A reader contends Campaign Spot is giving Mike Huckabee the short end of the stick, contending “Huckabee has steadily moved up in the polls over the past few months, and in today’s Rasmussen poll is in a virtual tie for 2nd w/ Thompson and only 6 pts behind Romney. Despite an astronomical difference in spending.”

The Rasmussen poll is indeed good news for Huckabee. But it’s also something of an outlier. Strategic Vision, taken over a two-day period instead of a four-day period, put him at 12 percent. That’s good enough for third, one point behind Giuliani, and fifteen points behind Romney.

Looking at the other Iowa polls in the past few weeks,we see…#more#

Des Moines Register: Romney 29, Thompson 18, Huckabee 12, Giuliani 11, McCain 7
Insider Advantage: Romney 24, Giuliani 16, Thompson 13, Huckabee 13, McCain 10
ARG: Romney 22, Giuliani 21, Thompson 16, McCain 11, Huckabee 4
Newsweek: Romney 24, Thompson 16, Giuliani 13, Huckabee 12, McCain 9

If we see subsequent polls putting Huckabee closer to 20 than 10 in Iowa, then it’s some real movement.

The abysmal fundraising numbers for Huckabee took a lot of wind out of his sails, and for a guy who keeps turning in great performances in the debates, he’s not making much traction anywhere else.

Two polls have him at 8 percent in New Hampshire, but that’s still looking like a fifth-place finish. What’s really surprising is that only one poll, Insider Advantage, shows Huckabee doing much of anything in South Carolina, (and it’s still fifth place at 11 percent). You figure the Palmetto state would be fertile ground for Huckabee, but if he’s making a splash, it’s not showing up in the polls yet.

For a little while now, Sam Brownback has said if he doesn’t finish fourth in Iowa, he’ll quit the race. I think he’s kidding himself if he thinks fourth place is worth anything in terms of momentum (unless the top four finish close to each other, and he gets, say, 20 percent with the leader at 30 percent). At this point, candidates who are competing state-by-state and not nationally (like Brownback and Huckabee are today) really need no lower than third in the states that are favorable to them, and they can’t be too far off the leader.