Christie says no to White House run

TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie firmly declared Tuesday that “now is not my time” to run for president, dashing the hopes of Republicans still searching for someone other than former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has failed to win over skeptical conservatives, or Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is falling in polls as quickly as he had risen.

After months of insisting that no, no, he wouldn’t run – and then a long weekend of well maybe – Christie made it final in a news conference at the New Jersey Statehouse. That means it’s basically down to Romney and Perry battling to take on President Barack Obama, three months before the first GOP nomination voting.

Christie was the latest, perhaps last, hope of some establishment Republicans who had already been rejected by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan and others who declined to run for president in 2012. He’s been governor of New Jersey for less than two years, but he’s cut the budget, curtailed public sector unions, and dealt with a Democratic legislature with disarming and combative confidence.