Who's on third...

With the Iowa caucuses just around the corner, the polls are indicating Huckabee holding a significant lead over Romney. I forsee Huckabee taking this one down, as Romney has been pumping his campaign in Iowa for quite some time and making little headway. This race for first is obviously important, but perhaps the bigger question is who will finish third?



This graph from pollster shows tight three way race for third between Freddy T, Johnny Mac, and Da Rudy. I think Thompson (and his parabolic polling numbers) is a cooked goose, but this may be his chance for a rebound. Rudy would love to solidify his campaign with an expectations game win by finishing third, which could buoy his campaign through a poor finish in New Hampshire. Johnny Mac could get the biggest bounce with a third place finish, considering he is polling well in New Hampshire. A third here for McCain could very possibly give enough bounce to move ahead of the "loser" between Huckabee and Romney.

Additionally, it looks like Huckabee is in a dead heat nationally with Rudy G. I think this means that if the Huck wins Iowa and finishes above Rudy in New Hampshire -- Florida becomes a MUST WIN for the Rudy camp. Oh how much fun this time of year is....