Gov. Chris Christie, “whose meteoric rise as a national Republican in his first term was matched only by his spectacular loss of stature at home in his second, is set to enter the 2016 presidential race on Tuesday morning bearing little resemblance to the candidate he once expected to be,” the New York Times reports.

First Read: “There are two paths to winning a party’s presidential nomination. One, you sell yourself as the right candidate to win over the base on the issues — i.e., the ideological warrior. But that was never going to be Christie’s route. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Christie had a problem with GOP primary voters BEFORE Bridge-gate. Two, you sell yourself as the person who is the most electable, the candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton — i.e., the winner. But that route for Christie looks much less promising for him than it did two years ago.”

When Gov. Chris Christie enters the race for president this week, he’ll do so as an underdog, the AP reports.

“The launch of the Republican governor’s White House campaign is the culmination of years of groundwork that began even before his landslide re-election to a second term as governor in 2013, but one nearly felled by scandal and a descent from his standing as one of the nation’s most popular state leaders to a politician whose approval ratings have reached record lows at home. It’s a reality Christie and his supporters are ready to embrace, not that they have a choice.”

Newark Star Ledger: “The fact that the GOP field is the largest since Abraham Lincoln may have changed the monetary calculus for Christie, according to some of the donors supporting his run. They say rather than taking on one big-money candidate such as Bush, Christie will simply need enough to compete with the crowd of over a dozen, at least for now.”

“Christie’s campaign, which went live on Saturday ahead of an formal announcement Tuesday, won’t say officially just how much cash is needed But top Christie donor Al Hill, Jr. – the Texas oilman who’s the grandson of billionaire H. L. Hunt – told NJ Advance Media: ‘My understanding is $20 million needs to be raised between now and the first of December.'”

Gov. Chris Christie (R), “who often portrays himself as a bold, decisive leader willing to take political risks, took a stand on Tuesday on the South Carolina Confederate flag flap,” the Bergen Record reports.

“Christie is one of the last 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls to endorse Haley’s call for taking down the flag… Christie’s delay is startling on a number of fronts. Developments late last week and into the weekend seemed to present Christie — a politician with a keen sense of timing and one who cultivated relations with African-American leaders in his reelection campaign — a ripe opportunity to seize the initiative.”

Gov. Chris Christie (R) is in the final stages of preparing his 2016 presidential bid, with a formal announcement possible as soon as next week, Politico reports.

“The governor’s planning has intensified in recent days. On Monday, his campaign-in-waiting announced that he’d hired two additional staffers in New Hampshire, a state seen as critical to his White House hopes. Earlier this month, Maria Comella, a longtime Christie aide, departed the governor’s official office to take a senior position at his political action committee.”

A new Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind poll finds Gov. Chris Christie (R), “who is in the midst of planning a presidential run, has an approval rating of 30%, below what is usually expected for a White House hopeful in his own state, where 55% disapprove of his performance.”

National Journal: “The Straight Talk Express has returned to New Hampshire, except with a different conductor: Chris Christie. Like John McCain in 2008, the New Jersey governor is holding lengthy town halls, sounding an unmistakably aggressive note on fighting terror overseas, and bluntly calling for radical reforms to entitlements, the tax code, and education at home as he seeks to make a miraculous comeback from the political doldrums.”

“Any Christie comeback will need to happen in the Granite State, which the governor has all but made a second home since exploring a presidential campaign.”

Gov. Chris Christie (R) said he backed a proposal by Fox News to limit the number of presidential debate participants to 10, based on their national poll standing, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Christie: “I think you have got to have some sense of limit on it, because no one will have a chance to speak if you have too many people up there.”

Gov. Chris Christie (R) will travel to five states next month as he moves closer to launching a presidential bid, according to an itinerary obtained by the Washington Post.

“Included are June stops in Iowa and South Carolina, as well as three separate trips to New Hampshire, where Christie’s advisers believe his hawkish fiscal pitch and loquacious style at town-hall meetings could revive his wilting prospects.”

Gov. Chris Christie (R) “gave an expletive-laced speech at an annual New Jersey media roast Wednesday, taking aim at reporters who had mocked him for the George Washington Bridge scandal, his travels and the state’s finances,” Bloomberg reports.

Said Christie: “We don’t give a shit about this or any of you.”

He told one journalist to “open your eyes” and “clean the shit out of your ears. This is a guy who says he doesn’t know what I’m doing every day. Then just get the fuck away from me then if you don’t know what I’m doing.”

Newark Star Ledger Editorial Board: “For months, we have wondered how Gov. Chris Christie thinks he can win the presidency when New Jersey is in such rotten shape after his six years in office. Now we may have our answer: The man has lost touch with reality.”

“He needs to pour himself a drink and ask himself the tough question: Why don’t people love me? It could be the rotten job market. Or the high property taxes. Or the crumbling transit system. Or the broken promise on pensions. Or the private jets. Or the Bridgegate indictments. And so on.”

“It’s no wonder that New Jersey is screaming a warning to the rest of the country. God forbid he gets a chance to make an even bigger mess on a larger stage.”