Will I win my bet on US Presidential long-shot?

It's perverse I know, but any mention of Mike Huckabee as a potential winner of the US Republican Presidential nomination, gets me embarrassingly excited. Why? Because it could be one the of the few political bets that I have placed that pays out any money. (The last one was on the Newbury by-election in 1993).

It was just this "boy from Hope", "Governor of Arkansas"and "plays musical instrument" story which brought out the sentiment in me.

The Sunday Times is getting me all excited this morning:

A surprising surge of support for Mike Huckabee, the former Republican governor of Arkansas who had long seemed a rank outsider in the 2008 presidential race, has turned him into a target six weeks before voting in Iowa.

Running on a shoestring budget as an affable conservative with unrivalled religious qualifications (he is a former Baptist minister), Huckabee has previously been dismissed as an underfunded no-hoper. He is mostly known for a quirky sense of humour and his skills on bass guitar – he plays for a band called Capitol Offense.

All that changed last week when an opinion poll propelled Huckabee close to the top of the Republican heap in Iowa, the traditional launching pad for presidential careers.

I placed £10 at 20-1 on this man to win the Republican nomination in March 2006. Oh dear, I can hardly contain my excitement.