Governor Huckabee is leading in Iowa and surging everywhere else.

As I wrote yesterday, it seems to me that Governor Mike Huckabee could very well win Iowa. In fact, I’m getting the feeling he will win. A new Iowa poll now shows that the former Governor of Arkansas continues his surge: he’s now leading in the polls. Of the (likely) Republican primary voters in this state, 29% say they plan to vote for Huckabee, against 24% who say they’ll vote for Mitt Romney.

Meanwhile, Senator Barack Obama continues to catch up with Hillary Clinton. He’s now leading in Iowa as well.

And not only that, Huckabee is doing increasingly better in other states as well. He’s currently in second position in Florida according to some polls. He did well during the last YouTube CNN debate in Florida, so I think that he’ll only do better there. Now, look at states like South Carolina, New Hampshire, etc. and you can’t help but notice that Huckabee is becoming a true contender.

Huckabee is going to be the surprise these elections, as may Obama.

Meanwhile, John McCain just received a major endorsement: the New Hampshire Union Leader believes that he is “the man to lead America.” Green Mountain Politics summarizes: “Mitt Romney just threw up.” Quite right.

Chris Bower - quite an expert when it comes to polls - concludes, explains and predicts:

That’s right, I have moved Huckabee into second place, ahead of Giuliani. And no, the seeming absurdity of having the two candidates who are currently 4th and 5th in national polls as the top two contenders for the Republican nomination is not lost on me. The way I see it, now that Huckabee is also rising in both New Hampshire and South Carolina, two states where Giuliani is slipping, I think Huckabee will finish ahead of Giuliani in both New Hampshire and South Carolina even if Huckabee doesn’t win Iowa. It is starting to look like Romney vs. Huckabee for the Republican nomination. In fact, in another week or two, if his across the board rise continues, I might be projecting Huckabee as the frontrunner. Should he win Iowa, it does not strike me as difficult to believe that he could make up even a 15-20 point deficit in New Hampshire, and then go on to win the nomination easily. There is a ton of potential movement left on the Republican side, and relative unknowns who do well in early states will secure it.

Also more at Blue Crab Boulevard.

The New York Times, meanwhile, has an interesting article up about Governor Huckabee’s tax record:

The Club for Growth, a politically influential antitax group, has dubbed Mr. Huckabee Tax Hike Mike and poured money into anti-Huckabee advertisements that were broadcast in early nominating states, with more on the way. Mr. Huckabee “spends money like a drunken sailor,” according to the group’s news releases, and it has sprinkled YouTube and the airways with videos that mock him and his policies.

But the record offers a more complex and nuanced picture. While taxes did rise in the 10 years that Mr. Huckabee was governor, the portrayal of him as a wild-eyed spendthrift is hardly apt. For the most part, Mr. Huckabee’s tax initiatives had wide bipartisan support, with the small number of Republicans in the overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature voting for the tax increases and many maintaining that the state was better for them.

In addition, when Mr. Huckabee left office last January, he had turned a $200 million budget shortfall into an $844 million surplus. Still, as the attacks on his fiscal policies have stepped up, the Huckabee campaign has also cited examples of some 90 taxes that went down under his tenure.

As usual, it’s more complex than his opponents pretend.