Chris Christie Takes Shot at Rick Perry on Immigration Policy

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images(SIMI VALLEY, Calif.) -- Though New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was vague about his own presidential ambitions during an appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Tuesday night, he did take direct aim at the current front-runner for the Republican nomination.

During a Q&A session, Christie took issue with Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s assertion at a debate last week that refusing to provide discounted college tuition to illegal immigrants was heartless.

“I want every child who comes to New Jersey to be educated, but I don’t believe that for those people who came here illegally, we should be subsidizing with taxpayer money, through in-state tuition, their education,” Christie said.  “And let me be very clear from my perspective: That is not a heartless position that is a common sense position.”

Perry, who as governor of Texas supported a bill allowing the children of illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition at Texas colleges and universities, said at a debate in Florida last week that anyone who disagrees does not “have a heart.”

“If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they’ve been brought there by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart,” Perry said.  “We need to be educating these children, because they will become a drag on our society.”

It was a clear reference to his rival Mitt Romney, who, at the same debate, took a swipe at Perry on the in-state tuition law.  Romney shot back a day after the debate.

“My friend Gov. Perry says if you don’t agree his position on giving that in state tuition on illegals then you don’t have a heart,” Romney said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando last week.  “I think if you’re opposed to illegal immigration it doesn’t mean you don’t have a heart, it means you have a heart and a brain.”

In addition to aligning himself with Romney on Tuesday night, Christie also expressed dissatisfaction with the state of border security in the country: “Our borders have to be secure and we have done an awful job of doing that.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Sarah Palin: ‘Is a Title and Campaign Too Shackle-y?’

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Would a Palin presidency be too “shackle-y?”

That’s what Sarah Palin suggested on Fox News’ On The Record with Greta VanSusteren Tuesday night, saying that she’s concerned jumping into the 2012 presidential race will muffle her message.

“Is a title worth it?” she asked, rhetorically.  “Does a title shackle a person?  Are they someone like me who’s maverick?  I do go rogue and I call it like I see it and I don’t mind stirring it up in order to get people to think and debate aggressively.”

“Is a title and a campaign too shackle-y?,” she continued.  “Does that prohibit me from being out there, out of a box, not allowing handlers to shape me and to force my message to be what donors or what contributors or what pundits want it to be?  Does a title take away my freedom to call it like I see it and to affect positive change that we need in this country?  That’s the biggest contemplation piece in my process.”

Palin expressed a concern about “being caricatured” if she runs, and asked again “whether a title is needed to make a difference or someone can be rogue, can be maverick, can be passionate about issues and can get people to think very wisely about issues.”

Palin also said she didn’t know anything about a recent e-mail her political action committee sent to supporters saying she’s “on the verge” of making a 2012 decision: “Well I don’t know what went out to voters that said I’m on the verge.”

But she admitted it’s getting late.

“For logistical reasons though, certainly, decisions have to be made,” she said.  “You have to get your ducks lined up in order to get your name on ballots.”

And she still thinks she could beat President Obama.

“I do,” she replied, when Susteren asked if she could win over the current president.  “I wouldn’t have gone this far in my thinking about whether to run or not had I not had the confidence to believe that Americans are ready for someone out of the box.”

Palin also assessed the existing Republican field.  She called the current coverage of the GOP race a “quasi reality show” and chalked up the speculation surrounding New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential ambitions to a game of “who’s going to be the next flavor of the week?”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Obama Campaign Manager Predicts 'Titanic Struggle' in 2012

ABC News(MANCHESTER, N.H.) -- The committee to reelect President Obama is not underestimating the task that lies ahead.

In fact, the president's campaign manager admitted Tuesday that his candidate faces a "titanic struggle" in 2012 against the yet-to-be-named Republican contender.

David Axelrod, who successfully managed then-U.S. Sen. Obama to a decisive win over Republican John McCain in 2008, conceded that "we don't have the wind at our back.  We have the wind in our faces, because the American people have the wind in their faces."

While the economy did not fall into a depression following the near meltdown of the financial industry three years ago, many Americans believe they are no better off now than then and some claim they're in worse shape.

Axelrod, who spoke at a forum in Manchester, New Hampshire, blamed this situation for the challenges the president faces as well as the highly-charged partisan atmosphere on Capitol Hill.  Pulling no punches, Axelrod called the current field of GOP presidential candidates, "the most ideological, partisan group of Republicans in my lifetime."

