Huckabee leads in Iowa and South Carolina

When an interviewer raised an inquiry about an old statement by Huckabee that people with AIDS should be quarantined, the Presidential candidate tried to frame it in the context claiming that in the beginning of the 1990's there was little knowledge of how contagious AIDs was. Although Huckabee did not deny his statement, he did receive criticism because apparently many pastors at the time ignored information provided by the national government asserting that AIDS could not be "transferred casually." Huckabee spent the beginning of the week in Iowa, his first trip since taking the lead in the polls. After spending time there, MSNBC and McClatchy found that Huckabee had a 12% lead over Romney in their most recent poll. This week in Iowa, several well-known pastors announced their endorsement of Former Governor Mike Huckabee demonstrating his strengthening grasp of the religious right—a substantial voting block whose leaders are known for getting their supporters out to the polls. Continuing his everyman, authentic campaign Huckabee played up his years as a pastor; something the Christians in Iowa find very appealing especially with the competition being pro-choice or Mormon. Huckabee tries to stay out of the political attacks, but he is known for making subtle attacks; when discussing his primary competition in Iowa, Mitt Romney, he reportedly said, “We've got an army of ordinary people who are out there, not because someone's paying them to love me.” In addition to his Iowa successes, he isaccumulating support in North Carolina as well. Huckabee spent the end of the work-week there attending fundraisers in Greensboro and Charlotte; culminating in an speech at the Ashville Congressman’s annual Christmas. On his trip, reporters hounded the former Governor about his lack of awareness and opinion on the National Inteligence Estimate or (NIE) to which he responded that the current President “had it for four years, and he hadn't read it yet, so I don't really know that it was a big deal that I had not yet seen it and read it because we had been on the campaign trail nonstop.” A recent poll in the other Carolina came out with Huckabee winning the support of 20% of those surveyed moving ahead of Giuliani by 3%. This weekend he also visited South Carolina where he was campaigning at a local restaurant in Columbia packed with people—four times the restaurant’s actual capacity—to all eager meet the Republican Front Runner. With less than a month left until the Iowa primary, will Huckabee keep gaining support?If he wins the first primary will anyone be able to stop him?