Via the AP: Huckabee second in national GOP race

Mike Huckabee has vaulted from nowhere into second place in the Republican presidential race, riding a burst of support from evangelicals, Southerners and conservatives, a nationwide poll showed Friday.

The surge by the former Arkansas governor has come largely at the expense of Fred Thompson, according to the national survey by The Associated Press and Ipsos. Thompson has dropped after failing to galvanize the party’s right-wing core as much as some had expected.

[…]

The poll showed Giuliani at 26 percent among Republican and GOP-leaning voters, about where he has been since spring. Huckabee has 18 percent, up from 10 percent in an AP-Ipsos survey a month ago and 3 percent in July.

Arizona Sen. John McCain has 13 percent, Mitt Romney 12 percent and Thompson 11 percent.

Having watched Huckabee in an interview on This Week last Sunday, I can see how his personality would be appealing–he certainly is more energetic than Thomspon. Still, I remain unconvinced that his current surge is as much a big pro-Huckabee push as much as it is the continued discontent with the whole GOP field coupled with the realization that Fred Thompson is, in fact, an empty suit.

Although it is fair to say that at the moment hardcore social conservatives really have nowhere to go beyond Huckabee, so perhaps that will be enough to keep him afloat and in a position to take the lead slot (nationally speaking) from Rudy if some of his problems (like the taxiing of his mistress by the NYPD, amongst other issues) start to drag him down.