The New York Observer’s Felix Gillette writes about the decline of Lou Dobbs‘ ratings on CNN, as he continues “the nightly slicing and dicing of the 44th president’s economic policies.”

Mr. Dobbs’ 7 p.m. program on CNN averaged 657,000 total viewers and 181,000 in the key 25-to-54 demographic — numbers that were down a whopping 29 percent and 27 percent, respectively, versus May of 2008. Along the way, Mr. Dobbs sank into third place in his time slot, trailing Fox News’ Shepard Smith by a bundle and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews by a sliver. During three out of the first six weeknights in June, Mr. Dobbs’ place in the standings sank even lower; he finished fourth in the demo, falling behind HLN’s Jane Velez-Mitchell.

Meanwhile Dobbs’ 9pmET HLN hour appears to be in jeopardy — Broadcasting & Cable reports HLN “is bringing in a new voice for the 9 p.m. hour…the new personality, likely to be announced this week, is described as someone who is from outside the cable news business, but is well-liked by many and disliked by some.”

An HLN spokesperson tells TVNewser: “We’re not commenting.”