Print80% of GOP primary voters still undecided
According to the latest CBS/New York Times poll, it's still anyone's ballgame.
With the nation's first nominating contests just two months away, a large majority of Republican primary voters have yet to make up their minds about the candidate they would like to see as their party's nominee for president in 2012.
About eight in 10 Republican primary voters say it is still too early to tell whom they will support, and just four in 10 say they have been paying a lot of attention to the 2012 presidential campaign, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
Herman Cain, the former restaurant executive, is riding a wave of support among Republican primary voters that has placed him in a statistical dead heat with rival Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, in a race that has been characterized by momentum swings among the candidates.
The poll found Mr. Cain with the highest level of support, with 25 percent of Republican primary voters, and Mr. Romney with 21 percent. This difference is within the poll's margin of sampling error.
Adding to the fluidity of the contest, about one in 10 Republican primary voters say they would like to see someone else nominated.
This is by no means a done deal for Romney, or for Cain either. Newt Gingrich is lurking out there and has slowly been rising. Who knows where he'll be in two months?
Perry has the money to get back in the race and has just released a tax plan that should be popular with conservatives. If Cain starts to fall back, Perry has a chance to crawl back in the race.
It doesn't seem like it, but two months can be an awfully long time in politics.
