A big old CNN poll suggests that Herman Cain has taken a huge tumble. The Washington Examiner says:

According to the survey, Mitt Romney remains in the lead, although just barely, with 24 percent support. Newt Gingrich is in second place, with 22 percent, and Cain is third, with 14 percent. The Georgia businessman is barely ahead of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is in fourth place with 12 percent.

That would seem to make sense, especially given Cain's terrible performance in Saturday's foreign policy debates. But polls are still not entirely relevant in this race: What matters are the first three states that will vote in 2012. Daily Kos says that in a poll taken over the weekend, Herman Cain still leads in Iowa, just barely, over Gingrich, with Romney at a distant third.

Meanwhile, Politico says that some conservatives are finally coming around to the fact that even though they hate his living guts, Romney is going to win the nomination. Here's Red State founder Erick Erickson:

“Mitt Romney will be the nominee because the other candidates, right now, are a pretty pathetic lot,” Erickson said. “As much as the American public does not like Barack Obama, they loath[e] a man so fueled with ambition that he will say or do anything to get himself elected. Mitt Romney is that man.”

To shore up those conservative credentials, Mitt Romney has just brought a few of George W. Bush's energy advisers onto his campaign.