MANCHESTER, NH — Mitt Romney must have a target painted on his forehead.
A poll released yesterday showed the Republican presidential front-runner’s New Hampshire lead shrinking fast — and, smelling blood, his rivals viciously attacked him at the last debate before the Granite State’s first-in-the-country primary tomorrow.
Romney, the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, dipped for the fourth consecutive day in a tracking poll by Suffolk University/7News.
He remained 15 points ahead of his nearest competitor, but has slipped 8 points in four days, to 35 percent.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul was gaining on him in second place, with 20 percent, while former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman — who skipped the Iowa caucus to campaign exclusively in New Hampshire — climbed into third place, with 11 percent.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich advanced into fourth place, with 9 percent.
Rick Santorum, whose surge following a surprising second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses last week has subsided, dropped from third to fifth, with 8 percent.
And plenty of New Hampshire voters — 15 percent — are still undecided.
“Romney’s strategy of running out the clock is costing him margin,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston.
The primary is critical for Romney, who would make history by winning both in Iowa and New Hampshire, and then head into conservative South Carolina with significant momentum — possibly on track to clinch the Republican nomination by next month.
If he fails to achieve a decisive victory in New Hampshire, he likely faces a grueling battle for the nomination.
The rest of the Republican field tried to make that a reality yesterday by ganging up on Romney at an NBC/Facebook-sponsored debate.
His rivals assailed him for being full of “pious baloney,” and called him a “timid Massachusetts moderate” and a political opportunist.
The debate beatdown was in stark contrast to an ABC News/Yahoo! News-sponsored debate 12 hours earlier, when the candidates mostly pulled their punches.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich clobbered Romney after the poll leader boasted on stage that he isn’t a “lifetime politician.”
“Could we drop a little bit of the pious baloney,” zinged Gingrich, to raucous applause.
“The fact is, you ran in ’94 and lost [to Ted Kennedy for US Senate] . . . You were running for president while you were governor . . . You’ve been running consistently for years,” Gingrich added.
Ex-Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum slammed Romney for “bailing out” as governor after one term.
“If [your] record was so great as governor of Massachusetts, why didn’t you run for re-election?” said Santorum.
Huntsman bashed Romney for putting politics first and “dividing this country,” as he responded to Romney’s earlier criticism of Huntsman for serving as President Obama’s ambassador to China.
Huntsman said he “will always put my country first.”
“He criticized me, while he was out raising money, for serving my country in China, yes, under a Democrat, like my two sons are doing in the United States Navy. They’re not asking what political affiliation the president is,” Huntsman said.
Romney defended himself against the attacks by saying he was a “solid conservative.”
“This, for me — politics — is not a career,” Romney insisted. “My life’s passion has been my family, my faith and my country.”
He also painted his competitors as Washington insiders, saying they served in government and then cashed in as influence peddlers.
“I think it stinks,” Romney said.
“I long for a day when instead of having people who go to Washington for 20 to 30 years, who get elected and then when they lose office, they stay there and make money as lobbyists.”
Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, who is backing Romney, said that nobody in the debate landed a knockout punch .
“Mitt Romney again demonstrated what many in New Hampshire already know: He is ready to be president on Day One,” said Sununu.