While a lot was made of this (the conservative site Twitchy speculated that perhaps Christie was being tapped for vice president), it's standard practice in the state. Governor goes out of town, lieutenant governor steps up. In New Jersey, though, that's been happening a lot. In 2015, it was estimated that Christie spent 261 days outside the state -- meaning that he was only acting governor for less than a third of the year. And if you weren't clear where his priorities lay, he also canceled a policy event he was holding in Trenton so that he could join Trump on the trail.

Christie's relationship with Trump emerged suddenly and evolved quickly. The day that he endorsed Trump -- four-and-a-half months ago already -- was an important one. It was a member of the Republican establishment, a sitting governor, giving Trump one of the first thumbs ups that he'd received from that group. Christie didn't bring much of a base of support with him in presidential politics (which is why he'd dropped out), but he was sending a clear signal that Trump wasn't the pariah that some had made him out to be -- at least not to him.

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But the day people remember is not that day. The day people remember is the day that Christie stood behind Trump on March 1, staring vacantly at the back of the businessman's head as the not-yet-presumptive-Republican-nominee celebrated his big wins that night. Those two nights were less than a week apart, but Christie went from a position of strength in offering his endorsement to one of weakness, looking, as the internet had it, like a prisoner of war. Which, really, he was.

Christie campaigned to be president because he wanted to be president. He's campaigning with Trump in part because he wants Trump to be president -- and in part, it seems safe to assume, because he doesn't really want to be governor of New Jersey anymore, preferring instead to head to Washington and serve as vice president or maybe attorney general or maybe, whatever, secretary of energy or something. A guy who's not going to push back too hard at Donald Trump telling him to go home probably isn't going to complain about which Cabinet post he gets.

Plus, the state isn't too worried about keeping him.

The plunge in Christie's approval rating over time looks like a black diamond slope at New Jersey's hottest ski resort. (I Googled it; New Jersey has ski resorts.) Shortly before his reelection in 2013, Christie was just off his high in Quinnipiac University polling, just a bit under 70 percent. The next poll was taken right after the news of the Bridgegate scandal broke -- and he'd dropped 13 points. Since then, the slide has continued, as Christie and New Jersey first separated (literally) and now may be talking about divorce proceedings (figuratively).

Twenty-nine percent of New Jerseyans say he's doing a good job, as of the end of May. That includes 60 percent of Republicans -- but only 26 percent of independents. In that same poll, only 18 percent of the state thought Trump should pick Christie as his vice president, which was probably a mix of people who didn't want him a heartbeat from the presidency and some people who actually want to keep him in Trenton, perhaps as punishment.