It's getting pretty bad for Thompson up in New Hampshire. Check out the latest poll from up that way, via CNN [7]:
Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson has skidded into sixth place in a CNN/WMUR poll of likely Republican voters in New Hampshire, edged out by ex-Libertarian and anti-war Rep. Ron Paul and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney topped the poll, widening a lead he has held for months in
neighboring New Hampshire, while Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani were running close in the second and third spots.
The CNN/WMUR poll was conducted by the University of New Hampshire between Wednesday and Sunday. Pollsters surveyed 404 Republican voters for the survey, which had a sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Thompson [8] came into the GOP race late with the hope of winning social conservatives unsatisfied with the rest of the party's field, and racked up a key endorsement from the National Right to Life Committee last week.
But the former star of the television drama "Law and Order" has trailed the GOP front-runners in early voting states since entering the race in August, and his support in New Hampshire dropped from 13 percent in a September poll to 4 percent in November's survey.
Watch who's winning on key issues ยป
By contrast, Romney's support grew from 25 percent to 33 percent over the same period; McCain held steady at 18 percent; and Giuliani [9] dipped from 24 to 16 percent.
Meanwhile, the percentage of support for Paul grew from 4 percent to 8 percent, putting him fourth among the GOP contenders in the Granite State. ...
Ouch. Then there's this:
Thompson's negatives have grown sharply since he entered the race.
In July, a CNN/WMUR poll of New Hampshire [10] Republicans found 30 percent would not support him "under any circumstances" -- but in the new poll, that figure grew to 50 percent.
Not good. And this is before all these guys start aiming "comparative" ads at each other.
(full disclosure: I'm on the Romney bandwagon)
