Gingrich rises in new presidential poll

The rise of New Gingrich has turned the Republican presidential race into a two-man affair, but a third of GOP voters say they're still undecided, a poll finds.A Harris poll released Friday indicated with Republicans Sarah Palin, Michele Bachman, Rick Perry and Herman Cain effectively out of the presidential running, the primary has turned into a contest between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Gingrich. The survey indicates if it stayed a two-man race, 40 percent of Republicans would vote for Gingrich and 30 percent for Romney, with 30 percent undecided. With the Iowa caucus looming large, Gingrich may be nosing ahead in the primary race, but Romney would make it a closer race against President Obama, the poll indicates. If the presidential election were held today, 43 percent of Americans would vote for President Obama and 40 percent said they would vote for Mitt Romney, with 17 percent unsure. In that same match-up 45 percent of Americans would vote for President Obama over 38 percent for Newt Gingrich with the same 17 percent unsure, the poll indicated. Adding to Republican woes is a poll conducted by the Pew Center finding the Republican Party being blamed more than Democrats for a do-nothing Congress.A record-high 50 percent of those surveyed said the current Congress has gotten less done than other recent Congresses. Those surveyed blame Republican leaders more than Democratic leaders for this by a nearly 2-to-1 (40 percent to 23 percent) margin, the Pew study found. The survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press was conducted Dec. 7-11 among 1,521 adults with no margin of error reported. The Harris Poll conducted by Harris Interactive surveyed 2,237 adults online Dec. 5-12. Harris did not provide a margin of error, saying the term is misleading.