The American Spectator

There is some polling evidence in addition to the Fox NH poll -- from the new ARG polls in Iowa(Huckabee down by one point) and South Carolina (Romney falling five points from the last poll to second place) that Romney is slipping in the early states. Part of the explanation may be that rivals are picking up the pace-- we saw Thompson's video at the debate going after Romney on his abortion statements in 1994 and 2002 and today his campaign chief blasted Romney for flip flopping on immigration. Rudy of course has been hammering him for a couple of weeks. Part of this is the Huckabee surge. And part is the media coverage of Romney( Rudy also had the press week from hell) which is reciting the flip flop theme. In Iowa, his efforts to begin to get tough with Huckabee are portrayed negatively by some ("bad mouthing Huckabee") which creates another storyline that Romney is going negative as his numbers decline. Realistically( cause real people don't follow campaigns between Christmas and New Years) we have slightly more than three weeks to tee things up for Iowa and NH. Now is the time for Romney to show he can pull it together and prove that putting all the chips on the early states was the right move. UPDATE: Blaming the media is probably not the way to go.