Romney leads but Bachmann surges in new 2012 poll

Mitt Romney still holds a significant lead over his rivals in the 2012 GOP primary, but Michele Bachmann has surged into second place nationally.

A new Quinnipiac Poll finds Romney leading Bachmann by 11 points--25 percent to 14 percent among likely GOP voters. By comparison, Bachmann was in 6th place in a June Quinnipiac poll of 2012 GOP contenders, with just six percent support.

According to the poll, she's now statistically tied with Sarah Palin, who has 12 percent support in the latest poll. Rick Perry, who is openly considering a 2012 run, registers at 10 percent in the poll.

Other GOP hopefuls lag significantly behind, including Herman Cain (6 percent), Ron Paul (5 percent), Newt Gingrich (5 percent), Tim Pawlenty (3 percent), Jon Huntsman (1 percent) and Rick Santorum (1 percent).

While Bachmann's popularity maybe increasing nationally, she still doesn't perform as well as Romney when pitted against President Obama. According to the poll, Obama would easily beat Bachmann in a projected general election match-up, 50 percent to 38 percent.

Romney, meanwhile, is still losing to Obama, but not quite as badly. According to Quinnipiac, Obama leads Romney by six points--47 percent to 41 percent. The president also leads Palin (53 percent to 34 percent) and Perry (50 percent to 37 percent).