Some political pundits who are suggesting — despite his repeated denials — that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is thinking about running for President. But here is just about the most definitive sign that he is not considering a run in 2012:
In case anyone had any doubts on where Gov. Chris Christie stands on climate change, he made his position crystal clear this afternoon: It’s real and it’s a problem.
He might as well say he thinks tax revenues might be useful in the recession…or say he thinks evolution is worth teaching in schools…or say Rush Limbaugh is not always correct.
He has just committed A (Political) Sin:
In vetoing a bill (S2946) that would have required New Jersey to stay in a regional program intended to curb greenhouse gases — a program Christie plans to leave by the end of the year — the governor said “climate change is real.”
He added that “human activity plays a role in these changes” and that climate change is “impacting our state.”
Christie’s words are his strongest to date in regards to climate change, a hot-button issue among the same conservatives nationwide who are clamoring for the governor to enter the 2012 presidential race.
NJ.Com’s report notes that Christie has — Rick Perry, kindly pardon the expression — EVOLVED…on the issue:
Christie’s come full circle on the issue. Last year, he told a town hall audience in Toms River he was skeptical climate change is the result of human activity. He backed off those comments at a conference of environmentalists in May and agreed to meet with climate scientists for a lesson in global warming.
Later that month, during a news conference announcing he would pull the state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a 10-state partnership intended to curb power plant emissions of carbon dioxide, Christie took another step.
“I can’t claim to fully understand all of this,” he said. “Certainly not after just a few months of study. But when you have over 90 percent of the world’s scientists who have studied this stating that climate change is occurring and that humans play a contributing role it’s time to defer to the experts.”
Another sin: scientists, “experts”? Why, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush, and many new media pundits keep pointing out how science may be if not a crock close to one.
Doesn’t sound like someone getting ready to throw their hat into the increasingly stage right GOP ring to me…
UPDATE: If he keeps this up (like his comments defending a Muslim judge) this may be Christie’s theme song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbXQ-Dh1EyA
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.