The new Des Moines Register poll, the one that campaigns in Iowa really kneel down before, has Herman Cain leading Mitt Romney by a statistically insignificant single point. The results, with trends from June.
Herman Cain - 23% (+13)
Mitt Romney - 22% (-1)
Ron Paul - 12% (+5)
Michele Bachmann - 8% (-14)
Newt Gingrich - 7% (+0)
Rick Perry - 7%
Rick Santorum - 5% (+1)
Jon Huntsman - 1% (-1)
That’s nice and clarifying. Romney and Cain have hardly campaigned in the states, and the only visible negative effect is that Romney’s polling weaker than he did four years ago, when he led for months only to be pipped by a surging Huckabee. Gingrich, who has said he wants to place in the “top 2” in Iowa and New Hampshire, isn’t close to that territory. Rick Santorum’s reward for working the state harder than anyone: Scraps.
