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Herman Cain leads liberal Mitt Romney by 4 in latest national NBC/WSJ poll

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From MSNBC, the latest national poll shows Herman Cain leading Mitt Romney 27 to 23.

Excerpt:

Fueled by Tea Party supporters, conservatives and high-interest GOP primary voters, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain now leads the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

And in yet another sign of how volatile the Republican race has been with less than three months until the first nominating contests, the onetime frontrunner, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, has plummeted to third place, dropping more than 20 percentage points since late August.

“Cain is the leader … That’s the story,” said Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff.

[…]Cain checks in as the first choice of 27 percent of Republican voters in the poll, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 23 percent and Perry at 16 percent. After those three, it’s Texas Rep. Ron Paul at 11 percent, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 8 percent, Bachmann at 5 percent and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman at 3 percent.

In the previous survey, conducted in late August, Perry led the field at 38 percent, Romney stood at 23 percent, while Cain was at only 5 percent.

[…]Cain’s numbers are sky-high among Republican primary voters. Fifty-two percent view him favorably, versus just 6 percent who see him unfavorably. Among Tea Party supporters, his favorable/unfavorable score is 69 percent to 5 percent. And among Republicans who identify themselves as “very conservative,” it’s 72 percent to 2 percent.

In follow-up interviews with respondents supporting Cain, they argue that he’s not a politician, and that he seems real. “He has common-sense answers and is in touch with the heartbeat of America,” said one respondent, a 46-year-old male from Florida.

“Cain gives direct answers. He is succinct. He isn’t a politician,” answered another who’s a 56-year-old male from Washington.

“Cain presents himself as a real person. He speaks from the heart. He is plainspoken and down to Earth,” added a third respondent, a 56-year-old female from Texas.

I would offer Mr. Cain the same advice that I offered Michele Bachmann – come up with short n-point plans for social policies and foreign policy. Increasing the number of ships in the Navy would be good, as would restarting production of the F-22 Raptor and reducing troop deployments in Europe. And he needs a simple n-point border security plan, a health care policy plan and an education policy plan. No more than 6 points each.

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3 thoughts on “Herman Cain leads liberal Mitt Romney by 4 in latest national NBC/WSJ poll”

  1. I’m very happy for Herman, and really hope he takes it to Romney. As to your point on ‘specific plans’, what is noteworthy I think is that most of his surge is arguably coming as a result of his 9-9-9 plan, which everyone is talking about (as shown in the debate). That tells me the support is real, not the result of some kind of euphoria of having a black charismatic candidate or anything like that.

    Here is my ‘Wintery Knight style snarky paraphrasing’ of the candidates’ (and redstate.com) criticisms of the 9-9-9 plan from the debate the other night:

    Romney: “It’s too simple. But rather than explain why tax codes have to be complicated, I’m going to refrain from that because I speak in an authoritative voice and exude confidence which is more important to the American people than actual logic. My own tax proposal is so complex that I don’t even know some of the details in it, but that makes it better because I said ‘some things aren’t so simple’. Therefore the fact that I don’t understand all the details my own tax proposal proves it is better than the 9-9-9 plan.”

    Jon Huntsman: “It is a catchy phrase that sounds like the price of a pizza, and that’s the ONLY reason people like it. Oh, and I like a straight up flat tax better, not because I want to give actual reasons as to why it’s better, but because I can get away with just saying it is better and hope everyone takes it for granted that I know what I am talking about.“

    Multiple people: “Politicians can raise taxes, and so they will obviously try to raise taxes under 9-9-9. So it therefore it cannot be ANY BETTER than our current system. I don’t care about the fact that under any system politicians can try to raise the tax rates, and that in the current system they can raise taxes in far more devious ways. But when taxes are hidden instead of listing 3 easy to remember numbers like ‘9-9-9’, it would look worse if it became ‘9-10-9’ at some point, because people would be more aware of it. That makes it easier to criticize in a TV debate in front of most laymen. Also, we don’t have to worry about any of the other tax proposals going under any scrutiny if presented to congress because right now Herman’s plan is in the spotlight and therefore is the only one susceptible to this kind of argument at this stage of the game.”

    Bachmann: “If you turn it upside down, it says ‘666’ and therefore the devil is in the details. Herman must obviously then be the antichrist.”

    Bachmann: “It isn’t a jobs proposal, it is a tax proposal. Even though my conservative position hinges largely on the assumption that how people are taxed plays a central role in job creation, I am going to ignore that position in these 5 brief seconds because it isn’t convenient for me.”

    Santorum and others: “It won’t get passed, because I am not optimistic enough to think it could pass, and would rather propose something safer and will end up even farther to the left than the 9-9-9 plan would after being scrutinized by congress. After all, why make the American people think it is actually possible for the tax code to be replaced? Why would you vote for Cain, who makes such bold proposals, when you could vote for me, someone who acknowledges the fact that we have no hope of turning around the country and have to pander to the left? Americans would rather have me, because I am a realist! Oh, and even though there are mounds of hidden taxes in the current system that would go away under the 9-9-9 plan, those hidden taxes would be replaced by an unhidden consumption tax, which is another channel of revenue for the Democrats! I don’t care that we are abolishing other channels of revenue like the capital gains tax for example, because that isn’t convenient for me when it comes to criticizing the plan. Neither is the argument that my proposal of a 0% corporate tax would be under any scrutiny whatsoever from democrats”.

    Bloggers at redstate.com: “The 9-9-9 plan would be devastating to states that already have a consumption tax such as TX and FL, because the price of everything would be EVEN HIGHER in those states. Despite what you think when you read this, we CAN do math!! It’s just that we choose to ignore certain variables such as the fact that people in those states already have more purchasing power because they don’t have an income tax, and we also choose to ignore the fact that 9-9-9 is a national plan, and so the ratio of a product’s price in that state to the same product out of state would actually be LOWER after 9-9-9 than it would before, thus actually giving even more incentive for states to get rid of their income taxes. Why choose to factor in these details when the end result is that ‘the prices will look higher’, and it makes it more convenient for us to prop up Rick Perry when thinking in those simple of terms?”

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      1. Good!!

        For what it’s worth, Art Laffer and Paul Ryan seem to have said some good things about the 9-9-9 proposal. At least Cain has some people on his side!

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