Even Christie’s mentor, Tom Kean, is not sure that the New Jersey governor would be the right choice for Romney. “Is that what you want right now if you’re Romney?” Kean asks. “I don’t know. What Romney is selling is pure competence. A problem solver. And you wonder if that’s not more a guy like Portman”—the Republican senator from Ohio and former Bush budget director Rob Portman—“somebody of that ilk. Chris would bring a lot to the ticket, no question about it. But he’s used to saying whatever’s on his mind, and in a vice president, that isn’t always what you want.”

Christie himself seems to sense that he and Romney might not be an easy fit. “I think there are a bunch of people he could ask who he might think are better qualified, or are better partners for him,” Christie says. “He’s a CEO type, and I think he’s gonna want to have someone he feels very comfortable with.”

Even if Romney does ask, Christie says he might well say no, “and there’ll be people who will tell me that’s a big mistake.”

But Christie says that he has been told before that he missed his moment.