Good Thursday noon (and happy MEA weekend to those of you with school age kids):

Strategic Vision just released a poll, taken last weekend, of 600 likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers and 600 likely Republican caucus-goers. They’ve got presidential horserace numbers, of course,which I’ll provide below. But here’s the question that caught me by surprise:

Strategic vision asked both panels:

Do you favor a withdrawal of all United States military from Iraq within the next six months?

That’s all troops within six months.

Among the Dems, it’s overwhelming, but not too surprising:

Yes 85%
No 6%
Undecided 9%.

But among likely Republicans caucus-goers in Iowa, it came out:

Yes 54%
No 38%
Undecided 8%

(The margin for error is +/- 4 percentage points.)

I called a Republican pollster for a reaction. He said it wasn’t that surprising. Nationally, more Republicans still say no (by a small margin), but Iowa is known for populist and isolationist streaks.

I still call it surprising. And then consider that among the huge (but shrinking, Sam Brownback is dropping out today) GOP presidential field, no one but wildman Ron Paul favors any deadlines for withdrawal.

As I mentioned parenthetically, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownbeck is dropping out of the Republican race. He was obviously going nowhere. Folks are trying to figure out how it might effect the remainder of the field.

My two cents: Since he had little support, where his supporters go will have a small impact. But the logic of the race (yeah, like these things are logical) tells me that former Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee gets a bump. He’s the sleeper in the race; he and Brownbeck had similar Christian conservative profiles; Iowa is his shot at breaking into the top tier and he’s already knocking on the door of that tier in the last polling out of Iowa.

The Strategic Vision poll, taken last weekend, of 600 likely Iowa GOP caucus-goers has it:

Mitt Romney 27%
Rudy Giuliani 13%
Mike Huckabee 12%
Fred Thompson 10%
John McCain 5%
Sam Brownback 4%
Ron Paul 4%
Tom Tancredo 2%
Duncan Hunter 1%
Undecided 22%

If you take these numbers seriously, you see what I mean about Huckabee knocking on the door. A second-place finish for him transforms his candidacy heading into the next round. He’s underfunded but has the kind of personality and message that might work in New Hampshire.

On the Dem. side, Strategic Vision has it:

Hillary Clinton 28%
Barack Obama 23%
John Edwards 20%
Bill Richardson 9%
Joseph Biden 6%
Chris Dodd 1%
Dennis Kucinich 1%
Undecided 12%

Nothing earth-shattering these numbers. I say first place is still up for grabs (Edwards has to have it or he’s finished, but he is within striking distance with plenty of time to go).

The best news for Clinton, aside from her first-place standing, was the answer to this question:

“When making your selection for a presidential candidate, what are you looking for most in the candidate: charisma, experience, or ideology? (Democrats Only):

Experience 34%
Ideology 28%
Charisma 25%
Undecided 13%”

What think?