For a guy who says adamantly that he is not looking at running for president, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did a poor job of preventing questions about it during his first trip to Iowa on Monday. The outspoken Republican dismissed talk of the 2012 race while headlining a fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial candidate Terry E. Branstad, even as he touted the party’s new national optimism that he says has taken root in his state in the nine months since he took office.

“I don’t know how else I can say it. No chance. No way. No how. Door’s closed,” Christie told reporters about any presidential ambition after headlining the banquet. “To be president of the United States, you have to want it more than anything else in the world, and I don’t.” Read more in APP.