{"id":650,"date":"2007-12-20T23:57:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-20T23:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=650"},"modified":"2007-12-20T23:57:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-20T23:57:00","slug":"rasmussen-report-on-huckster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=650","title":{"rendered":"Rasmussen report on Huckster"},"content":{"rendered":"

<font color=black>
\n<\/span>Rasmussen: ‘The Huckaboom
\nmay have crested’<\/span>
\n<\/span>Pollster’s new results show
\ncandidate tied in Iowa after double-digit lead<\/span>

\n

\n<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/div>\n

Posted:
\nDecember 20, 2007
\n12:07 p.m. Eastern<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

By Jerome R. Corsi
\n\u00c2\u00a9 2007 WorldNetDaily.com <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

With his support
\nreceding in Iowa and South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s surge
\nto the top of the race for the Republican presidential nomination appears to
\nhave hit its high point, pollster Scott Rasmussen told WND. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“The Huckaboom
\nmay have crested,” said Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday, Rasmussen
\nreleased the results of a survey showing Huckabee falling back into a tie with Romney
\nin Iowa and South Carolina<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

In Iowa, Huckabee had
\na double-digit lead at the beginning of December. The Rasmussen poll yesterday
\nshowed him at 28 percent, with Romney at 27 percent and McCain in third at 14
\npercent. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Rasmussen cautioned
\nthat the cresting of the Huckaboom should be seen in context. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“If a month and
\na half ago I had told you that Huckabee was tied for the lead in Iowa and South
\nCarolina, that would have been seen as great news for the then-long-shot Huckabee
\ncampaign,” he said. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

What happened? <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“Huckabee built
\nsome support in Iowa, and then there was a huge round of enthusiasm as he built
\na double-digit lead in Iowa and a significant lead in South Carolina,”
\nRasmussen explained. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“But as Huckabee
\nsurged, the other candidates began to take Huckabee seriously,” he
\ncontinued. “Then Huckabee began receiving a significant amount of negative
\ncampaigning in Iowa and South Carolina, and the negative campaigning is now
\nhaving an impact.” <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Does the endorsement by Jim Gilchrist<\/span><\/a>, the founder of the
\nMinuteman Project help or hurt Huckabee? <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“I think it will
\nhelp,” he answered cautiously. “But I don’t think it’s
\ndefinitive.” <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“What’s
\nhappening right now is Mike Huckabee is going through a vetting process that
\nother candidates went through earlier in the year,” he explained.
\n“There is no one piece of information that is going to be
\ndefinitive.” <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Rasmussen said a
\ndefining demographic for Huckabee was his strong support among evangelical
\nChristians. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“Huckabee went
\nfrom 48 percent support among evangelicals in late November, which was huge, up
\nto 62 percent a couple of weeks later, which was unbelievable,” he said.
\n“Now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back to 49 percent.” <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Rasmussen said
\nHuckabee “resonates with certain constituencies and important parts of the
\npopulation in Iowa, but there was another tier that was a little bit softer and
\nthey are re-evaluating.” <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The pollster said
\nHuckabee’s Christmas ad would have helped him nationally if not for the
\ncontroversy that arose when critics accused his campaign of using subliminal
\nmessaging by making a bookcase in the background appear as a cross. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Rasmussen admitted
\nhis polling does not have direct data on the ad. He suspects that while it may
\nhave helped Huckabee strengthen his Iowa support, it is clearly having a
\nnegative impact outside the state. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“The Huckaboom
\nhas retreated from its peak,” Rasmussen said. “I live by the beach,
\nso I tend to think in terms of tides. The Huckabee tide has pulled back from
\nits high point, but we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know yet who is going to win Iowa.” <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

To put Huckabee’s
\nrise in perspective, Rasmussen compared it to how Fred Thompson entered the
\nrace. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“Earlier this
\nyear, Fred Thompson looked good to outsiders,” he said. “As Thompson
\nentered the campaign, his numbers went down dramatically.” <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Rasmussen told WND
\nthe phenomena of Huckabee and Thompson show there is a serious level of
\nsearching for an alternative among Republican primary voters. <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“The conditions
\nremain right for a candidate to rise up and grab a section of the
\nconstituency,” he concluded, “because none of the Republican primary
\ncontenders has done so as yet.” <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<font color=black> Rasmussen: ‘The Huckaboom may have crested’ Pollster’s new results show candidate tied in Iowa after double-digit lead Posted: December 20, 2007 12:07 p.m. Eastern By Jerome R. Corsi \u00c2\u00a9 2007 WorldNetDaily.com With his support receding in Iowa and South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s surge to the top of the race for the Republican … Continue reading Rasmussen report on Huckster<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-huckabee-shameful-record","category-presidential-candidates"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}