The Occasional Observer

In the daily national GOP tracking poll, Huckabee has caught Giuliani and is now tied for the #1 spot. Whether Huck's recent spike proves to be lasting or short lived, nobody knows. But his rise has been shocking. Especially to the Giuliani camp, who was rooting Huck on as the candidate likely to trip up Mitt and leave a wide opening for Hizzoner. Well, I'm guessing they're starting to sweat now.

For a little more context on just how important today's poll could be, and how dominant Rudy had been, let me throw a few numbers at you:

# of polls included in the RCP tracker (starting 1/1/07)for the GOP race (national): 163

# of polls showing Rudy leading: 151

# of consecutive polls Rudy had led before being tied by Huck today: 34 (dating back to 9/24/07)

# of polls showing McCain leading: 1
# of polls showing McCain/Rudy tie: 1
# of polls showing Fred leading: 8
# of polls showing a Fred/Rudy tie: 1

And now, # of polls showing a Huck/Rudy tie: 1

Huck is certainly peaking at the right time, with less than 1 month to Iowa (where he is also leading in the polls as per the RCP average).