Politico: “The Republican governor started a trip to London by bobbling a question about whether measles vaccinations should be mandatory. The next day he snapped at a reporter who tried to ask him about foreign policy. He faced questions about a new federal investigation into his administration and came under scrutiny for his taste in luxurious travel. And back at home in New Jersey, for the first time in his tenure, fellow Republicans in the statehouse threatened to buck him.”

“It was a week that brought back to the surface the nagging question about Christie that he’s spent months trying to put to rest: Whether he has the discipline to survive the glare of the national stage.”

Gary Kirke, a longtime Iowa GOP donor who unsuccessfully attempted to draft Gov. Chris Christie (R) into the presidential race in 2012, tells U.S. News that he isn’t backing him anymore.

Said Kirke: “I don’t think Christie can win. It’s just comments I hear. Christie’s hurt himself a couple times.”

Andrew Sullivan: “The question is a truly difficult one. I used to find Christie’s bluntness and boldness refreshing. I don’t mind his aggressive manner – it’s entertaining at least, and we can all use some personality in our politics at times. I’m in favor of standing up to public sector union mediocrity. I like his relative social liberalism, especially in the madrassa-like swamps of the GOP base. He may even be exonerated in the Bridgegate scandale.”

“But then you just read about him. It’s clear to anyone with eyes and ears by now that he is an almost pathologically ambitious figure, who has no qualms about persecuting his enemies, pettily seeking payback when necessary, and using public office to pursue political vendettas. What you really see in the Bridgegate mess is his desire to get Democratic party officials to endorse him to burnish his bipartisan credentials for a national race. If they didn’t, they had something to fear in New Jersey. He’s a big guy, in other words, with a tendency to punch down and suck up.”

A new Monmouth University poll in New Jersey finds Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) job ratings “have continued their post-Labor Day decline… Nearly two-thirds of Christie’s constituents say that he is more concerned about his own political future than he is about the state, with increasing skepticism of the stated purpose for his recent foreign trips.”

“When New Jerseyans are asked who would make a better president – Chris Christie or Hillary Clinton, Clinton gets the nod from 58%, with 32% choosing the Garden State governor.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “began an overseas trip Sunday exclaiming how much he loved being back in London, one of his favorite cities to visit. The Republican ended it Tuesday by refusing to answer questions lobbed at him all day by reporters,” the Washington Post reports.

“Journeying to England for three days to polish his foreign policy résumé ahead of the 2016 presidential campaign, the likely candidate ended up having little to say about foreign policy.”

Gov. Chris Christie (R) “shot to national prominence as a cheese-steak-on-the-boardwalk Everyman who bluntly preached transparency and austerity as the antidote to bloated state budgets. But throughout his career in public service, Mr. Christie has indulged a taste that runs more toward Champagne at the Four Seasons,” the New York Times reports.

“He has also quietly let others pay the bills.”

“That tendency — the governor himself says he wants to ‘squeeze all the juice out of the orange’ — has put him in ethically questionable situations, taking benefits from those who stand to benefit from him.”

Gov. Chris Christie “will make his most decisive moves yet toward a presidential run by creating a political action committee, hiring eight experienced campaign aides and outlining plans for a spree of fund-raising events across the country,” the New York Times reports.

“The aides will also serve as a skeletal campaign-staff-in-waiting. He is not expected to make a final decision until spring.”

Wall Street Journal: “The launch of the PAC, called Leadership Matters for America, is the clearest sign yet that Mr. Christie is running. It allows Mr. Christie to assemble a team of about a dozen staffers and fundraisers who could support a potential run for president, as well as to raise money that can be used to contribute to like-minded political candidates.”

Byron York: “Chris Christie is in better shape than you think. There was a widely-held assumption that Christie’s Jersey Guy persona wouldn’t play well in Iowa — that he is just too hot and too confrontational to get along with a bunch of nice Midwesterners. But it turns out a lot of Iowa Republicans actually like Christie, even if they’re not quite ready to support him. Christie connects with audiences in Iowa just like elsewhere in the country, and more importantly, Iowa Republicans really want someone to fight for them in the next campaign. Most felt Romney just wouldn’t take it to President Obama in 2012, so now Christie is OK with them as long as they believe he will give Democrats hell.”