Poll: Cain 43 percent, Obama 41 percent

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Republican U.S. presidential hopeful Herman Cain has a 2 percentage point lead over President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 tilt, Rasmussen Reports said Monday.

The latest Rasmussen Reports survey of likely voters indicated Cain got 43 percent support to Obama's 41 percent. Eight percent said they prefer another candidate and another 8 percent said they were undecided.

Cain, a Georgia businessman, is the only Republican with an edge of any kind over Obama, although former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney held a similar advantage in several Rasmussen Report surveys. In the latest survey, Romney trails Obama by 2 percentage points.

"Cain now has the chance to make the case for why he should be the challenger to Mitt Romney," Rasmussen Reports President Scott Rasmussen said in a release. "Many others have auditioned for the role and fallen flat, and it remains to be seen whether Cain's fate will be similar."

Results are based on a nationwide telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters conducted Friday and Saturday. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.