Is Chris Christie running for president again? Of course he is.

Of course Chris Christie is running for president.

No, he didn’t declare his candidacy or announce an exploratory committee. He isn’t living part-time in New Hampshire like he did when he was still governor of New Jersey. He hasn’t even told his old crew to be ready to hit the road again.

But make no mistake about it, at this moment in the late summer of 2021, Chris Christie’s eyes are fixed on another White House run — even as his name is barely a blip in the early horse race polls, the very mention of it angers his many detractors, and so much has to happen to his party’s political landscape to plow a path for him.

Christie’s run in 2016 was doomed by everything from Donald Trump and how poorly New Jersey’s economy performed during his governorship to his inability to cash in on favors he’d given fellow Republican governors and how so many GOP voters hated how he warmly greeted Barack Obama in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Add to that his retirement from Jersey politics as the most unpopular governor in state history, Bridgegate and Beachgate (and that meme!), and his declaration that Trump lost the election and was to blame for the “reprehensible and un-American” failed insurrection on Jan. 6, and there’s a really big hill to climb for 2024.

But Christie and those in his corner truly believe he can emerge again. He’s on record in a series of interviews with friendly media dating back to 2019, saying, with proper caveats, that he’s interested running, and would do so even if Trump tries it again (He has not replied to weeks of my requests for comment).

And on Thursday, he gives a speech at the site where the Christie-for-President talk took on a life of its own for the very first time a decade ago: the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California — a prime stop for Republicans wishing to launch a White House run.

So what could be ahead, and how could Christie Presidential Campaign II be different in 2024? Here’s how it can all play out for this never-dull Jersey politician.

It all begins with a book

A book deal is a classic precursor to any nationwide run. Christie, who was pretty much the only candidate not to have a book prior to his first run isn’t being subtle in the title of his upcoming tome: “Republican Rescue: Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden.”

His next one might as well be titled “Vote for Me.”

The Christie argument is to take the GOP away from all that conspiracy talk that alienates so many, and focus all its attention on “extreme” President Joe Biden. He’ll save the party from being irrelevant with a formula of uniting the right and those moderates who are abandoning the GOP and winning back independent voters. He’ll pitch pragmatism and competence.

The first big forum to lay out this case will be Thursday’s speech at the Reagan Library, where in 2011 a woman in the audience begged him, to no avail, to run the…