Businessman Herman Cain has surged past former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Gov. Rick Perry to lead in a national poll released late 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 businessman, a favorite of the tea party movement, has been surging in recent polls after winning the Presidency 5 straw poll held by the Republican Party of Florida in Orlando last month. The poll found that Cain was helped by few Republicans seeing Cain in a negative light. Fifty-two percent of the Republicans surveyed thought positively of Cain while only 6 percent had a negative view of the businessman. A majority of the Republicans surveyed -- 51 percent -- had a positive view of Romney while 16 percent had negative thoughts on the former governor of the Bay State.
Despite placing fifth in the poll, Gingrich was right behind Cain and Romney when it came to Republicans seeing him in a positive light. Forty-nine percent of the Republicans surveyed had a positive image of the former congressional leader while 23 percent saw him in a negative light. The same percent had a negative view of Perry, who was seen as positive by 43 percent.
Thirty-six percent of the Republicans surveyed had a positive view of Bachmann, but she had the highest number of Republicans who saw her negatively -- 27 percent. Paul was seen as positive by 31 percent and negative by 26 percent. Republicans were a bit more neutral with Santorum and Huntsman. Twenty-six percent saw Santorum as positive while 11 percent saw him as negative. Only 15 percent saw Huntsman as positive while 12 percent viewed him as negative.
The poll also found that President Barack Obama was vulnerable in his bid for a second term. Obama was upside down in the poll with 44 percent of those surveyed approving his job performance while a majority -- 51 percent -- disapproved.
While no major candidates have announced their attention to challenge Obama for the Democratic nomination, the poll found that Obama retained the support of 73 percent of Democrats surveyed while 20 percent preferred the party nominate another candidate.
Obama led a generic Republican by a small margin, taking 44 percent to the Republicans 42 percent. Obama led Romney in a general election matchup by the same margin, taking 46 percent to Romneys 44 percent. The president did better against two of the other Republican hopefuls. Obama took 49 percent against Cain, who garnered the support of 38 percent. Obama broke the 50 percent threshold against Perry, taking 51 percent while the governor of the Lone Star State followed with 39 percent.
The survey of 1,000 adults was taken Oct. 6-10 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent. The sample of 336 Republican primary voters had a margin of error of +/- 5.35 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
