And we’re off! Mike Huckabee sure enough has taken off in the Rasmussen tracking poll after his well-received performanace at the Washington Briefing, jumping right into the pack alongside John McCain and Mitt Romney.
For a while there it looked grim for Romney but, as usual, that dip was brief, as was McCain’s surge. At this “one and a half tier,” for lack of a better term, the race appears tight and stable.
Likewise at the top, things appear to be settling down. Huckabee’s rise has been combined with a fall for both Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani, though Giuliani still holds the slight edge over Thompson that he gained when the last quarter’s fundraising came out, as well as when Thompson flopped at some activist gatherings.
I have to guess that the changes in the race caused by Huckabee’s real arrival will be just as permanent, starting with the fact that the top two candidates now have less of a cushion from the pack.