Continuing what has clearly been a stunning, astounding turnaround in the Republican race for President, the latest Rasmussen Reports poll of Iowa has Mike Huckabee ahead of Mitt Romney by 16 points:
It was just two weeks ago that Rasmussen Reports released the first Iowa Caucus poll showing Mike Huckabee with an advantage over Mitt Romney. A lot has changed over the past two weeks and Huckabee’s lead has now grown to double digits.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the Iowa caucus finds Huckabee with 39% of the vote, Romney with 23% support, and everyone else in single digits. Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson get just 8% of the vote in Iowa at this time. Arizona Senator John McCain is at 6% just one point ahead of Congressman Ron Paul (see crosstabs).
Huckabee’s support in Iowa is up eleven points from the poll conducted in late November. Over the past month, Huckabee has more than doubled his support from 16% on November 12 to 39% today. Romney has lost two points from the previous survey and is down six points over the past month.
Rasmussen also shows Huckabee with a lead in the (mostly meaninglyess) national poll as well as in state polls in Michigan and South Carolina, and MSNBC shows him with a lead in Georgia as well.
Whether you like it or not, and I certainly don’t, Huckabee is close to becoming the front-runner in the Republican race. Whether that will be the case now that the media, and Republicans are starting to pay attention to him, is an entirely different question.
