Sununu: Thompson 'sounds like Barack Obama'

(CNN) – John Sununu, an outspoken surrogate to Republican nominee Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, criticized fellow conservative Tommy Thompson for blaming bad poll numbers on Mitt Romney earlier Thursday, likening the senate candidate to President Barack Obama himself.

Thompson cited Romney's campaign as being partly to blame for his slipping poll numbers. His comments come after a Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday showed Thompson trailing Democratic opponent Tammy Baldwin by nine points among likely voters in the Senate race. The same poll showed Thompson leading Baldwin by nine points one month earlier.

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Sununu, the former governor of New Hampshire and Romney campaign surrogate, said Thompson "sounds like Barack Obama trying to blame it on somebody else."

"Campaigns go up, campaigns go down. I'm sure Tommy will be fine in the long run," said Sununu, appearing on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."

Sununu continued reassuring of Romney's standing in the presidential race: "I think Mitt Romney's doing just fine. He's gotten rid of Obama’s post-convention bounce, he’s dead even with him in the two major tracking polls that are out there."

Republicans have picked up on comments made by then-Illinois state Senator Barack Obama in 1998 where he states that he favors redistributing wealth in the funding of government systems.

This line of attack against Obama comes after a secretly recorded video surfaced of Romney making controversial assumptions about voters while courting top-dollar donors at a fund-raising event in May.

CNN's Dana Davidsen and Peter Hamby contributed to this report.