TRENTON - Saying it just "didn't feel right," Gov. Chris Christie this afternoon in his outer office told a capacity crowd of reporters that he won't run for president in 2012.

"For me the answer wasn't anything but no," said the governor. "I'm doing the job in the state I grew up in."

He said he finally made his decision last night.

Republicans for months have leaned on the combative New Jersey governor to run for president and he repeatedly said he wouldn't run.

"I'll always be grateful for their confidence in me."

Sources close to Christie said the bow-out of former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty from the Republican Primary in August intensified fundraisers' and party leaders' interest in Christie.

A stumbling debate performance by Texas Gov. Rick Perry this fall, absence of a clear frontrunner, and continued weak polling by President Barack Obama put more pressure on the governor.

Then his iconic address to the Reagan Library with former First Lady Nancy Reagan last week heaped more national campaign pressure on Christie.

Today in Trenton he defused it all. 

"In the end," Christie said, "what I've felt was the right decision, remains the right decision today. Now is not my time."

Christie wouldn't rule out a run.

"I'm interested in employment," he said. "I'm not going to preclude any chances. When you have as many serious people and all kinds of regular folks (trying to persuade him to run); we got FedExed from a farmer in Nebraska, from their children (with the idea that) if they did that, they would be remembered in the history books."

There were dozens of letters and calls, he said.

"Mary Pat and I decided we better really rethink this, but in the end my commitment to this state overrode that. It never felt right to leave now. When as many people come to you, you have an obligation." 

Christie wouldn’t endorse a candidate today but he said the GOP must defeat Obama.

“The president’s failed,” said the governor.

“I’m not prepared to make any endorsements today,” Christie said.

The governor got a lump in his throat when he recalled how last night at a restaurant he described people walking up to his telling him to run and that they would miss him here.

He didn’t chest thump his renewed presence on the ground a month before legislative elections.

“Given the condition of the map, I don’t see it as a referendum on me,” he said. “To the extent that they get elected they will help move our agenda faster than it’s moving now.”

He repeated his statement that he’s not interested in vice president.

A reporter asked if cocooned party members are no free to issue presidential endorsements.

Christie side-stepped.

That’s all stuff to be seen in the future,” the governor said.

Re-election?

“I have no idea,” he said. “I’m midway through my term.”

A reporter asked Christie how much it troubled him that GOP presidential candidate Texas Gov.  Rick Perry once owned property called "N-head." 

"Anybody would be troubled by the use of that word in whatever context that word arises," said the governor. "I don’t know enough about the context, but just the use of the word and phrase is troubling."

Would he rule out Perry as a contender on that basis?

"I haven’t ruled anybody in or out," Christie said.