Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney smiles before the start of the Republican Party of Florida presidential candidates debate in Orlando, Florida, September 22, 2011. 
 
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has regained his status as front-runner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination and one-time pizza executive Herman Cain has tripled his support to reach third place, a Fox News poll said on Wednesday. 
 
 As Republicans reacted to the three debates this month, Texas Governor Rick Perry slipped to second place with the support of 19 percent, a drop of 10 percentage points from a month ago, the poll of Republican primary voters found. 
 
 Perry became the instant front-runner when he launched his presidential campaign in mid-August, but his support has faded amid lackluster debate performances and withering attacks from his fellow Republicans. 
 
 Romney's backing among Republican primary voters held steady at 23 percent. And Cain, buoyed by strong debate performances and media attention after he won a Florida Republican party straw poll, rose to third, just behind Perry at 17 percent, to join the top tier of candidates. 
 
 Among other contenders, the most dramatic shift in support was the decline of Michele Bachmann to just 3 percent backing. In late August, the Minnesota congresswoman had the backing of 8 percent of Republican primary voters, and her high was 15 percent in July. 
 
 Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich regained some ground to hit 11 percent and Texas Congressman Ron Paul is at 6 percent support, versus 8 percent before the September debates, according to the survey. 
 
 A majority of those surveyed -- 63 percent -- said they are happy with the current field of Republican candidates. 
 
 Among all voters, Democratic President Barack Obama still leads all the Republican hopefuls, topping Romney by 3 points and Perry by 8 points, Fox News said. 
 
 The telephone poll of 925 registered voters was conducted from September 25 to September 27. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. 
 
 (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, editing by Anthony Boadle) ||||| Herman Cain said he could not support Rick Perry if he is the Republican nominee for president, citing a “basic fundamental difference of opinion” on border security. 
 
 “Today I could not support Rick Perry as the nominee for a host of reasons,” Cain told CNN host Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday. 
 
 “Him being soft on securing the border is one of the reasons. I feel very strongly about the need to secure the border for real, the need to enforce the laws that are already there, the need to promote the path to citizenship that’s already there,” Cain said. 
 
 In his book, “This is Herman Cain! My Road to the White House,” Cain slams Washington for an “inability” to deal with illegal immigration. 
 
 “It must occur legally, through the front door, not the side door or the back door,” Cain writes in the book, out next week. 
 
 Cain, who supported Mitt Romney in 2008, said he could support the former Massachusetts governor again if he committed to repeal Obamacare soon after taking office. 
 
 “If he stuck to that commitment, I could support him. But if in any way he wanted to compromise and go for a mandate, I couldn’t support him,” Cain said, referencing the issue considered Romney’s most significant political vulnerability. “But I believe that he has backed off that and he’s saying that he would repeal Obamacare.”
– Mitt Romney has regained his undisputed frontrunner status in the race for the Republican nomination, according to the latest Fox poll. The poll of Republican primary voters found Romney holding steady at 23%, while Rick Perry was down 10% from a month ago, dropping into second place with 19%, Reuters reports. Former pizza exec and Florida straw poll winner Herman Cain's support more than doubled, putting him in third place with 17%. Michele Bachmann's support is fading fast and she only has the support of 3% of GOP primary voters, leaving her behind Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, the poll found. If Cain ends up playing kingmaker, it looks like he'll be backing Romney instead of Perry, Politico notes. Cain told Wolf Blitzer last night that he couldn't support Perry for several reasons, including the Texas governor's stance on immigration, while he would be willing to back Romney if he promised to repeal Obamacare promptly.