For what it’s worth, the New York Post and their “sources” claim that Chris Christie rejected a spot on the Republican ticket with Mitt Romney because he thought they’d lose. Two interesting points were made, though. My favorite, of course, is that Gov. Christie refused because he thought President Obama would beat them.

Gov. Chris Christie wasn’t willing to give up the New Jersey statehouse to be Mitt Romney’s running mate because he doubted they’d win, The Post has learned.

Oof!

The other is the concern about the legalities of accepting big money from big donors were he to not step down as governor, since there are restrictions on some contributions to a governor running for federal office. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Lazard and Wellington Advisors would all be affected, and they would be severely limited.

Team Willard warned that if Christie ran with Mitt without resigning first, Team Obama could challenge any Wall Street donations:

Romney’s top aides had demanded Christie step down as the state’s chief executive because if he didn’t, strict pay-to-play laws would have restricted the nation’s largest banks from donating to the campaign — since those banks do business with New Jersey.

But Christie adamantly refused to sacrifice his post, believing that being Romney’s running mate wasn’t worth the gamble. [...]

“Christie refused to resign under any circumstances,” a Romney source said. “It had nothing to do with Chris’ personality and everything to do with money.”

Christie based his decision at least partly on his belief that Willard did himself no favors with his refusal to release his tax returns and his overseas gaffe-athons during which he alienated the United Kingdom, Poland, and Israel, and even managed to alienate the press.

Certain Romney was doomed, Christie stuck to his guns — even as some of his own aides pushed him to run, another source said.

Soon he’ll be speaking at Convention Isaac. Timing is everything.