New Hampshire Polling Good for Romney, Bad for Thompson

The latest polling numbers for New Hampshire show Mitt Romney in a solid first place position with thirty percent of the vote. Rudy Giuliani is within striking distance with twenty-three percent and John McCain has fourteen percent. Fred Thompson, suffering the effects of his late entry, has a paltry eight percent of the votes.

It is safe to say that he isn't going to get a free pass into the race.

The issue for Republicans is to figure out how to mold the party into a winning coalition in 2008. If each candidate carves a regional chunk out of the map, the winner will have to tie everyone back together to battle the Democrats. The concern with Thompson's candidacy is that he will leave a disaffected deep south, long a Republican stronghold, which could lower turnout in '08. If he does that, the party could be on the outs for 8 years or more.

That could be a reality if the winner can't finesse his position. That will take a good, seasoned politician to accomplish.