President 2012 Iowa GOP Poll Watch: Huckabee 21% Romney 13.5% Trump 8.8% Gingrich 7.8% Palin 6.6% Bachmann 5.3%

According to the latest Neighborhood Research Poll.

A second ballot was then taken – excluding Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump and Sarah Palin.

And, a third ballot which included only these candidates: Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul.

So, what does this all mean?

1) Gingrich’s strength with the base, in spite of Scozzafava, the Pelosi ad and personal issues.  

Despite no gain in the ballot test from January, he is clearly stronger with more conservative and 

religious voters

2) Bachmann’s healthy showing and Pawlenty and Paul’s continued weak numbers

3) Cain’s better than expected numbers with conservative insiders, showing his ground game is 

paying dividends.

4) Trump’s appeal to secular, more libertarian Republican voters is coming largely at Romney’s 

expense.

5) Huckabee, Palin and Romney’s share drops since January is a sign voters are looking for a new 

face and may be looking down on Huckabee and Palin’s lack of ground effort.

6) Neither Barbour nor Daniels has gained any traction thus far, and Santorum and Moore have 

little.  Johnson, Huntsman, Bolton and Roemer are non-existent.

7) Strong grass-roots support for the shutdown illustrates the ideological demands establishment 

candidates will face, along with Congressional leaders.

In all reality, this poll is a mash of many numbers and possible scenarios. It simply points out that Huckabee would be a formidable candidate (should he run) and there is really no front runner in Iowa.