Romney narrowly edges Cain in new poll

A new poll finds Mitt Romney narrowly edging Herman Cain in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but that two-thirds of GOP voters have not yet definitively made up their mind about a candidate.

Romney and Cain lead the field with 26 percent and 25 percent, respectively, with Rick Perry trailing in third with 13 percent in the CNN/ORC poll. No other candidate cracks double digits, with Rep. Ron Paul (9 percent), former speaker Newt Gingrich (8 percent), and Rep. Michele Bachmann (6 percent) leading the second-tier.

{mosads}As with other national polls, CNN found a dramatic fall for Perry, who garnered 30 percent of those surveyed near the end of September, and an equally meteoric rise for Cain, who was at just 9 percent in September and 3 percent in August. The poll also found that Cain’s support primarily comes from Tea Party conservatives who are reluctant to back Romney.

“Republicans who support the tea party movement love Herman Cain — he gets support from 39% of them, more than double the number who support Mitt Romney,” said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland in a statement. “Republicans who say they are neutral toward the tea party back Romney by roughly the same margin – 35% of them favor Romney compared to just 14% for Cain.”

Perhaps most surprisingly, Republican voters’ opinions of the field remained essentially unchanged from July, when former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.) were still considered potential candidates. About one-third of Republicans were not very satisfied with their slate of candidates, essentially unchanged from July.

There was other good news for the Republican candidates in the poll: Far more Republicans are enthusiastic about voting in the 2012 election than Democrats. Sixty-four percent of Republicans are “very” or “extremely” enthusiastic, versus only 45 percent of Democrats. This enthusiasm gap, if it holds, could result in weak turnout numbers for not only the president but also congressional Democrats facing reelection.

Still, President Obama seems to have shored up support among Democrats. While a September version of the poll found that nearly a quarter of Democrats believed the party should nominate a different candidate for 2012, that number fell in October. Now, a full 81 percent of Democrats believe that the party should renominate the president.