5 Reasons Your Leading Candidate's Losing

WASHINGTON (MainStreet) -- The 2012 presidential election can't be won in October 2011.

That hasn't prevented the 2012 presidential hopefuls and the news outlets that follow them from trying to persuade the American public otherwise. Republican pizza man Herman Cain won a straw poll in Florida? Good for him. Texas Gov. Rick Perry works to regain his lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney from polling the month before? Good luck, Rick.

President Barack Obama would have beaten Perry by five to 11 points were the election held last month, according to USA Today, Rassmussen, Reuters, Bloomberg and Public Policy Polling numbers? The White House must be relieved.

It's not that the numbers don't matter at this point in the campaign. Ask former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty how he felt about them just before ending his short-lived shot at the presidency. See if Jon Huntsman's momentum has improved after routinely polling at 1% to 2% among the Republican field.

Similarly, it's impossible to use early numbers to anoint a candidate president-, senator-, congressman- or comptroller-apparent or even as the favorite to win their party's nomination when the general election is more than a year away.

This doesn't prevent candidates from pockmarking political history with preemptive celebrations and war chests full of unwarranted hubris. In an attempt to briefly interrupt the political world's big-budget game of make-believe, we compiled five examples of the funny things that have happened to political favorites on the way to the party conventions and polling stations. The results don't bode well for this fall's frontrunners: