Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois are the likely winners of Thursday’s Iowa nominating caucuses, according to The Des Moines Register’s final Iowa Poll.
On the Republican side, Huckabee captured 32 percent of “likely” Republican caucusgoers, ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney at 26 percent, according to the new Des Moines Register poll.
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential contender Obama also garnered 32 percent of “likely” Democratic caucusgoers in Iowa, leading Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York who received 25 percent of the votes.
The Register conducted the poll on Thursday to Sunday with a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points. That means Obama in theory could be tied with Clinton at 28.5 percent, while Huckabee could lose to Romney.
Huckabee, a former Baptist preacher, has rocketed to the top of Iowa’s GOP presidential contender list based on the support of the state’s large population of evangelical caucusgoers. Anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of Iowa’s voters are evangelical Christians, according to The Associated Press.
His sudden rise from an under-funded, no-name candidate to a top Republican contender has taken the heaviest toll on Romney, who is also vying for the votes of conservative Christians. Their political rivalry has caused both to butt heads on policy as well as personal issues.
However, Iowa has a reputation for not tolerating politicians who go negative on their rivals. On Monday, Huckabee called a press conference to announce the launching of his new ad in Iowa, but at the last minute he decided that the ad was too negative. Instead, he used the press conference to announce that the ad will not be aired.
In the ad, Huckabee criticized Romney’s record as governor and also questioned his character.
“If a man is dishonest to obtain a job,” Huckabee says in the ad, according to The Associated Press, “he’ll be dishonest on the job.”
The ad was in response to Romney’s television ads running in Iowa in which he criticized Huckabee’s record as Arkansas governor, including his pardons and commutations of convicted murderers.
“I believe the people of Iowa deserve better, and we are going to try and give them better…,” Huckabee said when he announced the ad wouldn’t run.
After Thursday’s Iowa caucuses, candidates will focus their energy on South Carolina and New Hampshire – two other important states that will hold their primaries in January.
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IIs Obama a Muslim?
McCain came in third place on the score cards, after Huck and Paul. Paul has some strange issues about returning to pre-9/11 days. McCain is not perfect, but he may actually be more capable than Huckabee on foreign policies. It seems that even though they've been battling it out for so long, it is still difficult to know who is the best man for the job.
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080103/30727_Report_Card%3A__GOP_Candidates_on_Family_Values.htm
It is interesting that McCain is the only candidate that does not support ethanol substities. I agree with him. Any savings is lost in the farming and manufacturing. It is a false hope.
Pastor, my understanding is that Arkansas now has a surplus due to that raise in tax and your increase in taxes over the years have been quite nil. Compared to other states that raise your tax every time they can by a few percentage points and in the long term equals and usual exceeds the total amount of taxes over the same time frame and they are in debt. The US sure could use a surplus instead of the record debt we currently have.
Ron Paul would be my only choice amoung the republicans. He is the only candidate, both dem and rep, that understands why there are terrorist threats from the ME towards the US. he said, what i have been saying for years "They came here [9-11] because we have been over there." he was againt the Iraq debacle from day one. Its relly quite unfortunate that a country that claims itself as a Chriatian (peace loving ) nation, invaded Iraq, which really was not a threat to the US. We have made a mess out of that country. All Americans should be ashamed of what we have done over there. We did not have the moral authority to "liberate" the Iraqi's. The US track record in the ME is really quite bad, gotta have the ME OIL I guess.
seedplanter: "Not much to choose from"
If it weren't for Huckabee, I don't think I could support any of them. McCain has been openly contemptuous of Christians in the past. Almost all the GOP candidates, except for Huckabee, seem like they're more in line with the Dem platform. I've heard of Duncan Hunter, but I don't know much about him.
I have an aunt and uncle that live in Arkansas, they like Mike.
McCain would probably be second choice.
Third Party third choice.
Not much to choose from.
Too bad Duncan Hunter didn't get traction.
Pastor, there were some Arkansasans I was hanging out with Last night who would disagree with you.
Pastor, who are you supporting for president?
You need to actually live in Arkansas to know just what damage Huckabee inflicted in terms of raising taxes. Fasten your seatbelts, folks!