Mitt Romney still on top of the world, but could Huckabee be his undoing?

We get a reminder this Wednesday of why so many people (me included) think Mitt Romney is the favorite to win the Republican nomination. Two polls out this morning have him up by huge margings in Iowa and in New Hampshire. If the results actually come out this way, Romney would be very hard to stop as his momentum would propell him forward. A quick review of the polls:

• Zogby has Romney up big in Iowa. He gets 31%, while all other candidates are far behind him. And it is Mike Huckabee that takes second place, at 15%, followed by Giuliani at 11%, Thompson at 10% and McCain at 8%.
• Rasmussen has Romney just as high in New Hampshire. He gets 32%, followed by Rudy at 17%, McCain at 16%, Huckabee at 10% and Thompson at 7%.

Obviously great numbers for Mitt, but these numbers also say a lot about the state of the other candidates, first of all Mike Huckabee. He is emerging as second in more and more Iowa polls, and the concensus is now that he could seriously threaten Romney... much more, in any case, than Rudy or McCan might. Marc Ambinder reports today that Huckabee is moving most of his staff to Iowa and that he will himself spend most of his time there between now and January 3rd.

A failure to win Iowa would basically doom Romney's candidacy. His support in NH is not deep-rooted enough that he could survive the media onslaught. His rivals know this, so you might start to see Rudy and McCain try tohelp out Huckabee to see if they can get him to take Romney down... For Giuliani's numbers are not very good here: Can he possibly come out of Iowa in a tie for third and out of NH in a tie for second and hope to get some momentum in later states? How will he do that? He needs to at least blurr the storyline in Iowa (by making Huckabee) stronger, and get a strong second place in New Hampshire.

Trouble also for Fred Thompson: His weakness in Iowa and in New Hampshire has been documented by most polls, and it is anything but a surprise to see him so low in NH. Once again: Thompson needs to find something to move numbers in these states if he wants to have a chance of winning South Carolina. Can he possibly come out of January 8th (presuming, of course, that that is the date of the NH primary) fourth and fifth and hope to be taken seriously?