Cain Gains Ground Among Republicans

I'm probably not the only person who's wondering just how the Republican presidential nominee race has changed now that Barbour, Huckabee, Trump, and Daniels have dropped out. And fortunately for us political junkies there are two new polls out to tell us what's going on so far. Some had thought Romney would have been helped by the drop-outs, but it doesn't look like that's happening -- at least not yet.

It looks like a couple of far-right fringe candidates are the main ones that have been helped -- Sarah Palin and Herman Cain (and maybe Michele Bachmann). Palin has jumped back up into second place and Cain (pictured) is starting to get some respectable numbers for the first time (while Bachmann jumped to second in one poll). Gingrich was not helped, but that's probably because of his constant shooting of his own foot. Here are the numbers for the polls:

GALLUP POLL (MAY 20-24)
Mitt Romney...............17%
Sarah Palin...............15%
Ron Paul...............10%
Newt Gingrich...............9%
Herman Cain...............8%
Tim Pawlenty...............6%
Michele Bachmann...............5%
Jon Huntsman...............2%
Gary Johnson...............2%
Rick Santorum...............2%
Other...............2%
No Opinion...............22%

INSIDERADVANTAGE POLL (May 23)
Mitt Romney...............16%
Michele Bachmann...............12%
Sarah Palin...............11%
Herman Cain...............11%
Tim Pawlenty...............7%
Newt Gingrich...............7%
Ron Paul...............5%
Other...............5%
No Opinion...............26%

As you can see, there is still no clear leader about to seperate himself/herself from the pack. In fact, in both polls the clear leader is "No Opinion". So even though it's becoming a little clearer just who the candidates are, the Republican voters have not made up their minds and the situation is still very fluid.