ORC International for CNN. 10/14-16. Republican primary voters. ±5%. (9/23-25 results.)
Romney: 26 (22)
Cain: 25 (9)
Perry: 13 (30)
Paul: 9 (7)
Gingrich: 8 (11)
Bachmann: 6 (6)
Santorum: 2 (3)
Huntsman: 1 (1)
While Cain's meteoric rise and Perry's precipitous fall continue to be the big areas of movement, Romney finally gets some upward movement in a poll. It's not huge, but hey, it's four points. But for a guy the GOP establishment desperately wants to anoint as the inevitable one, his continued inability to rise above the rest of the field is notable. Check out his numbers over time relative to the support for other candidates:
As you can see, despite the topsy-turvy nature of GOP preferences in this election cycle, Mitt Romney's level of support in the polls is fairly constant—as is the collective level of support for his rivals. And even though 67% of Republicans surveyed said they were open to changing their mind, the thing they seem most interested in doing is figuring oujt which candidate not named Mitt Romney that they want to support.