Or will at least give it some serious thought after all?
That’s what his anonymous GOP sources seem to think, so that’s what Karl Rove told Sean Hannity last night on Fox News:
ROVE: Christie — well, I think she is going to look seriously at it. I don’t know if any of this are going to actually get in. But I think that the nature of the field and the fact that we’ve now got three candidates when we could have four, five or six major candidates, is going to leave people to say, well, I could be in that contest. Palin has got a pretty active schedule in early September. I think Chris Christie and Paul Ryan are going to look at it again. And I wouldn’t be surprised if all three of them gave serious consideration.
HANNITY: Why do you think —
ROVE: Whether or not they do end up at the end I don’t know.
HANNITY: All right. I’ve talked to Governor Chris Christie a lot, he says, no way. I was more convinced Governor Palin after I saw her and interviewed her Friday night at the Iowa State Fair that she might get in now. Paul Ryan I don’t think has given any indication, what makes you think those two will get in? Meaning, Ryan and Christie.
ROVE: Well, two things. One is, there was an event in New York, (INAUDIBLE) pulled together some big money raisers and met with Christie and said you need to think seriously about this. And it’s not just a meeting, what happened afterwards is, from what I picked up around the country, I talked to a number of people who had picked up the phone and called Christie to tell him they thought that he ought to run. And these are Republican activists, Republican donors, movers and shakers activists around the country. And the same on Paul Ryan. And I’m starting to pick up some sort of vibrations that these kinds of conversations are causing Christie and Ryan to tell the people who are calling them, well, you know, what, I owe it to you, I think I will take a look at it. Whether or not that happens or not, I don’t know. But I’m just picking that up that people have some sense, some belief that these two guys are going to take a look at it.
There’s still no tangible reason to doubt Governor Christie’s repeated denials on this issue. Also keep in mind that Rove may be blowing smoke on this one. There’s no love lost between G.W. Bush’s top brain and the Republican race’s new frontrunner (and former Bush rival), Rick Perry.
But it’s not unbelievable that Christiephiles across the country are ramping up pressure on the Guv to run as Obama appears increasingly vulnerable to a serious, articulate and conservative challenger.
