US primary contests now too close to call
James Forsyth 10:56amIf you want a feel for how dramatically both the Republican and Democratic primary races have tightened in the US, consider this:
The importance of these early states in the process can not be over-stated and the worry for Hillary has to be that Obama has removed her firewall in New Hampshire. He’s now close enough that momentum from a win in Iowa, could carry him over the top there as well. If Hillary goes 0 for 2 in the first two contests, then anything could happen. 
“The only candidate in either party with a lead outside of the margin of error in the big 3 states (Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina) is Republican Mike Huckabee who sports a double-digit lead over his nearest competitor. No Democrat has a lead outside the margin of error in those three states and the Republican races in both New Hampshire and South Carolina are also margin-of-error close.”
The big question on the Republican side is has Huckabee peaked too early. He is now going to find his past record and his statements under far more scrutiny than ever before. Two of his opponents, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson, need to knock him out of the running to have a realistic chance so expect things to get brutal very soon.
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lane filler
December 10th, 2007 1:21pmAnyone interested in what Huckabee is really like face to face should try this funny (but it actually happened) column: http://goupstate.us/index.php/lanefiller/2007/11/02/title_14
David Lindsay
December 10th, 2007 4:01pmLook at Iowa and turn green with envy. In the course of each Parliament without fail, our own political parties should put out a shortlist of two potential parliamentary candidates (at constituency level) and two potential Leaders (at national level) to a binding ballot of the whole electorate. And our ghastly Political Class could then just be made to clear off.