Just because Gov. Chris Christie, who was notably banned from the Conservative Political Action Conference last year, spoke at the event Thursday doesn't mean he is the conservative media's new darling.

Hardly.

While the New Jersey governor drew loud applause from the audience during his address, which focused on Republicans pushing for their ideas not against their opponents, right-wing media voices at the conference say that won't translate to support if he seeks the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

Some pointed to his well-known embrace of President Obama after Hurricane Sandy in the lead-up to the 2012 election, which may have played a role in the decision by CPAC organizers not to invite him last year. Others declared him insufficiently opposed to gay marriage to garner their support.

“I don't think he will be the nominee anyway,” said Tim Constantine, a conservative radio talk show host. “There are ups and downs, it's the nature of politics that he will be knocked down. Chris Christie is the right guy for Republicans in a Northeast state, but not nationally.”

Tea Party News Network's Scottie Nell Hughes agreed. She said he is hurt by the George Washington Bridge scandal, but was not her choice even before that.

“It hurt him completely,” she said of the bridge controversy. “He is not going to get the conservative vote. It wasn't a non-issue, it was politics.”

Hughes said the media coverage of the scandal does give Christie some sympathy, but not enough to overcome opposition within the right-wing movement. “If I am going to put him up against [Wisconsin governor] Scott Walker, I am going to take Scott Walker,” she said, adding that Christie “is not going to get the vote. The [GOP] establishment has left him.”

Several media commentators said they were surprised that CPAC had invited Christie and found no difference in his electability or conservative credentials since last year. 

“You would think it would be the other way around,” said Jon Moseley, a conservative talk radio host at Philadelphia's WNJC-AM, suggesting that Christie should be less palatable to CPAC in the wake of the bridge scandal. “A lot of people perceive it as an endorsement, they should not.”

Rusty Humphries, the veteran talk radio host and newly-minted columnist at The Washington Times, also said inviting Christie was a mystery. “Would I have invited him? No. He isn't conservative. He is an establishment guy.”

Breitbart News' John Sexton called CPAC “a refuge for” Christie. “I think last year he was more electable,” Sexton added. “I don't think right now anybody is supporting him.”