In a weird thanks-but-no-thanks response, Mr. Christie said what did he have to do to make it clear he wasn't interested commit suicide?
But as the Republican debates did little to elevate any of the candidates – in fact, they served to de-popularize many of them.
Moderate Republicans worried that the Tea Party was pushing the G-O-P to the right have been lobbying Christie, a shoot-from-the-hip, sharp-tongued, no-nonsense Northeastern Republican to jump in.
He has insisted he wasn't ready to be President, and didn't have it in his experience or his heart to run.
But he has done little of late to squelch the speculation. This week he's on a national tour – and very much on a Presidential stage.
He's speaking at Republican fundraisers and, last night, he keynoted an event at the Ronald Reagan Library in Southern California. That's where some peeps in the audience implored him, begged him to run.
He was touched, he said, and "heard" what they were saying.
Apparently tonight, he may be listening as well. A source close to Christie tells Eyewitness New political reporter Dave Evans that the Governor is reconsidering his decision not to run.
If he does jump into the race, his lack of experience (he took office not even 21 months ago) won't be much of an issue, not with a sitting President who decided to run just two years into his U.S. Senate term.
We'll have the latest on all the political drama, tonight at 11.
Also at 11, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly backpedaling a bit tonight from his boast on "60 Minutes" last Sunday that his department had the capability to shoot down an airplane. It made news because what local police department can do that? And it also made news because shooting down an airplane requires federal authority at the highest level. We're talking the President, or close.
Now it turns out that Mr. Kelly wasn't talking about a commercial airplane – but only a small plane, like a crop duster, which previous intelligence alerts has mentioned as a possible Al Qaeda method of attack.
But when the head of the nation's largest police department says his agency has the ability to shoot down a plane – no one is thinking small crop duster. We're thinking commercial airplane – especially when two big passenger planes were used to crash into the World Trade Center.
There's been much discussion around here about what the Commissioner meant and didn't mean. Tonight he's finally setting the record straight.
And two other items caught our attention. The first involves the aforementioned Al Qaeda. The terrorist organization, in the latest issue of its magazine called "Inspire", takes aim (figuratively) on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It's ticked off that Ahmadinejad is trying to spread the 9-11 conspiracy theory that the U.S. plotted the terror attacks.
Nonsense, says al Qaeda, we plotted them, and suggests Ahmadinejad is jealous of al Qaeda. The other story that we found eye-opening is a decree by the Cuban government that will legalize the sale and purchase of cars. It's a big deal because most of the cars in and around Havana are American vehicles from the 1950s prior to the 1959 revolution. Now, the old rule is out – and cars can be legally bought and sold in Cuba.
Of course, as one colleague pointed out, the average salary is Cuba is $20 a month, so don't look for a whole lot of BMW's and Mercedes Benz to start popping up.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Jeff Smith (in for Lee Goldberg) with his AccuWeather forecast, and Rob Powers with the night's sports. I hope you can join us, tonight at 11.
One more note: I'll be off till tomorrow night. For all those who celebrate, Happy New Year.
