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.
