Will Iowa be a springboard in both nomination races?

With just one month and one day to go before the first test of opinion in the 2008 White House race new opinion polls put Barack Obama ahead amongst Democrats and the former governor of Arkansas ahead in the Republican race.

Both have gambled heavily on doing well in the Iowa state caucuses which traditionally start the process of the parties selecting their nominees.

The social conservative who was born in the same town as Bill Clinton, Mike Huckabee, has leaped above Mitt Romney according to a poll in the Des Moines Register poll of likely Republican caucus participants. He’s ahead by 29% to 24%.

In the Democrat race the same poll has Obama up from 22% to 29% with the national front-runner, Hillary Clinton, at 25%, down from 29% in the previous poll.

The national leader for the GOP ticket, Rudy Giluliani, has almost stood aside in the state.

There’s little doubt that the outcome on January 3rd will have a huge impact on the betting and I’ve a trading position against Hillary and also have bets at good prices on Obama and Huckabee.

A full range of White House betting options can be found here.

Mike Smithson