On Thursday, Zogby released a shocking poll finding Herman Cain twenty points ahead of Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential nominee race.
Despite this, Chris Matthews on the syndicated television show bearing his name this weekend did a ten minute segment about this race without mentioning Cain's name once (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHRIS MATTHEWS: First up, a year and a month from now we will either say yes to a new four-year term for President Obama or turn the job over to either Mitt Romney or Rick Perry. That's now what it looks like is the true choice. The latest polls are very tough for President Obama. 55 percent of voters say they do not believe he will win. So if you're Romney, on top in GOP polls, you might be very hopeful.
But not so fast, Mitt. Consider these reasons why it still could be Rick Perry. First, Perry’s got more debates to come. His big drop came after debate mistakes. Romney won three in a row and can't budge above 25 percent. What happens if Perry has a good debate? Also, Perry’s got cash to hang in there. He raised a hefty $17 million in just the first few weeks. And finally, so far, Mitt Romney’s not drinking the tea. Will his refusal to join the Tea Party lead them to Perry? And Dan, that's my big question. It looks like it's still a big fight on that side. Those two.
From that point forward, Matthews and guests Dan Rather, Katty Kay, Lizzie O'Leary, and Howard Fineman spent ten minutes discussing this race without the name Herman Cain ever coming up.
I guess they all missed this from Zogby Thursday:
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%.
So not only does Cain have a 20 point lead over Romney and a 26 point lead over Perry, he's also the only one of the three leading Obama in a head-to-head matchup.
Yet not one of these five so-called journalists in a ten minute discussion about this race mentioned his name once.
Seems almost impossible unless a decision had been made before the cameras started rolling for this to happen.
Nice job, Chris. You're one heck of a newsman.
