Twitter Poll: GOP Primary -- Week Ending 12/18/2011

The standings look pretty much like you think they do:

Gingrich, Paul and Romney remain the front runners:

 But Perry, Bachmann and even Huntsman have been flirting with a new surge:

And, while Ron Paul is still off in his own little world, the population of that world is starting to look competitive.

Twitter Poll: GOP Primary -- Week Ending 12/3/2011

Newt Gingrich has a solid lead:

While Cain appears strong in the snapshot above, his high numbers this week are a mirage brought about by affair accusations and speculation about his Saturday announcement. The timing of his bumps this week supports this analysis:

The actual Cain numbers probably approximate the trough in the 7-day rolling trend -- and no doubt continue to fall:

The mention space has become more muddled, not less. It appears that much of the GOP base are still talking about multiple candidates; and a surprising number of politically engaged GOP tweeps are not talking about any of the candidates.

In the subtext: Watch Rick Santorum in Iowa and Ron Paul in New Hampshire.