Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee comes in first among likely Republican voters for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll released today.

And even though former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's forthcoming autobiography has topped Amazon book charts for weeks, she trails (18 percent) Huckabee (29 percent) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (24 percent). In July, voters placed Romney (25 percent) and Palin (24 percent) in a close tie while Huckabee finished a close third at 22 percent.

This time around among evangelicals, Huckabee leads Palin by 17 percent while Palin beats Romney by 14 percent.

In other news:

– Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, apologized last week for giving a "Josef Mengele Award" (referring to a Nazi doctor) to President Obama's health care adviser Zeke Emanuel.

"I was using hyperbole for effect and never intended to actually equate anyone in the Obama administration ...

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