The cheery Jon Huntsman, appearing on CBS News’ The Early Show, says he’s not worried by polls showing him in the low single digits, declaring, “We’ve got a long way to go… we’re in the early days, the dog days of summer.”
All true enough, but apparently the early date and summer doldrums don’t affect every candidate equally. Without an announcement, during these same dog days of summer, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is drawing 15 percent in the newest Gallup poll, good for second place to Mitt Romney.
It must be that the Texan is just used to that summer heat. Actually, I thought Utah also got pretty hot in summer. China too, in fact.
In Huntsman’s defense, the poll lead in July the preceding year isn’t worth that much. At this point four years ago, the RealClearPolitics average put Rudy Giuliani in the lead at 26.3 percent, Fred Thompson at 19.3 percent, eventual nominee John McCain at 14 percent, Mitt Romney at 9.3 percent, and Mike Huckabee at 2 percent. Polls change.