25 reasons Chris Christie's presidential campaign tanked

TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie ended his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Wednesday after his disappointing showing in Tuesday's primary in New Hampshire, the state where the New Jersey governor staked his chances at the White House.

Here are 25 reasons why Christie's White House hopes tanked:

1. Donald Trump: Christie was supposed to be this year's "tell it like it is" candidate, the guy who would pierce through the canned quotes and reach out to angry voters. But when it comes to blunt, even New Jersey's outspoken gov could never hold a candle to The Donald, who, according to one survey, stole more potential backers from Christie than any other candidate.

8: Year of the Outsider: Christie argued hard that he's not from Washington, but you can't fight for establishment votes and call yourself an outsider.

9. The Governor Argument: Christie said governors are better at making decisions than senators, poking fun at Florida's Marco Rubio and Texas's Ted Cruz and saying they'd be the inexperienced second coming of President Obama. But early primary voters sure seemed to prefer senators to Christie.

10. John Kasich: Even if voters buy Christie's governors-are-better argument, they had other choices, such as Ohio's Kasich, a sitting governor whose voters love him and ended Tuesday night as the big establishment wing winner in New Hampshire.

11. The big field. There were simply too many candidates splitting time, money and voter attention. Christie always needed a comeback to win, but it's far more difficult to jump over four or five candidates than one or two.

12. Jersey isn't crazy about him. Christie's home-state ratings are in the low 30s, as even home state Republicans soured on him. Not something to brag about on the campaign trail. And it gave other candidates a quick jab when they needed it.

13. America isn't crazy about Jersey: Was Christie hurt because some people out there think of Snooki and Tony Soprano when they think of Jersey?

14.  Shooting down Russian planes and other scary stuff: Christie vowed to keep America safe, which may be a good message. But voters didn't buy his argument that he was uniquely qualified for this because he's a former U.S. prosecutor.

15. Debate performances didn't do enough: He starred in the final debate, and never did poorly in the earlier ones. They all certainly helped Christie, but not enough.

16. The Jersey economy: Even his pal Donald Trump mentioned the nine credit ratings downgrades under Christie's watch. While Christie countered that his state had a great 2015 in creating private sector jobs, Jersey's long-struggling, worse-than-the-nation economy could never be a winning point for him.

17. Had his moment passed?: Christie was the most exciting Republican just before the 2012 campaign as top names in the GOP and big donors not thrilled with Mitt Romney begged him to jump in. But by the time he actually committed to the 2016 race, Christie was no longer the rising star. Bridgegate and Jersey's tough economy had tarnished him, while new candidates began to rise.

18. Pensions: It didn't help that Christie's signature success of his first term -- pension reform -- turned sour after the Jersey budget didn't generate enough cash and he had to curtail payments.

19. New Hampshire strategy falls short: Christie put all his eggs in the New Hampshire basket, spending little -- and getting few votes -- in Iowa. The idea was to turn the momentum of New Hampshire into a fund-raising bonanza for the rest of the way. But others poured more money into New Hampshire, aired more TV commercials and made contact with more voters, according to surveys.

20. He got smacked just when he got traction: For the longest time, Christie's campaign was free from attacks because he wasn't a factor in the race. As soon as he began to gain traction, his opponents pounced. In the end, Christie was the recipient of more negative ads than anyone else.

21. Flashes of the Christie temper: For the most part, Christie kept his cool and was an intelligent, entertaining presence in town halls. But he also flashed his temper a few times in town halls, including his infamous "mop" response to a young woman who wondered why he was in New Hampshire and not still in New Jersey in the aftermath of last month's blizzard.

22. He's not the only one who hates Hillary: For the longest time, Christie refused to mix it up with fellow Republicans and turned lots of questions about them into an attack on Hillary Clinton. He said he was the best candidate to "prosecute" her in a general election. He might have been, but with every candidate saying the same thing, this was not a message Christie could own by himself.

23: Deals with Dems: Christie made much of his bipartisan deals with Democrats in New Jersey as a reason he can get things done in Washington. But did that play with partisan early primary voters?

24. Took too long for Republicans to like him: It took a long time for Christie to overcome the negative feelings some Republicans had about him. And while voters no longer disliked him, it wasn't enough. For all the attention he got, Christie's national numbers never got the bump he needed.

25. South Carolina debate rules: You can say the end really came when Christie's sixth place finish meant he didn't qualify for the debate in South Carolina under rules sponsor CBS released just hours before the polls closed in New Hampshire. That robbed Christie of being able to deliver another strong debate performance that could convince convince voters and, more importantly, donors, that he could soldier on into Super Tuesday.

