For a Guy Who’s Not Running for President, Chris Christie Sure Wants to Go to Iowa a Lot

Glad-handing in Iowa yesterday for some dude you’ve never heard of, Chris Christie continued to use the cover of his Republican Governors Association chairmanship to pretend he’s not going to run for president. From NJ.com:

The first question Christie got from reporters was the same one he’s been asked repeatedly for weeks at public events, including a stop last month at the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire: What about a run for president?

He promptly dismissed it.

“The decision about whether to seek the presidency or not is such a deeply personal one that while it’s wonderful to get as much encouragement as I got inside here and in other places in Iowa to consider running, I’ve said the same thing to everybody,” he said. “I’ll decide at some point whether I’m going to or not.”

Of course, it’s certainly possible that he’s simply taking his responsibilities as the head of the RGA, which helps GOP gubernatorial candidates around the country, quite seriously by lending some star power to ailing candidates like this one:

[Terry] Branstad, the state’s five-term governor, … [has] far more cash on hand than his Democratic challenger and a recent Marist poll gives him a double-digit lead and a 58 percent approval rating.

Well, not like that one.

Nonetheless, Christie says he’s likely to return to Iowa to stump for Branstad.

“I’ll be back here, I’ll be back here a lot — as much as Gov. Branstad wants me to be back here I will be back here to help him through this election campaign,” Christie said.