A new Fox News poll finds former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain on the rise faster than a thick pan pizza — as GOP voters continue to show signs that they are not ready to hold their noses and give definitive support to previous front-runner Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney:
Herman Cain takes the lead in the Republican presidential nomination contest as GOP voters continue to deny Mitt Romney clear front-runner status.
A Fox News poll released Wednesday shows support for Cain has quadrupled among GOP primary voters since late August. At that time, he stood at 6 percent. After three September debates, he jumped to 17 percent. And now Cain leads the pack at 24 percent.
While it’s the first time Romney has trailed Cain, it’s the second time he’s been ousted from the lead since July. Romney receives 20 percent — a new low for him. That’s down from 23 percent last month and a high of 26 percent in early August.
And Texas Gov. Rick Perry who found that his supposed moonlighting as a comedian doing a set about Barack Obama’s birth certificate bombed and hurt his chances to be the GOP’s 2012 opening act? To quote the great Tony Soprano, “Fugeddaboudit…”
Newt Gingrich now comes in third with 12 percent — edging out Rick Perry. The former speaker — like Cain — has seen his support quadruple since late August.
Perry’s support has dropped to 10 percent, down from 19 percent in September. After his mid-August announcement, Perry captured 29 percent of the vote and took the front-runner role from Romney.
At 9 percent, Ron Paul stays in the top five.
Perry’s one consolation: at least he’s (marginally) more popular than Congress.
But just give him time…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.