Herman Cain jumps to second among Republican candidates, according to Zogby poll

Yahoo News ^

[mandaladon]

Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain placed a surprising second in a Zogby poll of likely Republican primary voters released Tuesday.

The poll measured support for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who says he will not run, at 17 percent. Cain was preferred by 14 percent and Texas Rep. Ron Paul by 10 percent.

The results place Cain well ahead of many leading candidates, and come on the heels of a strong performance in Fox News’ May 5 primary debate in South Carolina. Cain was one of five participants.

Candidates widely considered frontrunners all received less than ten percent support.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was supported by 9 percent of respondents and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich by 7 percent. [ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ]

Businessman Donald Trump, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels were all supported by four percent.

Zogby also asked respondents to select the candidates that they would never vote for.

Trump led the “never” field with 50 percent, followed by Gingrich at 36 percent, Palin at 36 percent, Huckabee at 34 percent, Paul at 32 percent, and Romney at 27 percent.

The poll was administered online, a different method than used in most scientific polls. There were 1,377 respondents and a calculated margin of error of +/- 2.7 percent.

[LibertarianInExile]

From what I’ve seen, Bachman is a great choice. My only problem with her is that she’s got a knack for prioritizing and saying the wrong thing politically. Lower corporate income taxes, stuff like that. That may be part and parcel of her exposure being limited by the LSM, but it also seems like a problem if she’s going to be on the national scale.

I’d still vote for her over most of the primary crowd. And unlike most of the koolaid drinkers who are so eager to have a black candidate just because, I can’t trust Cain yet as a philosophical conservative given his history. I don’t personally like Alan Keyes but trust his principles generally, but Cain I’m not able to buy into yet.