Romney is back in the lead, and Thune has actually edged out Huckabee for 4th place:
Romney 23.7
Palin 20.0
Pawlenty 19.3
Thune 15.5
Huckabee 11.2
Gingrich 6.0
The Huckabee tiny number stuns me. He leads or is basically tied in every recent poll I've seen. His favorability among Republicans is higher than anyone. There was one recent poll- I guess an outlier- that showed approval of Romney below 50% among Republicans. When some kind of health care reform passes, the Right will pounce on it for the 2010 elections. Romney will have a hard time since he signed a mandate into law in Mass. Huckabee is also the only one there who opposed the bailout I believe. And is by far the most charismatic candidate with the exception of the Right's love affair with Palin. Thune has shown zero indication of even considering a run, is much less known, and made the impolitic remark that if he was in Iowa, it would only be to go through it to get somewhere else.
The only reason I see for Huck being so low is that there's a fairly good chance he won't even run. He has a platform now for his views and is making a nice income. He's talked about his reluctance to give that up and has openly talked about the long odds of running against an incumbent. And if Palin runs, his fundraising and attention will be tough to come by. But, if the economy languishes over the next year and drag down Obama's approval- unfortunately not so unlikely- and if Palin passes on a run- also not unlikely- I'd expect him to run and give him as good a chance as Romney.
This. Of course Huckabee has already said it's "less than likely" he'll run, so that may play a role here.
