The intent was not to cherry pick but just to examine polls
which came out on Friday. Yes, NH remains the strongest possible
opportunity for Romney but it is inescapable that his substantial
double digit lead in Iowa has disappeared and the momentum is with
Huckabee.( This chart dramatically illustrates what
is going on.) I think local press coverage, some of which I pointed
out earlier and which readers can get a sense of from the Des
Moines Register, is engaged in some Huckabee/underdog rooting. The
latest SC poll does show a drop for him in SC; whether this will be
duplicated in other polls will get played out in the next few
weeks. In another Southern state, Alabama, this poll (taken earlier in the month
but released yesterday) does not have a GOP primary line up but in
head to heads with Democrats McCain beats Hillary by 10 pts, Rudy
wins by 5 pts and Romney is tied. What remains an open question --
the one commentators and the campaigns have been arguing about --
is how a Huckabee win or near win in Iowa would do for his and
Romney's numbers in the states which follow. The domino/momentum
effect coupled with the very volatile nature of the race should be
kept in mind when looking at all of these polls, many of which have
small samples and large margins of error.