Curious poll: Herman Cain leads the GOP field

I don't usually put a lot of faith in Zogby polls, but this would have to be pretty skewed for it not to suggest that Herman Cain is gaining serious ground in the GOP presidential field.  According to Zogby, Cain now sits comfortably in the lead of the GOP pack with 28%, followed by Rick Perry and Mitt Romney with 18 and 17%.  I knew Cain's debate performance would likely garner him some new supporters, but not that many!

Human Events' John Hayward does a nice job summing up my skepticism:

As always with poll news, the usual caveats apply: it’s one poll, it might be an outlier, Zogby’s accuracy has been questioned in the past, et cetera. Still, these numbers reflect the general shape of the race pretty well: Perry started big but fizzled fast, Romney’s been playing a careful game built around damage control, Paul’s got a loyal following but can’t reach beyond it.

I’d have guessed Cain would rank a bit lower than his Zogby numbers until now, but he had one of the best weekends a candidate could ask for in Orlando, and Zobgy’s poll is telling us the same thing the Florida straw poll did. It will be interesting to compare the first batch of polls from various sources to reflect that straw poll, and Cain’s reaction to it.