Politically Christie is playing it safe here because he knows how anti-AGW the party as a whole is.

I don’t know how viable he is for the gop nod though. He’ll have to backtrack like Romney on a lot of issues. And he may have some of the same problems that Giuliani did. First, he’s pro-gun control. Second, he’s pro-civil union. Third, his abortion position is similar to Giuliani’s: personally opposed but publicly accepting of Roe v Wade.

These things won’t endear him to the gop base, which is still angry over not nominating a “real conservative” in 2008.