running. >> it would be wiser just to sit back. he's got some time. but, look, it is chaotic in there. there say lot of people. it is cementing. y you could be president. that's big. >> that sounds like someone is dabbling, that's for sure. >> there is a big speech at the reagan presidential library tonight. republican fund-raisers across the country this week and word from friend and the former new jersey governor tom kean that christie is now seriously considering a late entry into the gop race. here is tonight's truth. he isn't running. and while he's listening closely, very closely, to friends and fund-raisers begging him to reconsider, the best bet is that governor christie stays on the sidelines. why? well, for starters, the governor's greatest strength as a politician is he's viewed as a straight shooter, a guy who calls it like he sees it. and this is how he sees himself. >> i don't feel like i'm ready to be president. i don't want to run for president. i don't have the fire in the belly to run for president. >> so i say take the governor at his word. especially when he adds this. >> you know, short of suicide, i don't really know what i would have to do to convince you people that i'm not running. i'm not running. >> still not convinced? remember governor christie is a former prosecutor. a guy who knows how to make a strong case. imagine what a good ad man, that's a prosecutor in politics, imagine what a good ad man could do at this snippet from what you just heard, especially given the huge issues facing the country right now. >> i don't feel ready in my heart to be president. >> and there is more. any good lawyer studies the precedent and texas governor rick perry is exhibit a for governor christie. >> mitt romney that was on the side of -- against the second amendment, before he was for the second amendment, was it was before he was before the social programs from the standpoint of he was far standing up for roe v. wade. >> a little confused there maybe? the reason successful candidates start running so early is so they make the mistakes in small new hampshire living rooms or a barn in iowa. the lessons learned well before the glare of nationally televised debates. plus the myth cal candidacy is almost always more fun than the actual candidacy. just ask fred thompson or rudy giuliani, even governor perry. yes, perry still leads the gop pack in national polls, but his views on immigration, including in state tuition breaks for children and illegal immigrants are giving some conservatives pause. how do you think hard-line conservatives would process this? the new york times quotes governor christie as saying this back in 2008. being in this country without proper documentation is not a crime. and then there is this, from just last year. >> so the president and the congress have to step up to the plate, they have to secure our borders, and they have to put forward a common sense path to citizenship for people. >> a common sense path to citizenship. citizenship for illegal immigrants is about as popular with tea party voters as pre president obama or deficit spending. christie like perry would have explaining to do. again, i say, take him at his word. >> what do you want me to say? jump off a building if they'll nominate me? i can't say this any other way. i am not a candidate for president. >> so why then all this buzz? well, rich galen and gloria borger have a few thoughts about that. rich, i'll start with you. i bumped into you a few times with fred thompson in 2008, why do people say this is late, iowa doesn't vote for 130 more days, there is plenty of time to get in, but it is hard. >> it is. the early days of march, april, may traveling around the living rooms and the barns as you put it, that's like spring training for a professional baseball team. that's when you learn how to cover first on a bunt, that's how you learn all the fundamentals. when you get into the actual race, the little mistakes are not little mistakes because it is the championship season. there is a very famous saying in most nfl stadiums, most popular guy in the stadium is the backup quarterback. he's never fumbled the ball. he's never thrown an interception. and perry was that guy. he strapped on this chin strap, ran -- took us behind center and fumbled the ball. >> he's not running. i think we all agree he's not running, except his office releases some experiments of this speech tonight, he's going to give it at the ronald reagan presidential library, a pretty big stage for a republican, and, remember, he's a governor. this is among the things he says in this speech tonight. today the biggest challenge we must meet is the one we present to ourselves. to not become a nation that places entitlement ahead of accomplishment, to not become a country that places comfortable lies ahead of difficult truths, to not become a people that thinks so little of ourselves that we demand no sacrifice from each other. we are a better people than that and we must demand a better nation than that. >> the shining city upon a hill, sounds like ronald reagan, right? >> that sounds like a guy running for president. >> it does. >> even though he's not running for president. >> right. he's not running for president, just consider the forum he's at, just consider where he's at. nancy reagan ask ed him to spea there so it has to be a speech that say large speech, and particularly given all the attention that he's getting. but i agree with you. look, he's not going to run. republicans are searching for ronald reagan. guess what? they're not going to find ronald reagan in this particular field. and ronald reagan is -- chris christie is not ronald reagan either. >> it is pretty flattering, you have all these people saying the field has a hole, we need you, you're the guy who can beat obama, we can raise a boat load of money for you. >> a ton of money for the re-election campaign for the governor of new jersey. four years ago, like today, the polling had hillary clinton at 47%, barack obama at 26%. on our side, the republican side, giuliani 28%, thompson 23%, mccain 15%. if you took mccain and obama and the points, you did very well. >> mccain and obama in the points, i missed that bet. inintro, i played some of the views. you look great, you get in the race and people scrub your record and they look. people talk about electability, but primaries are about ideology. so we heard what he said about immigration. that would be a tough sell to conservative voters. how about this, on gun control. he said this in an