Among Americans Who Have Heard, Higher Percentage Believe Cain Allegations True

According to Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, Americans who have heard "a lot" or "a little" about the sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain are more likely than not to believe that those allegations are true. 39 percent of these respondents believe the allegations are true, compared with 24 percent who believe the claims are false; 36 percent say they don't know or refuse to answer. 51 percent of Americans say they have heard of the allegations "a lot," with an additional 24 percent saying they have heard of them "a little."

Among those who have heard of the allegations, a plurality (43%) say the media coverage has been fair. 24 percent say coverage has been too tough; 14 percent that it has been too easy; and 18 percent say they don't know or neglect to answer. Unsurprisingly, Pew found that partisanship has an impact on respondents' views on the issue: "Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say they think the allegations are true." Republicans, however, "are more likely to say media coverage has been too tough."

Interestingly, although there was no noticeable difference in responses based on gender for the total population, responses were visibly different along gender lines among GOP and Republican-leaning respondents. Pew writes that "among Republican and Republican-leaners, women are more likely than men to say they think the allegations are false. Among GOP women who have heard about the story, more say the allegations are false (46%) than true (24%) by nearly a two-to-one margin. Among GOP men, impressions are divided about equally (34% true, 33% false)."

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One-Word Reactions To GOP Candidates Favor Herman Cain; Perry Draws the Most Ire

A recent survey that asked Americans to describe leading GOP leaders "in a single word" found that Herman Cain was viewed in the most favorable terms. Americans most frequently associated Cain with his proposed "9-9-9" tax plan, followed by his ties to business and 23 respondents who found him "interesting." Romney was most closely associated with his religion, Mormonism, and his work on health care, and Rick Perry was most often identified with his home state of Texas.

While nearly as many (12%) respondents used positive words as negative words (14%) to describe Cain, a higher percentage of respondents used negative words and not positive ones to describe both Romney (21% versus 11%) and Perry (25% versus 6%). But while the negative continued to outweigh the positive for Perry when the respondent group was limited to Republicans and GOP-leaners, with 19% using a negative word and only 9% a positive one, both Cain and Romney received more positive than negative feedback among their party's political base. Still, the support for Romney (18% positive versus 15% negative) was less impressive than that for Cain (22% versus 5%).In addition, the survey found that "many Americans are unable to come up with words to describe the three GOP candidates. Nearly half (46%) did not offer a one-word description of Cain, 44% did not offer a word to describe Perry and 37% did not have a one-word description of Romney." The survey was conducted by the Pew People & the Press and The Washington Post from October 13-16; its respondent population was 1,007 adults.

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