Herman Cain Surges Past Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and Ron Paul

Businessman Herman Cain has surged past former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Gov. Rick Perry to lead in a national poll unveiled late on Wednesday.

Cain topped the NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll with 27 percent followed by Romney with 23 percent and Perry with 16 percent. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas took fourth place with 11 percent. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich took fifth with 8 percent followed by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann with 5 percent, former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah with 3 percent and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum with 1 percent.

Cain had taken 5 percent in NBC/Wall Street Journal polls released in July and August while Perry had led the August poll with 38 percent. Bachmann has also been fading in recent weeks having taken 16 percent in July and 8 percent in August.

The survey of 336 Republican primary voters was taken from Oct. 6-10 and had a margin of error of +/- 5.35 percent.