He may be the consensus frontrunner, but Mitt Romney will not be the focus of tonight’s Bloomberg debate at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. The two candidates right behind Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Godfather’s Pizza chairman Herman Cain, will be the news makers. And those two candidates appear to be heading in opposite directions.

As recently as three weeks ago, Perry was leading all candidates in the national polls, and Cain by double digits. But after three bad debate performances in a row, Perry has fallen into third place in most polls, including Gallup’s latest, which places him at 15%. Cain, meanwhile has surged from a fifth-place, 5% showing in Gallup’s September poll, to a second place, 18% showing in October.