Romney would like nothing better than to get into a 2 man race
with Rudy. There is a good argument that only he has a viable
plan and resources to knock off Rudy but if he will have to
improve ( in Alabama he's at 9%,
only 2 pts ahead of non-candidate Newt) in Deep South states and
hold his lead in NH and Iowa.
UPDATE: But Huckabee on another Sunday talk show appearance
tomorrow will argue that Romney's poll numbers are soft both
nationally (an outlier or the
beginning of a trend?) and in Iowa. As Phil points out, if social
conservatives get an in person comparison between the two, as many
Iowa caucus voters do, Huckabee may upset expectations.