The opening of some new analysis on a poll conducted for ABC and the Washington Post said it all: “Mitt Romney has emerged from the Republican primary season with the weakest favorability rating on record for a presumptive presidential nominee in ABC News/Washington Post polls since 1984, trailing a resurgent Barack Obama in personal popularity by 21 percentage points.”
Within the numbers, it’s not as bad for Romney as among registered voters as it is among all Americans ABC/WaPo polled — the former Massachusetts governor’s favorability rating in the registered group is 40 percent against 48 percent unfavorable. But that number is in stark contrast to President Obama’s favorability measure, at a positive 54 – 43 split among voters. ABC provided the counter point for Romney:
Still, Romney can point to previous turnarounds. His favorable score is just a whisker from the previous low, Bill Clinton’s 37 percent in March 1992, in a race Clinton went on to win. But Clinton was damaged at the time by the Gennifer Flowers scandal and aided by soft ratings of the first President Bush, who was seen unfavorably by 47 percent, matching Romney’s negative rating among all adults today.
The TPM Poll Average shows Romney’s favorability underwater by 8.1 percent.
