President 2012 Poll Watch: Rick Perry and Herman Cain Gain in GOP Field – Perry the CLEAR Front-Runner

Herman Cain and Rick Perry continue to generate strongly favorable impressions among Republicans familiar with them. Meanwhile, those familiar with Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, and Ron Paul express less intensely positive opinions of those candidates now than at any point this year. The result is a clear separation of 12 percentage points between the top and middle tiers of Republican presidential candidates in Gallup’s Positive Intensity Score from Aug. 15-28 Gallup Daily tracking. The average Positive Intensity Scores show much smaller gaps between the current top- and middle-tier candidates.

Two potential candidates included in the measurement, Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani, fall between the middle and top tiers, with current scores of 16 and 17, respectively.

Of all the candidates Gallup tracks, Jon Huntsman has the lowest score, 1. That is also his personal low, and he is one of four candidates, along with Romney, Bachmann, and Paul, to have a personal low in the current data. Newt Gingrich, still mired in the lower tier of candidates with Huntsman and Paul, has shown some improvement in his score in recent weeks, now 7 after descending to 1 at the end of July.

So, what does this all mean?

Texas Governor Rick Perry is solidfying his front-runner status in this race. Governor Perry is the CLEAR front-runner at this point.

Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann are starting to fade and the rest of the field are non-starters.

Game over for Perry – unless there is some monumental gaffe.

The Chart: