CNN: Perry leads by 8

[Likely Voter]

This poll also shows that the media narrative and 3 bad debates have barely dented Perry's poll numbers which are down only a couple points from CNN's poll from a month ago. By all accounts Romney has had a great month. He has performed well at the debates and the only one attacking him is Perry, with the rest mostly focusing on Perry so he hasn't had to deal with the piling-on like Perry has, and yet Romney still is only at 21% (3% less than his high mark in CNN poll in June).

We wont have a better picture until polling comes out from IA and SC to show if Perry has lost ground in those two key states, but I suspect he is still leading in both.

But the campaign really doesnt start until the air war starts and Perry's Super PACs are going to go hard after Romney (and anyone in IA and SC that they see as a threat). The notion that it is over for Perry is just silly.

[Likely Voter]

RCP has Perry up by 7. Perhaps that's registered voters.

I would like to mention, though it's still a substantial lead, Romney has almost cut the lead in half from two weeks ago - two weeks ago CNN had him trailing Perry by 12.

Its is the difference between with or w/o Palin

Perry lead
Poll:       Sept. 23-25 / Sept. 9-11
w/ Palin:   +7  /  +12
w/o Palin:  +8   /  +11

Being that the w/o Palin numbers are more important, then Perry has a +8 (down from +11). Not good, but not dire