Everybody has noticed certain trends in the recent Republican polls: Herman Cain up, Rick Perry down, Mitt Romney back in the lead. But the recent polling data also shows Newt Gingrich up slightly, enough to have him hovering just outside the top three and ahead of Ron Paul in most polls. Gingrich also did well in the state-level polls I blogged about yesterday.

I suspect this will be good enough to keep Gingrich in the race at least until Iowa, possibly New Hampshire or South Carolina. I’m less certain he’ll have the money or organization to do much with these poll numbers once the votes actually count, but we’ll see. My guess is that Gingrich’s strategy of attacking the moderators at recent GOP debates rather than his fellow candidates has proved more popular with Republican voters than people covering the campaign.