Romney the Only Electable Candidate … CNN Poll Has Rick Perry in the Lead When it comes to Electability

For all those folks that said that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the only GOP candidate that was electable …. NOT SO FAST!

A recent CNN poll has Texas Gov. Rick Perry at the top of the list of Republican candidates that can beat President Barack Obama in 2012. Perry has a double digit lead over Romney. It would appear that Perry’s numbers are holding from the point when he entered the race. Several pundits said that he would have an initial surge and then come back to the pack. That has not happened. Perry’s camapign has legs and the polling data supports it.

Full poll results.

And according to a CNN/ORC International Poll, what appears to be Perry’s greatest strength – the perception among Republicans that he is the candidate with the best chance to beat President Barack Obama in 2012 – seems to be exactly what the GOP rank and file are looking for.

The survey, released Monday morning, indicates that 30 percent of Republicans and independents who lean toward the GOP support Perry for their party’s nomination, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 18 percent. Romney, who’s making his second bid for the White House, had been leading the list of Republican candidates in the national polls, but since Perry launched his campaign a month ago he’s jumped ahead of Romney to capture the top spot.