The new Post/ABC survey shows Rick Perry losing a lot of support over the last month. I found it more interesting that Christie didn’t have much support in this poll. Because he is not a candidate, it’s possible that this result understates his support, but I don’t think so. Despite weeks of excessive coverage and media hype, there aren’t very many Republicans interested in a Christie candidacy.

This is a useful corrective to the idea that Christie had a built-in constituency of eager would-be supporters awaiting his entry into the race. According to this poll, 11% of Republicans and leaners preferred Christie to the others, which put him in a tie for fourth place with Ron Paul. It isn’t terribly surprising that a candidate being pushed so eagerly by establishment types has relatively little support among actual voters. For all the talk of how disappointed Republicans are with their candidates, there weren’t very many of them jumping at the chance to back Christie, which makes his decision to stay out look that much better.

Update: I should qualify this to say that there wasn’t much popular support for Christie. Weigel notes that there would have been some significant backing from wealthy donors. It’s certainly true that the Christie boomlet “was not just some expression of GOP populist rage.” It wasn’t an expression of populist rage at all.