Absent Romney, Christie Leads In New Hampshire

OK, so new Bloomberg Politics/Saint Anselm New Hampshire poll shows that Mitt Romney leads the 2016 field with 30 percent support. That's quite impressive

And Rand Paul comes in second with 11 percent, followed by Chris Christie at nine percent, and Jeb Bush at eight percent.

But Romney says he's not running. "No way," he says.

So, when they take Romney out of the race the poll finds that Romney supporters would then turn to Christie first, giving New Jersey governor 22 percent of the vote, followed by Bush at 20 percent, then Rand Paul at 19 percent. So, absent Romney that means that Christie is the leader in New Hampshire. 

And what if Bush decides not to run? Where do you think those Bush voters would go? We're guessing that far more of them would go to Christie than to the next nearest contender, Rand Paul.

Which means that Chris Christie goes into this thing (IF he decides to run) with plenty of appeal!