A couple of very good polls for Mitt Romney today.
Earlier, American Research Group showed him regaining the lead in Iowa, while Public Policy Polling now shows him besting Rick Perry in Florida -- the probably going rogue state.
1. Mitt Romney 30%
2. Rick Perry 24%
3. Newt Gingrich 10%
4. Ron Paul 8%
5. Herm Cain 7%
6. Michele Bachmann 6%
7. Jon Huntsman 3%
8. Rick Santorum 2%
9. Gary Johnson 1%
The big story here is that Perry's performance in the second Florida debate really seems to have hurt him.
In the polling before the debate, Perry and Romney were even, but in the samples taken the following two days, Romney jumped to a 10% lead.
More striking: Perry's fav number dropped from +40% before the debate to +12% after.
As for a head-to-head, Romney beats Perry by 9%, and it looks like the "somewhat conservative"'s are the tiebreakers.
Romney's winning overall because he's up 36-24 with those identifying as 'somewhat conservative.' This really seems to be the swing voting bloc within the GOP electorate for this year.
For the most part Perry's been leading that group in our polling since his entry so it's a very good sign for Romney that they may perhaps be swinging back in the other direction.
The new polling lags but confirms the conventional wisdom that developed soon after the debate -- that Romney has emerged as the weak front-runner again.
One more thing: Check out Newt. He's hopped up to 3rd. Maybe the Valley Forge candidate isn't dead, after all.
Bachmann, meanwhile, continues to fall, placing roughly even with Herm Cain.
