Latest poll puts Ron Paul in first-place tie

Less than two months before the Iowa caucuses occur — the next monumental step in the course of events leading up to the Republican Party makes their nomination for the presidency — Texas Congressman Ron Paul has taken the lead in the latest poll.

According to the results of the latest poll from Bloomberg News, Paul is neck-and-neck with pizzaman Herman Cain, with the two candidates coming in with 19 percent and 20 percent of the vote, respectively, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.Former frontrunner and Texas Governor Rick Perry falls to place in the top three according to the latest poll, surely a result of last week’s slip-up during a televised debated hosted by CNBC. “We fish from the same pot as Perry sometimes,” campaign chairman Jesse Benton told Politico following Perry’s mistake last week, in which the candidate couldn’t come up with the three areas of government he intended to abolish as president of the United States. According to Paul’s camp, Perry posed quite the competition for the libertarian icon. With the Texas governor slipping in the polls, top-billing was open for Paul to pursue.“For the first time in this race he looked comfortable and confident in giving answers, but none of that will be remembered. Instead we will remember him searching for words and relying on Ron Paul to bail him out,” Craig Robinson said after Perry’s disastrous debate slip-up in the Washington Post.Paul resurgence comes despite a serious lack of attention from the mainstream media, who have time and time again downplayed the candidate’s campaign, instead offering coverage to other candidates such as Herman Cain and Mitt Romney. During last week’s debate, CNBC only awarded Paul 89 seconds to respond to questions during the televised portion of the event. According to the latest polling from Bloomberg, however, that might have been enough to give Paul the most powerful chance at the White House yet. “If I were Romney and Perry, I would be thinking of a way to get Ron Paul off the stage because he is a distraction,” Republican strategist Bradley Blakeman explained to Fox Business in earlier in the race. In Bloomberg’s latest polling, Paul also places first in support from likely Iowa caucus-goers in regards to his stance on healthcare. Congressman Paul collected 32 percent of the votes, with Mitt Romney coming in with only 25 percent. Overall, Romney received 18 percent of the vote and Gingrich 17, creating a nearly neck-and-neck race for first place billing. Paul has previously won straw polls in Ohio, California and South Carolina. The caucuses in Iowa are slated to begin in early January.