Will Chris Christie really run?

“You see the polls, they don’t give him a lot of encouragement,” said one Republican donor said. “That’s discouraging as heck. 

Those figures, coupled with lingering doubts on the right that Christie is conservative enough to be the GOP nominee suggest it’s at least possible the New Jersey governor could decide to avoid a primary defeat where he might suffer a humiliating defeat.

“If you asked me two weeks ago, I’d say, ‘No question — he’s running,’” said Patrick Murray, director of Monmouth’s Polling Institute. “Now I think there’s a bit of a question, and it’s mainly because of the potential for him to be totally embarrassed in those early contests.”