Following his narrowest of victories in the Iowa caucus last week, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney is under pressure to prove the strength of his presidential bid in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. But according to a tracking poll of Granite State voters his support is slipping here too, however probably not enough to deny him victory.
The six Republican candidates took to the stage together this weekend for the second round of debates. They started in Saint Anselm College, Manchester on Saturday followed by a second debate on Sunday sponsored by NBC News, just 12 hours later. The dialogue quickly turned from policy — the economy and same-sex marriages — to personal jibes.
Newt Gingrich, who came fourth in the Iowa race, attempted to embarrass Romney by telling him to “drop the pious baloney” when challenging him about his political history. The former house speaker himself came under fire after Ron Paul called him a “chicken hawk” for not serving in the military during the Vietnam war.
Gingrich — who is currently placed in fourth in the national opinion polls once again — has attempted to reach out to minorities during his campaigning in New Hampshire saying in Manchester yesterday:
I think it is very important for us to make a case that we are in favour of many people from many places having the opportunity to become Americans.
He added that while visas should be made easier for “legal people”, deportation should also be made easier for people who “are dangerous to the whole community and who threaten the whole community”.
Despite the dip, Romney remains a clear winner in the polls, making this a second and third place contest for the other candidates.
Politico’s Jonathan Martin argues that New Hampshire is just a stepping stone towards the much more significant South Carolina vote later this month. In a post published this morning, Martin writes:
New Hampshire still matters. But its 2012 relevance is chiefly in how the results will shape South Carolina on Jan. 21.
With Mitt Romney enjoying a wide lead in Granite State polls, the key outcome Tuesday isn’t who will finish on top. Rather, it’s whether Jon Huntsman places strongly enough to keep going to South Carolina and whether Rick Santorum can outperform Newt Gingrich.
The key is to rally party supporters, and while Romney attempted to show that he had the party’s support in Iowa, the eight vote difference between him and Rick Santorum proved otherwise. Santorum’s candidacy provides the right with a strong alternative to Romney; if the former Pennsylvania senator can outperform the other candidates again tomorrow night, a strong case can be made in South Carolina that he’s the one the right should rally around to stop Romney.
Meanwhile Jon Hunstman, who finished second to last in Iowa, seems to be gaining support following his better-than-usual performance during Sunday morning’s debate. According to the New York Times Caucus Blog, Huntsman, the former governor of Utah, is counting on last minute voters tomorrow. The latest WMUR New Hampshire poll, gives Huntsman 11 per cent of the vote, tying him in third place with Santorum.
Ron Paul, who is currently second in the polls with 17 per cent, also reached out to undecided voters stating that he believed he appealed to “independent people who are sick and tired of the two-party system”. When asked how he would bridge the partisan divide as president Paul answered:
With difficulty, but with a new approach, completely new… Everybody knows what I’m talking about is different, because I have such a strange, new idea. It’s obeying the Constitution.
Rick Perry is almost certainly out of the race with a mere one per cent of the vote, but a last minute confidence burst during the debates may swing some votes in his favour.
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