Gallup: Perry Still Leads, Romney Gains in Positive Vibes

Gallup’s latest suggests that we have a two-man race, for now anyway. The chart below is Gallup’s measure of each candidate’s “positive intensity.” That’s why Cain is so high up — it’s impossible to dislike him, and he hasn’t wasted his time attacking everyone else. But he hasn’t moved up in the polls in a while, as the debates have become more crowded and more focused on other frontrunning candidates.

But Romney has gained over the past two weeks. Others haven’t.

Huntsman’s performance is just dazzling, ain’t it? Andrew Malcolm’s read:

What the Gallup organization calls the Positive Intensity Score shows Perry holding strong at 24. However, for the first time since Perry surged to the front of the GOP field, Romney’s score has increased significantly.

In a new rating just released Gallup shows that now with a month to compare the two men, Romney’s score has surged from 11 just two weeks ago to 16 now.

At the same time the scores for two GOP women have faded. With Perry in the race Michele Bachmann’s score has dropped from 13 to 10. And the train appears to be leaving the station for Sarah Palin’s hypothetical candiacy; her score plunged from 16 to 10. The 10 for both women are new lows for 2011.

Via Ace. The above does not mean that the race is Perry’s to lose. It means he has the lead in the polls and on which candidate the GOP primary voters prefer, good to have but not enough to get into the end zone. I missed last night’s debate but the aftermath suggests that Perry didn’t fare as well as he did in the previous one. I doubt he’ll win or lose the nomination solely on the debates, when so much else is likely to come into play. As with every other politician on the planet, there are things in Perry’s record that are worth criticizing, some more than others. He has a good platform — jobs — and has a big weakness — the border. He’s better on that weakness than Obama, certainly, but that’s probably not going to be enough. Romney has a big plus — his business background — and a big minus — RomneyCare. We’ll see which candidate’s pluses and minuses add up to victory.