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Friday, November 11, 2011

Newt Continues to Climb

Three months ago, Newt Gingrich was polling 4% in the Real Clear Politics average of national polls of the GOP presidential race. What a difference three months makes, not to mention the implosion of Rick Perry, the revelation of the true Michelle Bachmann. in the last 24 hours, polls of three of the early voting states have come out with amazing numbers for Gingrich. In Iowa, the numbers are 23% for Cain, 19 for Romney and 15% for Newt. In South Carolina, it is Cain 26%, Gingrich 19 and Romney 16%. Florida is 27% for Cain, 21% for Romney and 17% for Gingrich. None of the other candidates gets double digits in any of these polls except for Ron Paul who hits 11% in Iowa.

These results are astounding in my opinion. First of all, none of the polling was done after Cain's accusers changed from anonymous to actual women who came forward to tell their stories. Without knowing, my guess is that this will reduce support for Cain in the near future. Second, despite all the hype from the media about how Romney is the frontrunner, he is not in first in any of these states and his numbers, while good, are paltry for a frontrunner. Third, Newt has risen without raising big amounts of cash; he has succeeded on the basis of his debate performances and the clarity and content of his proposals.

In a week or so, we should see the result of the new type of charges against Cain and the brain freeze from Rick Perry in the last debate. If much of the shifting goes from Cain and Perry to Newt, then Gingrich may actually be fighting for the lead (or in the lead) in these key states. Who would have thought this was possible three months ago?

1 comment:

jim said...

If Newt is the best the Republicans can do good luck as you will have plenty to write about for the next years of the Obama presidency. Your best candidate can't tell the same story twice in a row because he flip flops all the time. As an independent what a disappointment not to have a good alternative to Obama.