He was a left-leaning Republican governor of a liberal state. He claimed to want to govern more to the right, but had to compromise to stay elected and get some things done.
If the voters didn't like Christie, even after his performance in the NH debate, then why would anyone think they would support Romney?
Bridgegate and Obamahuggate are chump change compared to Obamacare-lite.
They don’t care if Romney gets voter support or not. The main thing is to have some surrogate at the convention whom they can ease in so as to stop Trump from getting the nomination. The strategy now appears to be to hold on to the Republican-controlled Senate (controlled by Republican sell outs) and then make deals with President Hillary (whom they feel pretty sure they can control).