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.
Businessman Herman Cain has surged into the top tier of presidential candidates in Virginia, according to a new poll of the state, moving into a tie in the Republican nomination contest with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has faded considerably.
The Quinnipiac University Poll of Virginia released Tuesday shows Romney and Cain at 21 percent apiece among Republican voters, while Perry sits at 11 percent–less than half the support he registered in the same poll a month ago.
Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) gets 9 percent, while Rep. Michelle Bachmann (Minn.) and former House speaker Newt Gingrich receive 7 percent apiece.
[…]“Herman Cain is moving up the ladder at breakneck speed,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling institute, in a news release.
Businessman Herman Cain has edged out former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the first primary state of the South, according to a new poll released Tuesday.
The conservative radio talk show host received 26% support in the Palmetto State poll, only one percentage point ahead of Romney and within the margin of error for the American Research Group survey, indicating the two are statistically tied.
South Carolina is slated to go fourth in the nation’s primary and caucus calendar, preceded by Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada.
The longest-serving Texas Gov. Rick Perry placed third with 15% support, followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 8%, Texas Rep. Ron Paul at 7%, and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann at 5%.
[…]When the survey is narrowed to Republican respondents who consider themselves likely primary voters, Cain and Romney are tied at 27% each.
I am hoping that Romney stalls out… as I’ve blogged before, Romney is liberal on everything from abortion, to gay rights, to gun control, to global warming to government-run health care. The man is really more of a moderate-to-liberal Democrat, ideologically, and we don’t need that right now.
And so the pursuit of happiness, just like my parents pursued their definition of happiness. Mom was a domestic worker. Dad was a barber, a janitor and a chauffeur. When Dad walked off of that small farm, Dad went to pursue his American dream with the only kind of equity he had — sweat equity. And he was able to achieve his American dream, he and my mother. And Dad wanted to give us a little bit better start in life, and they did. And Dad wanted to make sure that one day he could buy a whole house for the family.
You see, growing up in Atlanta, most of the time we lived in what my brother and I called a half a house. It was a six-room house with three rooms on one side, three rooms on the other side. We lived in half of it. My brother and I, being typical kids, used to say: Dad, why do we live in a half a house? (Laughter.) Dad said: It’s a duplex. (Laughter.) Because we didn’t know that Dad was saving for his dream, which was to one day buy a whole house for the family; and he did. Dad knew that the pursuit of happiness meant working those three jobs.
And Dad also knew that the pursuit of happiness meant the three things that they instilled in my brother and I if you want to achieve your American dream; and that is, your belief in God, belief in yourself and belief in the greatest country in the world, the United States of America. And we are exceptional!
And:
A reporter asked me just yesterday: Well, aren’t you angry — (laughter) — about how America has treated you?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Laughs.)
MR. CAIN: I said: Sir, you don’t get it. (Laughter.) I have achieved all of my American dreams and then some — (cheers, applause) — because of the great nation United States of America. (Cheers, applause.) What’s there to be angry about? Angry? (Applause continues.)
America’s — one of America’s greatest strengths is its ability to change. We have weathered those changes. That’s what makes this nation great.
And:
Now Mr. Cain, what are you going to do about Iran?
Well, here’s what I’m going to do about Iran. I’m going to utilize a capability that we have that most people are unaware of. I learned about these capabilities when I served on an advisory board for the Strategic Air Command before they changed it to STRATCOM. We are the only nation in the world that has the ballistic missile detection capability at sea as well as on land — better than any other country in the world. We have the ability to upgrade those ballistic missile defense systems on all of our AEGIS warships, and we have the ability to double the number of AEGIS warships and strategically place them anywhere in the world to detect missiles fired from those locations toward a friend or toward us and knock it out of the sky before it reaches its apex.
And so I would upgrade — make it a priority to upgrade all of our AEGIS surface-to-air ballistic missile defense capability on all of our warships all the way around — all the way around the world, make that a priority, and then say to Ahmadinejad: Make my day. (Extended cheers, applause.)
And:
They want you to believe that we can’t do this. Just like three months ago I was — the pundits, the political pundits said Herman Cain can’t get the nomination, Herman Cain cannot win the presidency, because he doesn’t have high name-ID, he doesn’t have a kajillion dollars and he’s never held public office.
But let me tell you what the American people are saying. They don’t care about a katrillion dollars! America wants to raise some Cain, not raise more money! (Cheers, applause.) That’s what the voters are saying. (Cheers, applause.)
Read the whole thing! Especially for those people who don’t think they need to know what an AEGIS-enabled warship is. Herman Cain knows, because he worked on missile ballistics for the Department of the Navy.
Believe it: the reliable Gallup poll has Cain down by 2
The tidal wave of recent support for Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is manifesting itself in two new polls showing the pro-life businessman now running competitively with pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
The first poll, conducted by the firm Poll Position, shows Cain beating Obama in a potential head-to-head matchup by a 43.3 percent to 41.3 percent margin. In the results the firm found in its automated voice survey technology poll, Cain takes a whopping 24 percent of the African-American vote — a much higher percentage that actual Republican presidential candidates have received in elections past.
[…]Meanwhile, a new Rasmussen poll shows Cain has pulled within three points of Obama in its most recent national telephone survey of likely voters. The latest 2012 hypothetical matchup finds the president earning 42% support, while Cain picks up 39% of the vote. Seven percent (7%) prefer some other candidate, and 12% are undecided.
“The latest results represent the best showing for Cain who appears to be experiencing a surge of support among Republican voters. Late last month, the former radio host trailed the president 39% to 34%. Obama held a seven-point lead a month earlier and led Cain by 18 points in March,” Rasmussen notes.
“Cain draws support from 70% of Republican voters, while Obama picks up the vote from 79% of Democrats. Voters not affiliated with either party are evenly divided between the candidates. Eighty-five percent (85%) of Tea Party voters support Cain, but 55% of non-members prefer Obama,” Rasmussen continued.
Cain likely would do better against Obama, but the Rasmussen poll shows some Republican voters are concerned about his “9-9-9” tax reform plan, as most of those polled agree that if it becomes law, Congress won’t wait long to raise the tax rates higher. Fifty-six percent (56%) of GOP voters favor Cain’s plan, but 66% of all voters think Congress would raise tax rates within five to 10 years of the plan’s adoption.
The businessman has acknowledged and addressed that concern, saying his plan would require a two-thirds vote in Congress to raise taxes.
Rasmussen polls show Obama leads all of the current GOP hopefuls except former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney with whom he is essentially tied. New numbers on the Romney-Obama match-up will be released tomorrow, Rasmussen indicates.
If you want to know why he is surging, watch the speech, or read the transcript.
WINTERY KNIGHT 