Apparently, Republicans like what they see in Newt Gingrich (Daron Dean/Reuters)
ORC for CNN (PDF). November 18-20. Republicans. ±5%. (11/13 results.)
Newt Gingrich: 24 (22)
Mitt Romney: 20 (24)
Herman Cain: 17 (14)
Rick Perry: 11 (12)
Ron Paul: 9 (8)
Michele Bachmann: 5 (6)
Rick Santorum: 4 (3)
Jon Huntsman: 3 (3)
It's been a decent week for Newt Gingrich. Despite getting drilled for being a lobbyist, he's gained a little ground. Mitt Romney is down four points, but he continues to stay near the top of every poll. Herman Cain also had a good week, picking up a little ground, suggesting that at the very least he's stopped the bleeding from his campaign. Everyone else trails Cain by more than the margin of error.
Since early September, Newt Gingrich has jumped 17 points while Herman Cain has gained 10 points. The big loser in that span is Rick Perry, who has dropped 21 points. Rounding out the double-digit candidates, Mitt Romney is basically even (down one point).
Two-thirds of Republicans say they could change their support, and if past is prologue, they probably will.
Probably the best number for Mitt Romney is that 40 percent of Republicans think he'd be their strongest nominee against President Obama. The runner-up is Newt Gingrich, but just 21 percent think he'd be the GOP's best candidate.
On the flip side, probably the worst number for Mitt Romney is that 16 percent say he's the candidate they are most likely to agree with, putting him below Newt Gingrich (25 percent) and Herman Cain (18 percent). He's basically tied with Rick Perry, who is at 15 percent.
Amazingly, 36 percent say Gingrich is the most qualified to be commander-in-chief compared to 20 percent for Romney. Another 43 percent say Gingrich is mostly likely to understand complicated issues, compared with 18 percent for second-place Romney.
As amusing as those numbers might be, by far the funniest result in the poll came in response to the question of which candidate Republicans believe to be most likely to "keep the same position on important issues." The top two candidates were Newt Gingrich (23 percent) and Mitt Romney (18 percent).