It’s a bit early for this, but Public Policy Polling released a new poll on Monday showing that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is leading the 2012 Republican presidential primary field by a whisker -- but there were three candidates right behind him, well within the margin of error. Huckabee pulled 23 percent, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 22 percent, and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin both tied for third at 21 percent. The poll of 400 Republican primary voters acoss the nation was taken between Aug. 6-9 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.9 percent.
Of course there is no national primary and another poll released on Monday showed Huckabee in good shape to repeat as the winner of the Iowa caucus, the first battleground of the presidential nomination process. The Voter Consumer Research poll had Huckabee with 22 percent, Romney with 18 percent, Gingrich with 14 percent and Palin with 11 percent. That poll of 399 likely Republican voters in Iowa was commissioned by TheIowaRepublican.com and Concordia Group LLC and had a margin of error of +/- 4.91 percent.

Since his unsuccessful bid for the 2008 presidential nomination, Huckabee moved to Florida earlier in 2010 and has grown increasingly active in state politics.