The Gingrich camp is touting a new Quinnipiac poll today, and they’re right to do so. It’s very good news for Newt Gingrich, and not good news for most of the other candidates.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich more than doubles his share of the Republican presidential vote to lead the presidential pack with 26 percent and in a head-to-head matchup tops former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 49 – 39 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. But Romney is tied with President Barack Obama.
Former pizza magnate Herman Cain drops from the top spot with 30 percent in a November 2 national survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University to third place with 14 percent today. Romney goes from 23 percent November 2 to 22 percent.
Paul is in fourth. The poll finds that while Gingrich leads, Romney is still seen as the most likely to win the nomination, and the most likely to defeat Obama.
But the poll is a bit schizophrenic. The sample is supposed to be of Republicans and Republican leaners, margin of error +/- 3 points, yet it finds that President Obama’s favorable and unfavorables are about even, and that he would defeat all of the GOP candidates. Among Republicans? Really? Color me skeptical. Romney gets closest to winning, losing 44-45. The poll also finds that Gingrich is seen as most capable of dealing with illegal immigration, despite having no real record on that issue. In this campaign cycle, he has proposed boards similar to the old draft boards to deal with long-term illegal immigrants.
There remains a lot of fluidity, and, great news! there’s another debate tonight. It’s at 8 pm ET on CNN.
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