they've gone on bended knee to the one person they think can unite the party, win in the general election, and make the hard calls to return us to fiscal sanity and revive American prosperity. They all pledge to raise money and provide policy advice to Christie."

Of course, none of this means anything. With Daniels at his side Thursday, Christie was asked once again whether he was running. He said the decision was personal:

"I'm sure both of us had lots of political experts and interested parties and good Americans come to us and say we should do this . . . but when I'm in a hotel room in Des Moines and its 5:30 in the morning and it's 15 below, and it's time for me to get up and go shake hands at the meatpacking plant, the only one who's going to be in bed with me is [my wife] Mary Pat, not you."

Fair enough. Still, it makes you go, "Hmmm . . ."

Pero un asesor del Gobernador insiste en el New York Times que la postura de Christie sigue siendo la misma:

Aides and associates to Mr. Christie acknowledged that a raft of donors enlisted by a founder of Home Depot, Kenneth G. Langone, in the effort to get him to run checked in again on Friday, as the poor Perry reviews rolled in. But they denied any suggestion that it had succeeded in convincing Mr. Christie to reconsider his earlier decision against running, much less to begin the arduous task of seriously exploring what would go into a national campaign.

"My only plan this weekend is to watch football," said William J. Palatucci, a close confidante and adviser to Mr. Christie. He jokingly noted that none of the games were in early voting states.

If anything were afoot, Mr. Palatucci would certainly be in the middle of it.