Scott Rasmussen has pulled a fresh batch of steaming hot polls from the oven, and don't look now but the race has changed yet again. In Iowa, Mitt Romney has pulled within one point of Mike Huckabee, 
and now trails Huckabee 28-27. Meanwhile, John McCain checks in at a reasonably solid third place with 14% of the vote. Rudy and Fred lag back in the pack at 8%.
In New Hampshire, McCain's the guy making the move. Rasmussen's latest Granite State poll shows him trailing Romney by only four points, 31% to 27%. Giuliani's at 13% and Huckabee at 11%. Thompson is at 3% which is only good news in the sense that in Rasmussen's last poll he was at 1%. Fred's support has tripled! At this rate, he'll shake free of the margin of error when next week's numbers come out.
In Rasmussen's national tracking poll, Huckabee still has the lead at 21%. Romney has tied Rudy for second at 16%. McCain checks in at 13% and Fred registers at 12%. In case any Ron Paul supporters have stopped following the progress of the Ron Paul Blimp and stumbled onto this site, as a courtesy I'll report that the good doctor has 6%.
So what's this all mean for the individual candidates? Let's take ‘em one by one.
Huckabee - Oh, the could have beens! If Huckabee had only been ready for his close-up when the election gods zoomed in on him. Instead, he came across (and continues to come across) as a not-ready-for-primetime player.
Romney - Romney's in the catbird seat right now, but that's only because his position is less weak than everyone else's.
Rudy - Sinking like a stone. The "Sex on the City" scandal seems to have been the bridge too far inasmuch as his personal peccadilloes were concerned. His support is cratering right now across the board.
McCain - Senator Maverick is making an impressive comeback - no question about it. I'm even beginning to get concerned that McCain took all those things I wrote on the Hugh Hewitt blog seriously. Come on, Senator - you can take a joke, right? Right? Hello? Is this thing on? Anyway, if McCain wins New Hampshire, he'll have one last chance to make his case to the Republican electorate, and he may just pull it off.
Thompson - Fred has been campaigning brilliantly since he reengaged a couple of weeks ago, Actually "engaged" would make more sense than "reengaged ." Regardless, if Huckabee plummets and a solid chunk of his 28% in Iowa goes up for grabs, Fred is poised to claim his share and reintroduce himself to the country. It may ultimately not matter much, but right now Fred Thompson is running the strongest campaign. If he gets the kind of second chance that McCain is getting (which in McCain's case is actually more like a 12th chance) Fred could be a very dangerous man.