Since these White House hopefuls are aligning themselves more with the far right Tea Party, Axelrod believes it can work to Obama's advantage as he fights for "the embattled middle class and the sense that in America if you work hard you can get ahead."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Chris Christie -- ‘Listening’ to Supporters Urging Him to Run for President

Governor's Office/Tim Larsen(SIMI VALLEY, Calif.) -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie left the door open -- ever so slightly -- to the notion that he was reconsidering his decision not to run for president in an appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Tuesday night.

Although he referred the crowd to his previous denials that he would not jump into the race, he also told a member of the audience who implored him to get in race that he was “listening to every word.”

During a short question-and-answer session after his prepared remarks at the hill-top library in Simi Valley, Calif., the audience member offered a passionate plea for Christie to jump into the race. Here’s what she said:

“You know how to tell the American people what they need to hear. And I say this from the bottom of my heart, from my daughter who’s right here and my grandchildren who are at home. I know New Jersey needs you but I really implore you, I really do, -- I’m not -- this isn’t funny. I mean this with all my heart. We can’t wait another four years, to 2016. I really implore you as a citizen of this country to please, sir, to reconsider,” the woman said. “We need you. Your country needs you to run for president.”

“I hear exactly what you’re saying and I feel the passion with which you say it, and it touches me,” Christie replied. “I’m just a kid from Jersey who feels like he’s the luckiest guy in the world to have the opportunity that I have to be the governor of my state.”

Later, he added, “I thank you for what you’re saying and I take it in and I’m listening to every word of it and feeling it.”

“It isn’t a burden,” Christie said of those who are putting pressure on him to enter the 2012 race. “Fact of the matter is, that anybody who had an ego large enough to say, ‘oh please, please, please stop asking me to be leader of the free world. It’s such a burden. If you could please just stop.’ I mean what kind of crazy egomaniac would you have to be to say, ‘stop, stop.’?”

Christie continued, “It’s extraordinarily flattering, but by the same token, that heartfelt message you gave me is also not a reason for me to do it. That reason has to reside inside me.”

In response to an earlier question about whether he was re-thinking his decision, Christie offered a much more flippant non-denial denial.

“I saw something great today on the Politico website, and I don’t mean to be an advertiser for Politico, but they put a minute and 53 seconds of my answers strung back to back to back together on the question of running for the presidency. Everyone go to Politico.com. It’s right on the front page. I’m not going to bore you with you know. Click on it, those are the answers. Next question.”

Another member of the audience stood up and identified herself as a proud “Jersey girl” who has been living in California for two-and-half years.

“My Italian mother -- she told me to tell you that you gotta run for president,” she said.

“If I make you proud to be a New Jerseyan and proud to be American and your Italian mother wants me to run for president, what the hell are you doing in California?” Christie joked. “Get back to New Jersey. Let’s go. Come home. Come home for God’s sake. What are you doing out here? I got a plane, you can come right back now if you want.”

Christie added, “Getting more taxpayers one at a time.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Obama Stumps for Jobs in Denver

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(DENVER) -- President Obama brought his jobs pitch to Denver, Colo. Tuesday, where in a campaign-style speech he told Congress he wants his $447 billion jobs bill back. “It’s been two weeks since I sent it to Congress. And now I want it back. I want to sign this jobs bill so we can start putting people to work. I’ve got the pens all ready,” Obama said.  
 
“So my question to Congress is: What on Earth are we waiting for?” the president said at Abraham Lincoln High School.
 
Holding up the American Jobs Act -- “I know it’s kind of thick” -- Obama told the crowd in escalating campaign cadence to “pass this bill,” although the legislation has little chance of passing in its current form and Republicans have declared it dead on arrival.
 
In casual shirt sleeves Obama addressed the sweltering crowd of 2,000 supporters who had waited hours in the hot sun and 80-plus degree weather to see the president. At least eight people reportedly succumbed to the heat and were taken from the event.
 
Tuesday’s speech marked the end of the president’s three-day western swing, culminating a trip that included seven fundraisers and two presidential events where Obama promoted his jobs bill, which has become the cornerstone of his re-election bid.  
 
While the president carried Colorado by nine percentage points in 2008, his approval ratings have been falling and he has adopted a more aggressive tone on the campaign trail in recent days. Tuesday was the president’s first visit to the state in over a year and his first of the campaign season.
 
Despite netting millions in campaign cash over the past three days, the president continued to scold Republicans Tuesday for focusing too much on the next election and not enough on fixing the economy.
 
“I know some Republicans in Washington have said that some of this might have to wait for the next election; that maybe we should just stretch this out rather than work together right now. Some even said that even if they agree with the proposals in the American Jobs Act, they shouldn’t pass it because it would give me a win. Give me a win?  Give me a break!” Obama said, delivering the now-familiar line.
 
