SALON

Wednesday, Nov 2, 2011 4:41 PM UTC

Poll: Sexual harassment story may be helping Cain

With Rush, Hannity and the rest screaming "high-tech lynching," Herman Cain opens a double-digit lead over Mitt

By

Topics: War Room,

Poll: Sexual harassment story may be helping CainHerman Cain(Credit: AP/Patrick Semansky)

A new poll conducted in the key Republican primary state of South Carolina on Tuesday night — after two full days of saturation media coverage of the Herman Cain sexual harassment saga, in other words — shows the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO opening a double-digit lead over Mitt Romney, 33 to 23 percent.

Before we go any further, let’s get to the disclaimers: 1) The poll was conducted by Rasmussen, which doesn’t have the best reputation; and 2) the Cain story is fast-moving and still evolving, with details of past settlements beginning to emerge and one of his accusers now looking to speak out. It’s a volatile situation, in other words, and it’s too soon to know what the impact on Cain’s candidacy will be.

That said, the numbers suggest that the aggressive efforts of conservative media personalities like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham to portray Cain as the victim of a smear by a liberal media establishment that feels threatened by black conservatives may be resonating with the GOP base, no matter how ludicrous they are. This is particularly interesting when you consider that the conservative punditocracy has not been unanimous in this interpretation of the story. Karl Rove, for instance, has been arguing that Cain’s handling of the story — his failure to have a strategy for dealing with it despite knowing for 10 days that it was coming and the shifting answers he’s provided this week — raises questions about his readiness for the national spotlight.

The Rasmussen poll also shows Newt Gingrich moving into third place in South Carolina, with 15 percent. This dovetails with a national poll of Republican voters released by Quinnipiac University this morning that finds Gingrich in third place with 10 percent, behind Romney (23 percent) and Cain (30 percent), suggesting that the former House speaker may be best positioned to move up if Cain falters. (Quinnipiac’s survey was conducted in the last week of October, just before the Cain story broke.)

We’ll have a better sense of the story’s impact on the GOP race over the next few days, when more established polling outlets begin reporting data of their own. At the very least, though, the Rasmussen numbers indicate that the whiff of scandal will not by itself shake Republican voters from their flirtations with Cain.

Steve Kornacki

Steve Kornacki writes about politics for Salon. Reach him by email at SKornacki@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @SteveKornacki More Steve Kornacki.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 31 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

War Room is our political news and commentary blog, with coverage and commentary throughout the day.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
139 points140 points | comment
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
123 points124 points | 12 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
117 points118 points | 85 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
105 points106 points | 29 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
74 points75 points | 19 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations