Mitt Romney, in command
Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's struggles continue from Iowa to New Hampshire:
PPP's last New Hampshire poll was all the way back in July, so the trendlines are too old to be of any use. But the news still isn't good for Newt, which means it's good news for Mitt Romney:
Our New Hampshire poll reinforces our Iowa survey from last night showing Newt Gingrich's support fading away. Only 42% of likely voters have a favorable opinion of him to 51% with a negative one. Gingrich is less popular in New Hampshire now than he was in the spring when he had a 45/36 favorability. And there's increasingly a sense that he doesn't have strong principles—only 34% think he does while 41% think he does not, numbers that pale in comparison to how Romney, Paul, and Huntsman come out on that question.
And PPP's Tom Jensen tests a hypothetical:
Because it seems like there's some possibility Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum could come to the end of their roads in Iowa we also tested a 4 way GOP contest between just Romney, Paul, Gingrich, and Huntsman. In that scenario Romney gets 37% to 21% for Paul, 20% for Gingrich, and 15% for Huntsman. It wouldn't change the nature of the race much if those folks dropped out because they have so little support in New Hampshire to begin with.
I'm more curious to see what an Iowa victory would mean for Ron Paul's New Hampshire numbers, but of course, we'd have to wait to see that happen in real life before we could find out.