John Zogby, president and chief executive officer of Zogby International, noted that Huckabee was already leading the polls in South Carolina, before picking up momentum with his Iowa win.
Zogby said he has a hard time envisioning a scenario in which Thompson can get himself back into contention.
"What can he do?" Zogby asked. "Short of praying for a room full of candidates to get struck by lightning, it's very hard."
Thompson was running in fifth place nationally last week, according to an average of the polls compiled on the Real Clear Politics Web site.
Of course, no candidate is mathematically eliminated from a presidential race after one or two or even five primaries.
However, money is the lifeblood of political campaigns.
Candidates can't be effective if they aren't able to raise enough money to run campaign organizations in the competitive primary states.
And the big money donors who finance those statewide campaign organizations tend to stop writing checks to candidates who can't get any traction early in the race.
U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, a Chattanooga Republican, is hopeful Thompson's campaign will have at least enough financial resources to keep fighting through the Feb. 5 primaries.
Thompson might have to drop out sooner than that if he can't quickly reverse his fortunes.
Which would be a rather surprising turn of events for Thompson, who last summer was being hailed by some Republicans as the second coming of Ronald Reagan.
John Ryder, a local Republican activist, believes those lofty early expectations are part of what has hurt Thompson so far.
When Thompson got into the race, some Republicans were expecting him to blow away the rest of the field with a commanding media presence.
"These (other challengers) are strong men in their own right," Ryder said. "They didn't just melt away."
Also, Thompson waited until fall to get into the race, while most of his opponents began campaigning months earlier.
Consequently, although many Republicans might warm to Thompson's limited-government philosophy, he hasn't really had enough time to explain his beliefs, Ryder said.
Wamp said Thompson, unlike the other candidates, was drafted to run. And, he said, Thompson hasn't yet demonstrated the kind of fire in his belly many people expect from a presidential candidate.
"The one thing that hasn't happened is that he hasn't really convinced people he wants to be president," Wamp said. "That's very important. That's the only thing that's been missing from his campaign."
Ryder believes Thompson could have one advantage if he can avoid being eliminated during the early primary contests and fight to the end: If the Republicans go to their convention without any candidate winning the majority of the delegates, Ryder said Thompson might emerge as a consensus choice because he has fewer perceived negatives than the other top contenders.
The Republican National Convention won't begin until Sept. 1, though, which is an eternity away in politics. If Thompson has any hopes of prevailing under that type of scenario, he'll first have to figure out how to survive the month of January.
Politics Today aims to provide depth and perspective on political happenings in Memphis and the Mid-South. It runs on the Comment page every Monday.
I continue to be astounded at the press and the way they are CONSTANTLY trying to kill off the Thompson campaign.
The media must be scared to death of Thompson. I’ve never seen anything like this.