Cain and Pawlenty In, Daniels Out

Quite a bit of movement in the GOP field over the last week or two. Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee, and now Mitch Daniels declared they are not running for the presidential nomination, joining Harley Barbour in that club.

On the other hand, Herman Cain and Tim Pawlenty have joined Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, Mitt Romney, and Jon Huntsman as either declared or almost certain-to-declare candidates. Two other Republicans may yet jump in: Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin.

Politico's Mike Allen quotes Republican operative Ed Gillespie as saying the field is now set; i.e., that the eventual Republican nominee will come from this group.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels' decision not to run was considered to be a big deal because a lot of party insiders backed him. He claimed that family considerations weighed into his decision not to make the race. But Daniels had a formidable challenge in front of him had he decided to jump in, given that he was known by only 35% of Republicans as of last week (May 15).

The Washington Post's Karen Tumulty and Dan Balz characterize the race as Mitt Romney and everybody else.

Romney is, along with Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, in a group of three individuals with the highest name identification among Republicans of any of the current field of candidates. He ties Sarah Palin on our recalculated ballot in which Trump and Huckabee's supporters' second choices are used. So if Palin is out, then Romney does slightly better on the trial heat than anyone else. But Romney's Positive Intensity Score as we measure it at Gallup is not unusually high. He does not lead on that dimension. He does not generate a lot of excitement among his fellow Republicans.

We will have our weekly update Tuesday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. ET on our latest tracking data on the GOP field. I will be particularly interested in looking at how Newt Gingrich has fared over the last week after his Sunday, May 15, Meet the Press appearance; whether or not Herman Cain or Tim Pawlenty have picked up name identification in a week in which they were more frequently in the news than previously; and whether any of the so-called "major" candidates have been able to generate any enthusiasm close to that measured for the now departed Mike Huckabee, or for Herman Cain or Michele Bachmann.