President Chris Christie

Lord help us all:

All signs are pointing to a Chris Christie campaign to be on the 2012 presidential ticket.  He has started this campaign already by crisscrossing the country to promote Republican candidates in state-wide races. 

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Given the secret funding of Republican candidates by shadow groups, the fact that the GOP has a propaganda arm in Fox News that is second to none, including Pravda, and the fact that the 2012 election will be the first under the census redistricting controlled mostly by Republican governors, there’s a good chance that Barack Obama will be a one-term president.  If Christie is not on the 2012 ticket, his next chance to run for national office could potentially be 2020 – a lifetime in presidential politics.  Sure, he’ll be only 58 years old then, but he will have had a much longer track record of mistakes and miscues than he has today.  And the demographics of the electorate will be different, with a larger percentage of the non-white population included in the mix.

I think deciminyan is right - he'd be crazy not to give it shot. Hell, Palin's practically the front-runner and she wasn't even governor for an entire term - why not him? And the Republicans have historically rewarded their perennials with nominations: Dole, McCain, Bush 41, Reagan - all took multiple runs at the nomination. What's he got to lose by making a bid this time around? He can always try again.

But I think there's a good chance he begs off a second term as governor, even if he doesn't get the presidential nod. The longer he stays in NJ, the worse it will be for his political future. He is running this state into the ground and the mess he's going to leave behind will be enormous. He needs to get out while the getting's good.