[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

Well, that is according to Zogby, which in my experience has not exactly been the most reliable poll.  Still, for what it’s worth (h/t The Blaze):

Herman Cain has opened up a 20 percentage point lead among likely Republican primary voters in the race for the Presidential nomination, and also holds a narrow lead among all likely voters over President Barack Obama.

Cains share of the GOP primary has jumped 10 percentage points since Sept. 26 and is now at 38%. Mitt Romney is second with 18%, followed by both Rick Perry and Ron Paul, at 12% each.

The Oct. 3-5 IBOPE Zogby interactive poll also matches Cain, Romney and Perry against Obama. Cain led Obama, 46%-44%, while Obama is one-point ahead of Romney, 41%-40%, and leads Perry, 45%-40%.

Probably the more significant long-term number there is how he polls against the President.  Maybe I am projecting my own beliefs onto Republicans, but the most important qualification is that the candidate can beat Obama.  I think Republicans care about this more than they have in a long time.  And truly the only person in the GOP field—including people who have not declared, even declared they were not running (like Christie and Palin)—that is so awful I might actually vote for Obama over him or her is Ron Paul.  And I said “might,”—I might still pull the lever for Paul rather than four more years of Obama.  We are literally at the “almost anything would be an improvement” stage.

Of course that poll number against Obama might be deceptive.  Just today at Hot Air we learn that nearly half of Americans can’t even name a single GOP contender:

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[Posted by Karl]

As usual, you are positively encouraged to engage in sockpuppetry in this thread. The usual rules apply.

Please, be sure to switch back to your regular handle when commenting on other threads. I have made that mistake myself.

And remember: the worst sin you can commit on this thread is not being funny.

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And for this week’s Friday Frivolity, Ben Domenech explains why people like John Weaver and Bob Shrum continue to get jobs as political consultants:

Roughly half these guys on the national level are below average at their jobs and generally suck. The real talent – the once in a generation talent – is at the state level, where a lot of the best people do great work, but do it for governors or other statewides. Because unlike the national players, they can actually go home to their families at night and they don’t spend 24 hours a day chained to their blackberries.

So if you’re in that half that sucks, the best way to stay in business and pay the bills is to latch on to one of two categories: crazy people who think they need to be president to save the country, and rich people who think they might be presidential. ***

RTWT.

–Karl