...except I'm not so sure this whole "positive intensity" thing isn't overblown.
Gallup picks up an interesting quirk in their polling:
Newly announced presidential candidate Herman Cain, although still not widely known, has the highest Positive Intensity Score among Republicans of any potential GOP candidate still in the race. The positioning of two other candidates who have recently announced presidential bids -- Tim Pawlenty and Ron Paul -- has not changed. Both have average or below-average appeal among Republicans. Newt Gingrich's Positive Intensity Score is below average, and is down from the week prior.
Georgian Cain, former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, officially announced his presidential candidacy on Saturday. His Positive Intensity Score of 27 matches the highest yet recorded for any candidate or potential candidate this year. Cain's name recognition among Republicans remains quite low -- at 33%, better than only Gary Johnson's 20% and Jon Huntsman's 27% -- but has climbed 12 points since March.
I'm not going to go nuts about this quite yet. (I know, I know, this is coming at the height of CainMania among a lot of conservatives I know, but bear with me.) Right now, the people who like Cain really really like him. He's like an low budget independent film that only a handful of people go to see, but they really, really like it. Word of mouth can spread, and next thing you know, he turns into the Blair Witch Project.
But the more likely scenario is still that he's the indy film that people like passionately, but just doesn't have enough appeal to become a part of the zeitgeist. Let's say, Hard Candy. Perfectly respectable movie, possibly superior to Blair Witch in a number of ways, but it just doesn't permeate as much.
To avoid stretching this metaphor, let me just warn that it's not set in stone that as Republicans learn more about him, they'll like him more. It could be the opposite - that the more people see Herman and the more Herman talks, the more people hear things they don't like. And the "see, he learns from his mistakes" spin aside, he didn't have a good week, message-wise.
Don't get me wrong, I'd rather be him than Gary Johnson, who very few people know, and those who do don't like him. But I would probably rather be Michelle Bachmann a bit more. She has a positive intensity score just a few points lower than Cain, but with much higher name recognition overall, and with a presidential announcement still forthcoming, may even have a bit more upside.