Heading into a pivotal New Hampshire Republican primary debate, surging presidential contender Herman Cain registered the best enthusiasm rating of the election year, while former GOP darling Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, continued his slide.
Gallup shows Cain with a positive intensity score of 34, in a survey taken over the last two weeks. In other words, among the voters familiar with Cain, 34 percent more say they have a strongly favorable view of him than those who say they have an strongly unfavorably view. Supporters of former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., seem less excited about their candidate, with only a 14 point margin between primary voters strongly favorable towards Romney as opposed to strongly unfavorable.
The worst news of the poll, perhaps, applies to Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas. With a positive intensity score of just 7, Perry looks increasingly like a frontrunner turned former-frontrunner.
77 percent of primary voters have a favorable or strongly favorable view of Cain, compared to 72 percent who say the same of Romney. Perry has fallen into a near tie with former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. The two candidates register 62 and 61 percent favorability ratings, respectively.
Small wonder, then, that Cain says he “[doesn’t] need to go after Perry” when he goes on offense in tonight’s debate. “I’m going after Romney,” Cain said this morning.
Cain needs to have a very strong performance tonight to keep his momentum. If he slips in tonight’s debate and Romney struggles to ward off attacks on Romneycare as the template for Obamacare, Perry could get back in it with a strong performance.
You can see the positive intensity and net favorability charts here.
