Gallup: Gingrich Widens Lead Over Romney

Newt Gingrich widened his lead over Mitt Romney to 14 points in the first Gallup daily national poll to completely exclude ex-rival Herman Cain.

The poll, which took a five-day rolling average of registered Republicans between December 4th and December 8th, shows Gingrich in the lead at 37 percent, followed by Romney at 23 percent.

In the previous poll, which automatically assigned Cain’s votes to his supporters’ second choice, Gingrich took 34 percent compared to Romney’s 25 percent.

This seems to back up the findings of a number of polls taken while Cain was still in the race, which said Cain supporters preferred Gingrich as their second choice.

Cain suspended his campaign last Saturday, saying that allegations of sexual harassment and infidelity against him were hurting his family.

All of the other candidates remained relatively flat.

Ron Paul took 9 percent, Rick Perry 6 percent, Michele Bachmann 6 percent, Rick Santorum 2 percent, and Jon Hunstman 1 percent.
It’s the latest poll to show Gingrich either neck and neck or ahead of Romney for the Republican presidential nomination.

The Gingrich surge has sustained its momentum despite the other GOP candidates, most notably Paul, having turned their sights on the former House Speaker, as well as a number of Gingrich’s former colleagues who have come out to blast him in the press.

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Confirmed: South Is Nation's Bible Belt

From Grits By Hastings Wyman/Southern Political Report ~ The Gallup Poll has confirmed what we already suspected, that the South is the nation’s Bible Belt.

According to results of a survey of 350,000 interviews, published in the Washington Post, when asked if religion is an important part of their daily lives, the top eleven states were all in the South.

The two Dixie stragglers -- both with lots of Yankees -- were Virginia and Florida, which ranked 16th and 23rd, respectively.

What’s more, although the South’s blacks and whites disagree on politics, they have one big thing in common: Both races in Dixie are very religious.

Here are the Southern states in order of religiosity, followed by the percentage who said religion is important in their daily lives: MS (85%); AL (82%); SC (80%); TN (79%); LA (78%); AR (78%); GA (76%); NC (76%); OK (75%); KY (74%); TX (74%); VA (68%); and FL (65%). Florida, the least religious state in Dixie, still equaled the national average of 65%.

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Gallup: Obama By 10, 52-42%

The latest Gallup Poll of likely voters shows Barack Obama at 52 percent, John McCain at 42 percent.

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Gallup: Presidential Race Far From Over

From Drudge: A new Gallup poll shows the race for president among likely voters essentially is a tie. The poll put Barack Obama at 49 percent, John McCain at 47 percent. The poll was released Thursday. Obama's two-point lead is within the poll's margin of error.

Developing....

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Gallup, Pew Find Top Race Tight Again

THE POLL: Gallup Poll Daily tracking, national presidential race among registered voters

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 48 percent, John McCain 44 percent

OF INTEREST: According to this poll, voters' views of the race have returned to about where they were for much of the summer, when Obama generally had a modest but consistent lead over McCain. The Republican caught Obama as the GOP convention ended in early September and McCain's lead in this survey reached as high as 5 percentage points. Obama, though, has regained a slender advantage.

DETAILS: Conducted Sept. 15-17 by landline and cellular telephone with 2,815 registered voters. Sampling error margin plus or minus 2 percentage points.

THE POLL: Pew Research Center, national presidential race among registered voters

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 46 percent, John McCain 44 percent

OF INTEREST: This poll, now showing an even contest, has changed little over the summer. Narrowed to likely voters, each candidate gets an even tighter 46 percent. Republicans are more excited than before the party conventions of late August and early September, though Obama's remain slightly more energized. McCain has cut Obama's edge for being more trusted on the economy _ voters' top issue _ from 15 percentage points in July to 9 points. People are still split about evenly over whether they think the Republican's policies will differ from those of the unpopular President Bush. Obama is still viewed as likelier than McCain to bring change to Washington.

DETAILS: Conducted Sept. 9-14 by landline and cellular telephone with 2,509 registered voters. Sampling error margin plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

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Gallup: With Bounce, McCain Leads Obama

John McCain has overtaken Barack Obama in the Gallup daily tracking poll and has his highest level of support in that poll since early May.

McCain leads Obama 48 percent to 45 percent among registered voters, by Gallup’s measure. McCain has so far earned the same convention bounce as Obama, though at a more rapid pace.

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Stunner: Obama Gets No 'Biden Bump' In Poll

PRINCETON, NJ-- It's official: Barack Obama has received no bounce in voter support out of his selection of Senator Joe Biden to be his vice presidential running mate.

Gallup Poll Daily tracking from August 23-25, the first three-day period falling entirely after Obama's Saturday morning vice presidential announcement, shows 46% of national registered voters backing John McCain and 44% supporting Obama, not appreciably different from the previous week's standing for both candidates.

This is the first time since Obama clinched the nomination in early June, though, that McCain has held any kind of advantage over Obama in Gallup Poll Daily tracking.

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