Election 2012: Obama 42%, Cain 39%

Georgia businessman Herman Cain has pulled within three points of President Obama in the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters.

The latest 2012 hypothetical matchup finds the president earning 42% support, while Cain picks up 39% of the vote. Seven percent (7%) prefer some other candidate, and 12% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The latest results represent the best showing for Cain who appears to be experiencing a surge of support among Republican voters. Late last month, the former radio host trailed the president 39% to 34%.  Obama held a seven-point lead a month earlier and led Cain by 18 points in March. 

Cain draws support from 70% of Republican voters, while Obama picks up the vote from 79% of Democrats. Voters not affiliated with either party are evenly divided between the candidates. Eighty-five percent (85%) of Tea Party voters support Cain, but 55% of non-members prefer Obama.

Voters aren’t well versed on Cain’s “9-9-9” tax reform plan, but most agree that if it becomes law, Congress won’t wait long to raise the tax rates higher.  Fifty-six percent (56%) of GOP voters favor Cain's plan, but 66% of all voters think Congress would raise tax rates within five to 10 years of the plan's adoption.

Cain acknowledged and addressed that concern in an interview with Scott Rasmussen on The Rasmussen Report on radio. The candidate said his plan would require a two-thirds vote in Congress to raise taxes. Click here to listen to the interview. 

The president leads all of the current GOP hopefuls except former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney with whom he is essentially tied. New numbers on the Romney-Obama match-up will be released tomorrow. 

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on October 6-7, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.