Christie: I Know I Could Win, but I'm Not Ready

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie thinks he could win the 2012 Republican presidential nomination but is not certain he should even try. In a recent sitdown with the National Review, Christie said the decision to run for president comes down to his fitness for the nation’s highest elective office while he’s still learning how to run a state.

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie

“I have people calling me and saying to me, ‘Let me explain to you how you could win.’ And I’m like, ‘You’re barking up the wrong tree. I already know I could win.’ That’s not the issue,” Christie said, adding, “But I’ve got to believe I’m ready to be president, and I don’t . . . I think when you have people who make the decision just based on seeing the opportunity you have a much greater likelihood that you’re going to have a president who is not ready. And then we all suffer from that.”

The National Review’s Rich Lowry believes Christie should reconsider, with this rationale: “He’s at least as ready as Bill Clinton in 1991 (indecisive governor of a small state), George W. Bush in 1999 (decisive governor of big state, but in a very weak office), and Barack Obama in 2007 (no executive experience whatsoever).”