Poll finds GOP caucus-goer support for Huckabee in 2012

A new poll of Iowa Republican caucus-goers finds Mike Huckabee to be leading the field of potential 2012 presidential candidates.

When asked by political consulting firm Strategic National for which of the potential candidates they would most likely vote, Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and winner of the 2008 Iowa caucuses, topped the GOP field with 28 percent.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, runner-up in Iowa in 2008, came in second with 19 percent. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a distant third with 12.44 percent, just ahead of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who received 12.2 percent. About 18 percent of the respondents were undecided.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Rep. Michele Bachman, also of Minnesota, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour were included on the poll.

Caucus-goers also were asked about perceptions of tension between science and Christianity's accounts of the creation of the universe. Forty-two percent said they feel that science and Genesis were in conflict, and 68 percent believe that the world was created in six days. About 45 percent believe that the world is roughly 10,000 years old.

Strategic National, a Grand Rapids, Mich., firm polled 410 Republican Iowa caucus-goers Jan. 18.