“That’s why folks are fed up with Washington. This isn’t about giving me a win. This isn’t about giving Democrats or Republicans a win. This is about giving people who are hurting a win,” he said.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Biden Praises Chris Christie as ‘Good Guy,’ Hits GOP

ABC News(NEW YORK) -- Vice President Joe Biden walked into a heated debate over New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s weight in an appearance Tuesday on ABC’s The View.

“Well, you look great and trim after you just heard us bashing that poor governor of New Jersey,” co-host Barbara Walters said to Biden. “You look great.”

“No comment,” Biden demurred, as he sat on the sofa between Walters and the four other daytime talk divas.

“Actually,” he said piping up, “Christie’s a good guy.  Christie is a fellow University of Delaware graduate, and a phenomenal football fan. He comes to all our home games...I like him.”

Does Biden think Christie could be a strong candidate to challenge President Obama?

“Well, New Jersey is a big important state,” he said. “He’s at the top of his game right now.”

The vice president was less sanguine when asked to respond to the already-committed 2012 Republican field, taking particular aim at the candidates’ silence in last week’s debate following the booing of a gay service member by the audience.

“I did have a visceral response,” said Biden, whose son, Beau, served in Iraq. “I know my son and all the kids with him...I don’t think they give a damn whether the guy firing the rifle to protect them is gay or straight.

“Look, this kid risked his life, this kid was there for a year -- and I quite frankly, I thought it was reprehensible,” he said as emotion visibly welled up.

Biden said he sees the entirety of the GOP field, with the exception of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, as adherents to the same “fundamentally different” ideology.

“You know, they’re beating up Perry for saying [Social Security is] a Ponzi scheme,” he said, “but yet everyone else on that stage wants to privatize it. So I don’t see much difference.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Texas Dem: Rick Perry Given ‘Free Ride’ as Governor

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Former Texas congressman Martin Frost, a Democrat, was ahead of the curve on Gov. Rick Perry. When Perry was first announcing his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination six months ago, Frost predicted a rough road for the Texas governor.

Frost pointed to Perry’s evolving position on whether gay marriage should be a states’ rights issue. On ABC’s Top Line political talk show Tuesday, Frost said the Texas media is largely to blame for giving Perry “a free ride” during his career as governor.

“What I think a lot of people didn’t realize is that Rick Perry has had a free ride from the local media  in Texas for the last 10 years, and so he’s not used to dealing with tough scrutiny, and that’s because newspapers have shrunk in Texas,” Frost, 69, said. “The major newspapers have laid off almost half of their staff. Television news has never been very aggressive in Texas, and so he’s now on a different playing field, and that was one of the things that I pointed out when he first announced his candidacy, that he was in the big leagues now and he wasn’t used to dealing in the big leagues.”

But Perry has a long career in Texas and has shown himself to be a political survivor. Frost said his survival, however, has been in Texas, which he described as “a very conservative state.”

“I wouldn’t write him off,” Frost said. “He still has a chance to come back, simply because the Republican electorate is so conservative, and if he can somehow go to school. If he can somehow learn about foreign policy, practice a little bit more for debates, he’s still a very viable candidate. And he can raise lots of money, but he’s on the ropes right now.

“And don’t look at the past, because -- remember his politics are pretty consistent with where Texas is politically, so it wasn’t surprising that he was able to come back in Texas.”

Perry survived a challenge by the popular moderate Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2010. But Frost said the national view that Perry was really challenged by Hutchison is incorrect.

“I don’t think he ever was really on the ropes there. His biggest problem is that he’s never really had to think about some of these national issues before,” said Frost, pointing to Perry’s odd answer to a foreign policy question at a debate in Florida Sept. 22.

“Clearly, his answer on foreign policy when he was asked about Pakistan was almost incoherent and a national candidate can’t do that. I’m not sure how he prepares himself,” Frost said. “I’m not sure what they do to educate him, to send him to school, but he’s got to be a lot better, and you can’t just say, ‘Oh, gee, I’m not a good debater.’ That doesn’t wash.

“The American people expect someone to be able to handle themselves. They don’t have to be brilliant. Ronald Reagan showed that he was a better debater than people thought. He wasn’t brilliant, by any means, but he was adequate and a little bit better than adequate, and that’s where Perry has got to get to pretty soon.”

Frost argued that debates scan be key, especially for candidates in a presidential race.

