Thursday’s GOP debate may have been a disaster for Rick Perry, but it looks like an unabashed success for the pizza mogul, Herman Cain. Despite some early love from the tea party, he had so far failed to catch fire in the polls. However, the conservative sites RedState and Hot Air both pronounced him the winner of Thursday night’s debate. Now it seems he’s feeling the financial benefits.

It’s no surprise that many people went into conniptions over the story of the Justice Department’s $16 muffins. On the face of it there’s almost no better illustration of government spending run amok. However, TPM’s Ryan Reilly discovers there’s a slight problem: it’s not true.

We should start getting the results from the Florida GOP’s straw poll vote around 17:45E this evening. Perry had been expected to win it handsomely, but that was before Thursday night’s disastrous debate performance.

Of course, it never helps to give too much credit to these straw polls, but given the expectations that had been raised, if Perry doesn’t win this one it would be deeply embarrassing for his campaign.

You can follow all the fun leading up to the vote on TPM’s Livewire, which is today being manned by Evan McMorris-Santoro. And that should be your first place to turn for the results, and – indeed – the fallout.