Better hope Newt sent a gift basket (or something nice from Tiffany?) to Herman Cain. By stepping out of the race, the Atlantan and former pizza king directed a GOP surge Gingrich’s way. A New York Times/CBS News poll declares Newt the front runner in Iowa. A Washington Post/ABC News poll reached the same verdict.
But this campaign season has seen a series of front-runner surges. (Anyone remember the Perry wave? The Bachmann crest? The Santorum swell? Uh, maybe not that last one.) Polling tops today doesn’t translate to victory in January’s Iowa caucuses. The NYT’s Jeff Zeleny and Marjorie Connelly caution:
Only 30 percent of likely caucusgoers say that they had been contacted by the Gingrich campaign, raising questions about his ability to identify his supporters and lure them to more than 1,600 precinct caucus locations on a winter night.