interview with sean hanity in october 2009, what i support are common sense laws that will allow people to protect themselves. but i'm also very concerned about the safety of our police officers on the streets, very concerned. and i want to make sure that we don't have an abundance of guns out there. so trying to find a middle ground on gun control. >> well, but that's not going to make lots of republicans happy, conservative republicans happy. just like perry disappointed them on the immigration issue. >> no border fence. >> exactly. and the hpv vaccine. so there is no perfect candidate. and into that vacuum jumps, i would argue, romney. because romney, by being sort of the slow -- the steady guy, maybe the person that lots of republicans are now thinking who can beat barack obama because romney can actually make the race about barack obama by not being exciting or controversial. >> one more on the issues, climate change, which the conservatives, again, is a tough one. here is chris christie sounding, forgive me governor, like al gore. climate change is real. human activity plays a role in these changes. when you have over 90% of the world scientists who have studied this data and the climate change occurring and humans play a contributing role, it is time to defer to the experts. that would be another tough sell, correct? >> here is how i describe climate change. let's agree it is better to put less junk in the air than more junk. can we all agree on that? let's take the next step they don't even get to that. >> and yet, barack obama was not going to run in 2008. he gave the big speech in 2004, he was not going to run in 2008, his team looked at it and said 2008 is going to be the democratic year. you can say you're not ready, he did say he wasn't ready and then he ran because they said here's the year we can win. can you make that case to governor christie, despite everything you said about not being ready -- >> that was six months earlier. that was a long way before that. and to your point, and to your point, he spent a lot of time in iowa. especially in iowa, working the crowds, learning the issues. he was a sitting united states senator. he had a little broader pallet to paint on than a state governor. >> and the one lesson you were pointing out earlier that i think he learned from governor perry is that there is no off broadway anymore. you start out center stage broadway. and there are mistakes you're going to make and your record is going to be scrubbed just the way you're scrubbing his record here tonight. and that's a problem for any candidate getting in, particularly when he himself said he's not ready to be president. >> so it the message to republicans then this is your field? get used to it? deal with it? >> that's right. absolutely. nobody -- i was trying to think of a campaign, not an incumbent, but a challenger open seat campaign for president that ever led wire to wire. i don't think that happens. bush didn't in 2000. got creamed in new hampshire. these things happen, they go up and down and up and down. you get into the twitter world now, all of us, everything we talk about to each other in real time, these things become gigantic. >> it is going to be -- it is going to come down to electability because republicans are united on one thing, that they want to defeat barack obama. if romney can close that deal, saying i'm the most electable and i can shine the light on barack obama, in this campaign, and make it about him, and his record on the economy, then i think republicans are going to fall in line. i don't know. am i wrong? >> no. the poll we talked about last week, between tea party republicans and nontea party republicans, 80% said when it comes down to it, they want to beat barack obama. >> this is why we go iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, florida and beyond. different pieces of the puzzle, different view of it. i did speak to one adviser tonight who said he's incredibly flattered by all of this, still a no. we'll watch the speech, we'll watch what happens in the days ahead. still ahead here, a controversial bank sale at a california campus draws a long line of protesters and stokes the debate over affirmative action. and, next, the president visits colorado, a red state he turned blue in 2008. might the map be changing colors again come 2012? 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[ male announcer ] we're not employers or employees. not white collar or blue collar or no collars. we are business in america. and every day we awake to the same challenges. but at prudential we're helping companies everywhere find new solutions to manage risk, capital and employee benefits, so american business can get on with business. ♪ whether it can be done safely and responsibly. at exxonmobil we know the answer is yes. when we design any well, the groundwater's protected by multiple layers of steel and cement. most wells are over a mile and a half deep so there's a tremendous amount of protective rock between the fracking operation and the groundwater. natural gas is critical to our future. at exxonmobil we recognize the challenges and how important it is to do this right. this simple truth from president obama's top political strategist today. >> we had the wind at our back in 2008. we don't have the wind at our backs in this election. we have the wind in our face because the american people have the wind in their faces. >> a wind in your face and presidential politics means a much more difficult map. if you track the president's travels in recent days, you get pretty good telling picture about his early campaign targeting. there is where the president was today in denver, colorado. watch this. this is where he has been in the last couple of weeks since giving his jobs speech on september 9th, raleigh, north carolina, richmond, ohio, california, seattle. this is 2008. four of the states the president has visited, red states, red states, red states and red states. these were states that george w. bush won. take a peek again. nine red states in 2004, see them, were blue states for obama in 2008. that's what makes this map so fascinating. at the colorado stop, the president promoted his ideas for job creation and he tried on a new more populous line to counter republican criticism that his plan to raise taxes on affluent americans amounts to class warfare. >> you know what? if asking a millionaire to pay the same tax rate as a plumber makes me a class warrior, a warrior for the working class, i will accept that. i will wear