Posted on Dec 3, 2007 | by Michael Foust

DES MOINES, Iowa (BP)--Two new polls in Iowa Dec. 2 showed Democratic Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee leading their respective fields, making it increasingly possible that two candidates trailing nationally could win the first contest of the 2008 presidential race.

Obama leads Hillary Clinton in The Des Moines Register poll, 28-25 percent, with John Edwards close behind at 23 percent. Huckabee leads Mitt Romney in The Register's GOP poll, 29-24 percent, with Rudy Giuliani third at 13 percent. Both polls were conducted Nov. 25-28 among 500 likely caucus participants from each party. Iowa will hold its caucuses Jan. 3.

It is a significant surge for both Obama and Huckabee, both of whom trailed in the newspaper's October poll. Obama's 22 percent put him in third place in that poll behind first-place Clinton (29 percent) and Edwards (23 percent). Similarly, Huckabee's 12 percent trailed Romney (29 percent) and Fred Thompson (18 percent).

Clinton and Giuliani still lead virtually every Democratic and Republican national poll.

The primary calendar could play somewhat of a spoiler for Obama and Huckabee, though. The New Hampshire primary will be held only five days later on Jan. 8, meaning that the momentum gained from an Iowa victory could be short-lived unless the two candidates do well there.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" Dec. 2, Huckabee said he wasn't peaking too soon.

"I'm still gaining and growing," he said. "You peak when you stop. We haven't stopped yet.... We've been on a steady, slow but upward trajectory."

The race in Iowa remains virtually tied when averaging the most recent polls on RealClearPolitics.com. An average of the last five GOP polls has Huckabee leading Romney by two-tenths of a point, while an average of the most recent six Democratic polls has Obama leading by three-tenths of a point.

CLINTON TOPS HOMOSEXUAL POLL -- Hillary Clinton leads by a substantial margin among homosexual likely voters who will vote in the Democratic primaries, according to a poll conducted Nov. 15-26 by Knowledge Networks for Hunter College in New York City. The college called the survey the first of its kind.

Clinton leads with 63 percent, followed by Barack Obama (22 percent) and John Edwards (7 percent).

Eighty-seven percent of homosexual likely voters plan on voting in the Democratic primaries while 13 percent say they will vote in the Republican ones.

Among homosexual likely voters who plan to vote Republican, Rudy Giuliani leads with 50 percent, trailed by John McCain (23 percent) and Mitt Romney (11 percent).

The poll of 768 people was funded by a grant from the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest homosexual activist organization. Knowledge Networks contacted those who were polled by telephone and then administered the survey over the Internet.
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Michael Foust is assistant editor of Baptist Press.