NH polls
here and
here should calm nerves in Romney's camp, give some hope to
Hillary's opponents and tell Thompson's folks that trailing
Huckabee and Ron Paul in two polls is bad news, even if it's not
remotely a must win state for him. The underlying poll numbers show
some openings for the others and suggest Romney has not yet put
this away. In the
UNH poll only 16% of voters have made up their mind and McCain
leads 31%( Rudy at 29%) over Romney(12%) on who best can deal with
terrorism.In addition in who is the
strongest leader category Rudy leads Romney 34-26%. Rudy also leads
Romney 34-30% on the likely to beat Hillary
question.Thompson does win one issue-- a
whopping 43% think he's least likely to beat the Democrat. The big
questions now: When does Rudy go up on the air in NH? Will McCain's
ad buy begin to move his numbers? Who's the first candidate to use
some "comparison" ads going after Romney's weak
points?
UPDATE: And make no mistake for McCain NH is make or break. And
McCain seems to be standing down
from the fight with Rudy and going for Romney's weak spot-- foreign
policy experience and leadership. (Judging from the poll numbers
this seems to be a smart move.)