that charge as a badge of honor. the only warfare i've seen is the battle that has been waged against middle class families in this country for a decade now. >> colorado's nine electoral college votes are a big help to the obama campaign in 2008, but can he count on them in 2012? colorado's democratic governor john hickenlooper is with us tonight. why the president carry colorado? >> it would be very close. i think it would be a -- it is hard to say if it was an election today. i think it would depend who his opponent was. >> who would you worry about the most? >> i think, you know, colorado is a very pragmatic state. and after elections, people really focus on getting stuff done. we're not terribly partisan. there are almost as many independents so somebody more pragmatic, mitt romney would be a tough opponent in colorado. >> bill ritter says a repeat of 2008 is very unlikely. i'd say he's looking at a high wire act here. you say it would be close. do you basically agree with the former republican governor? >> i'm not sure it would be a high wire act. i think part of what he's trying to do now is lay out a real, you know, kind of a nonpartisan approach of taking measures that have been promoted by republicans and democrats. cutting payroll taxes, investing in infrastructure, and just trying to get people to work together and i think that sells in colorado. people, you know, we have almost as many as -- almost as many independents as we do republicans and, you know, almost as many democrats as republicans. almost one-third, one-third. >> if you look at opinion poll among independents, the president's handling of the economy has dropped dramatically. it has dropped among everybody, but especially among independents. do you see that in your state, people who backed obama last time, governor, this isn't what i bought? >> well, there is certainly a lot of discouragement with the economy. and some of that rubs off on the president. but i think a lot of the numbers were based on some weeks ago. we'll have to see. what people want, really want is some solutions, right? some effort. and they want less red tape. they want, you know, to free up some money in small businesses. they want a more entrepreneurial approach to the economy. that's all the stuff that president obama was talking about today. >> i want you to listen to part of what he's saying today. he was talking about the specifics of his policy. he was also making a political appeal, trying to get people in your state, anyone listening across the country to help out, to gin up the grassroots machine. >> i'm asking all of you, i need you to lift up your voices. not just here in denver, but anybody watching, anybody listening, anybody following online. i need you to call, e-mail, tweet, fax, visit, tell your congress person, unless it is the congress person that is here, because they're already on board, tell them you're tired of gridlock, you're tired of the games. tell them the time for action is now. >> i spent a lot of time in your state. you were the mayor back in 2008. the mayor of denver. and the obama campaign had a very impressive grassroots organization there, students, latinos, traditional democrats, independents involved. how much has it frayed, if at all in your view, since 2008? can he flip a switch and turn it on? >> i don't think he can pull a switch. but, again, i think that that grassroots constituency responds to ideas and appeals like he made today. i think that sense of gridlock, right, colorado is a place where we -- once the election is over, everybody works together. we passed our budget, we have a republican house and a democratic senate, but we pass our budget which was a tough budget with 80 votes out of 100. 80% of both parties came together to pass a budget. people are frustrated by the gridlock and i think that, you know, if congress can't find -- they're actually doing a service to the president. the president -- it makes the president looks like he's doing everything he can to get things going and that congress is just digging their heels in for partisan politics. >> you mentioned your situation in colorado, here in washington we also have a republican house and a democratic senate. a democratic president, two weeks after he sent his jobs bill up to capitol hill saying in your state the time for action is now. as a democratic governor, how would you explain to fellow democrats why the democratic senate led by the democratic leader harry reid has not brought the president's jobs bill to the floor and essentially dared the republicans to have that debate? >> well, you know, that's the part of politics that is over my head. i spent too many years running restaurants. so i'm probably the wrong person to ask there. my guess is that they're trying to frame the discussion of, you know, why can't we find a compromise in congress and, you know, i think the democrats are trying to, you know, really push the republicans, so much of what is in the jobs bill was earlier supported by various republicans that they -- i think they're trying to bring that out and say, hey, if you want -- you want to cut payroll taxes before, we want to cut it now, let's get it done. >> your state is one of the great laboratories heading into 2012. in 2008, it had been a red state, obama turns it blue. then in 2010, two democratic house seats go republican in your state as part of the big republican wave and we're asking when we look at the swing states, what is going to happen in 2012. what is your sense among the electorate? are they happy with the choice they made among 2010? is the pendulum going to swing again? >> like i said, you know, it is about equal numbers of democrats and republicans and independents. i think they're unhappy with the economy. and, again, some of that always rubs off on the president, the president is the leader. i think most people in colorado don't care as much about republican or democrat as they do about our country. and what they really care about, the whole thing with the debt ceiling where people lost faith in our government, not just in -- not just here in the united states, but all around the world and suddenly the stock market goes into a tail spin, people in colorado hate that. there are certain common factors all across the country, right? we hate waste. we want people to work together. the gridlock that we see in washington is, i think, frustrating for everyone. >> governor john hickenlooper of colorado, appreciate your time tonight. we'll keep checking in as the campaign plays out. >>