“People get so much of their information not just from watching a debate but watching the excerpts from the debate on the evening news  or on the morning news the next day,” he said. “That’s where people learn a lot about candidates. It may not be fair. It may not be the most equitable way to do things, but the average person sees 30 seconds or a minute from a debate and if those 30 seconds or a minute are deadly, that candidate’s got real problems.”

In terms of how Frost the Democrat thinks Perry would fair in the general election against President Obama, he said, “Oh, I think that Perry would be an easier candidate for [Team Obama] than Romney,” joking that Perry might be the one candidate Obama could beat.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Callista Gingrich’s Book Makes Amazon Best Sellers List

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A Gingrich has one of the top-selling books in the country, but it’s not Newt.

His wife, Callista, released her first children’s book, Sweet Land of Liberty, Monday, and it has jumped to No. 3 on the Amazon Best Sellers list.

The children’s book features Ellis the Elephant, who comes to America and shares with children the story of America’s exceptionalism, a theme Newt Gingrich has articulated throughout his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

Leading the Amazon Best Sellers list is Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, followed by Heroes of Olympus, the Book Two: The Sun of Neptune.

Rounding out the top five are Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney and The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks.

At CPAC this weekend in Florida, a life-size Ellis the Elephant joined Callista Gingrich while she talked about her book.

This is Callista’s first venture in children’s books, but the Gingrich couple has produced seven documentaries together. Throughout Newt Gingrich’s time on the campaign trail, the duo has fit in screenings of their documentaries at many stops. He has authored 23 books on his own, 13 of which have made the New York Times best-seller list.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Ed Koch Endorses Obama Despite Earlier Misgivings

Former NY Mayor Ed Koch (center) flanked by former NY Mayor David Dinkins (left) and current Mayor Michael Bloomberg. NY Mayor's Office(NEW YORK) -- It turns out that failed New York congressional candidate David Weprin and former NYC Mayor Ed Koch have more in common than many people thought.

Koch, 86, backed Republican Bob Turner in the special election to fill disgraced Democrat Anthony Weiner’s old seat. Koch repeatedly said while campaigning with Turner he wanted to “send a message” to the White House on Israel.

Message received, apparently. Koch endorsed President Barack Obama Tuesday.

In an email sent to supporters and obtained by Politico, Koch says he is backing the president for recent moves regarding Israel.

“The president should be praised for intervening with the Egyptian army to save the Israeli diplomatic personnel from physical assault and providing the Israeli military with bunker buster bombs, advanced military technology and providing military intelligence cooperation far exceeding his predecessors,” Koch wrote. “I’m now on board the Obama Reelection Express.”

At Turner’s election party in Queens earlier this month, Koch told reporters the president had “thrown Israel under the bus,” and he had also suggested he would take his message to other places in the country with large Jewish populations such as South Florida. But it seems all is now well with Koch and the president.

The New York Times reported that Koch also cited being invited to a party the president and first lady held at the New York Public Library for United Nations delegates last week where he spoke with the president.

When Turner claimed victory over Weprin in the overwhelmingly Democratic district, both Turner and Koch said it was a referendum on Obama and that Jewish voters were upset at his call to return to Israel’s pre-1967 borders.

Koch’s backing of Turner apparently helped give the businessman with no previous political experience the momentum that led to his victory in the deep-blue district. No word yet on whether Koch will help Obama do the same, but it could help to end some of the chatter that Jewish Democrats are abandoning the president.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Facebook to Fund Candidates, Establishes PAC

NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Facebook doesn’t just want more friends. It wants more friends in high places.

The social networking firm filed paperwork Monday to establish a political action committee (PAC) that would direct funds to candidates running in the 2012 presidential election.

Facebook follows another Silicon Valley giant, Google, in establishing a PAC and comes on the heels of several social media companies becoming more involved in this election cycle, holding online town halls and sponsoring debates.

Corporations cannot legally contribute directly to a candidate. They instead create PACs that collect employee contributions voluntarily. Those contributions are then donated to candidates with positions usually favorable to the company.

“FB PAC will give our employees a way to make their voice heard in the political process by supporting candidates who share our goals of promoting the value of innovation to our economy while giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected,” Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in an email.

Tech companies are increasingly looking for new footholds inside Washington’s halls of power and new ways their offerings can influence the political conversation. Google co-sponsored the GOP debate in Florida last week, Facebook held a digital town hall Monday with Republican members of Congress, and LinkedIn, the jobs networking site, held a similar event with President Obama.

Facebook, which opened a corporate office in Washington, D.C., in 2007, has increasingly lobbied Congress on a wide range of legal and regulatory issues. Facebook has spent $500,000 on lobbying so far this fiscal year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Facebook has yet to indicate which candidates the PAC will support.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio