Rossputin.com: Rational Thinking About Our World

As I mentioned in a recent posting, Huckabee and Giuliani's campaigns had a non-aggression pact regarding Iowa and I (briefly) suggested that Rudy should not get too comfortable with Huckabee as he could pose a real threat in primaries, especially in the South.

Today, Rasmussen released a new poll of Florida voters which shows Rudy having plummeted from a solid first place position to third place behind Huckabee and Romney, at 27%, 23%, and 19% respectively.

Quoting Rasmussen: "Those figures reflect a stunning change in the race since November when Rasmussen Reports polling found Giuliani on top with 27% followed by Romney at 19% and Thompson at 16%. Since then, Huckabee has gained 18 percentage points and Romney picked up four points. Giuliani is down eight, Thompson is down seven, and McCain is down four."

Of course this is only one poll, and the RealClearPolitics average for Florida still has Rudy in the lead, but this is the most recent poll and the numbers are too big to be ignored.

Rudy can't count on Romney to do all the fighting against Huckabee because Rudy MUST win Florida if he wants to keep from being a very damaged candidate. It's time for Rudy to take off the gloves and go after Huckabee, even if it helps Romney in Iowa.

And that shouldn't be very hard to do. Huckabee is, as a long-time Arkansas reporter said in an interview I heard, very appealing on first glance, and not very appealing on second glance. He may be folksy and he may appeal to some social conservatives, but his true conservative credentials are by far the worst of any of the Republican candidates. He's a big-government tax raiser.

If Romney's camp is stupid enough just to talk about immigration when challenging Huckabee, he's making a big mistake. Yes, immigration is a major issue, but its effect in the 2006 election seemed to be minimal, with several GOP incumbents who emphasized the issue losing their seats, most notably JD Hayworth of Arizona.

The GOP candidates have to remember "It's the spending, stupid", and keep attacking opponents are vulnerable on what should be the key issues for the party, fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, and limited government.