Is it already all over for Chris Christie? [View all]

[n2doc]

There's a number in the latest Pew national poll that has to send chills up the spine of Chris Christie. It's 39 -- as in 39 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who say there is "no chance" they would vote for the New Jersey governor in a presidential primary. That's the highest "no chance" number of any of the ten candidates and, in fact, is more than ten points higher than the next closest competitor. (Jeb Bush gets a 25 percent "no chance" score.)

But wait, there's more. Christie is also the third best known candidate in the 10 person field, according to the Pew poll, with just 16 percent of respondents saying they had never heard of him. (Bush is the best known followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.)

That's a worst-of-both-world situation for Christie. He is well known by Republican voters and a large chunk of those same voters are already convinced they could never vote for him.

And, this isn't a one-off poll finding either. Last month, an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll found that 57 percent of Republicans said they couldn't support him. (Only Donald Trump scored higher on that measure. Donald Trump!) Wrote Democratic pollster Peter Hart of the findings: "The thumbs-down signal comes from a majority of every segment of the GOP electorate, but it crests with men at 62 percent, very conservative Republicans at 69 percent and tea-party backers at 72 percent. Even within the moderate wing of the GOP, 57 percent just say no."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/04/03/is-it-already-all-over-for-chris-christie/