Herman Cain has had an up and down couple of months in the polls after practially bursting on to the scene out of no where. But, now, amid allegations of sexual abuse, his controversial stance on a number of key issues, including waterboarding and his own admission that he is not up on a lot of foreign affairs, his poll numbers have take a dive, opening the door for both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich to surge forward.

It wasn't long ago it was Texas Governor Rick Perry who found himself stumbling over a question during a GOP debate. That long, stammering pause followed by a wrong answer and then finally his admission that he did not know has also cost Perry in the polls but not nearly as dramatically. Perry had already dropped in the standings because of Cain's metoric rise and took a one percent drop in poll numbers following that brain blip moment.

For his part, Cain, who has been avoiding questions related to sexual harassment charges during interviews and the debates, did much the same thing. Early in his campaign, Cain admitted that his foreign policy was going to need a lot of work, going so far as to say that a president did not need a solid knowledge of foreign policy when he would have advisers that could explain things to him. At a meeting of the editorial board of the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, a question related to President Barack Obama's handling of the situation in Libya caused the former businessman some serious discomfort. After being asked if he approved of the way things were handled or not, Cain stalled, took a nearly ten second pause and appeared visibily nervous. He repeated the question, he said to clarify what was being asked, started to give one answer, then seemed to change his mind. In the end, he said that there was not a black or white answer to that question at all.

Cain's campaign spokesman, J.D. Gordon defended the candidate saying that Cain had been answering questions in the interview that had skipped from topic to topic for nearly an hour.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has held steady since the beginning of his campaign with the rest of the pack switching places back and forth. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich had been near the bottom of the pack and has now moved up by 14 points to overtake the second place.