Republican rivals outwitted by an 'outsider'

St Petersburg, Florida: A Baptist minister with a shoestring budget emerged on Thursday as a surprise leader in the race for the Republican presidential nomination after displaying folksy humour while his rivals squabbled in a television debate.

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, has edged ahead of Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani in Iowa, the first state to vote in the nominating process according to a Rasmussen poll. "The surge is on," he told supporters in an email on Friday.

Huckabee, 52, bolstered his position with a disarming performance in the debate in Florida on Wednesday night, charming the audience with his nimble quips as Romney, the previous frontrunner in Iowa, and Rudy Giuliani, the national favourite, went for each other's jugulars.

Facing some oddball questions, which had been posted by users of the YouTube video-sharing website ahead of the debate broadcast by CNN, Huckabee proved the most adept.

When asked about space exploration, he prompted guffaws by suggesting that Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, "could be on the first rocket to Mars". He dodged a tricky question about whether the Son of God would support the death penalty by quipping: "Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office."