New GOP polls - Huck and McCain rising

This am the Washington Post had its latest Democratic poll from Iowa. Tonight it is the Republicans. And it is a two man race. Huck and Mitt.

Rudy is at 8 percent, and is now "focusing" on New Hampshire and thelater states. A very risky strategy, as few candidates who have skippedIowa in recent years ever really got back in the game.

Which brings us to New Hampshire, where amazingly McCain is now tied with Romney. I've been writing for a while about McCain's apparent recovery. But it would be remarkable if Huckabee's rise ended up knocking off Romney; Rudy never catches fire; and that it becomes a Huckabee-McCain race. While I have a great deal of respect for McCain on some issues, he is old, feels tired and would clearly be a settle for the GOP primary audience. On an issue we care about a great deal - immigration reform - he has at times been a thoughtful leader, though he seemed to have wilted this year under pressure from his skeptical base.

No matter what happens here all the signals from the GOP side are ones of weakness. This is a weak field, with no one being strong enough to win it out right. While McCain may be able to get a few weeks of good press it is hard to see how he is at this point a strong candidate for the GOP. Huckabee is one of the least serious candidates to have gotten this far in modern times. And of course Mitt is not out of it but he appears to be dropping everywhere.

Stay tuned. The GOP race is going through a big transformation.