Cain vs. Romney

Right now the race is looking like its Cain versus Romney. Romney has been at the top of the polls for a bit now but Cain is rapidly rising. Cain had been at the bottom with Newt Gingrich but after some good debates, Cain is almost tied with Romney at the top of the Republican rankings. On Monday, Gallup released survey information showing Romney at 20 percent, and Cain at 18 percent.  With the surveys marginal error of plus or minus four points the two candidates are basically equal. In just weeks Cain’s numbers have sky rocketed. A month ago the Gallop poll showed Cain at five percent.

Compared to the other front-runners, Cain has a pretty low name recognition. A poll released in early October showed that only 55 percent of Republican voters knew Cain’s name. Other candidates however, like Romney, Perry, and Bachmann had 80 percent name recognition among republican voters. Most likely that percentage has probably risen for Cain since then. With that said, if more people start to hear about him and like and approve of him as the 55 percent he already has does, then he will have a whole other group of GOP electorates to support him.

It will be interesting to see how Chris Christie’s endorsement of Romney will affect the race and if it will hurt Cain at all. But it doesn’t seem like Cain has to worry too much about Perry, another tea party favorite, since his support has been quickly decreasing almost in sync with Cain’s rise in support. In a recent Pew survey, 23 percent of GOP voters who say they are particularly supportive of the tea party also say they support Cain as the nominee. On the flip side, only 6 percent of voters who do not identify with the tea party say they would vote for Cain. Romney however is the opposite. He has 25 percent of the non tea party voter’s support and 17 percent of the tea partiers.

So with Cain’s number’s, name recognition, and popularity rising it’s looking good for him. The ex-business man with no government experience is sure getting his policies out there and gaining support from many people. With Romney and him neck and neck it’s becoming very interesting to see which one will push the other off the edge and remain on top.