According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, Mitt Romney is now the weakest presumptive presidential nominee in nearly 30 years.
Furthermore, the gender gap, the gap between Democratic and Republican support among women, is widening. Not shrinking.
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.
Thirty-five percent of Americans see Romney favorably, while 47 percent have an unfavorable opinion of the former Massachusetts governor. He's the first likely nominee to be underwater -- seen more unfavorably than favorably -- in ABC/Post polls in eight presidential primary seasons over the past 28 years.
Romney's gender gap in vote preferences in an ABC/Post poll last week -- he trailed Obama by 19 percentage points among women -- is reflected in his new favorability scores as well. Just 27 percent of women see Romney favorably, compared with 44 percent of men -- his lowest rating to date among women, and highest among men, in a dozen ABC/Post polls since September.
Meanwhile, Gallup and Fox News are unabashedly manipulating their polls to give Mitt Romney an advantage which doesn't actually exist.
Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans nationally, but recent Gallup and Fox News polls were calculated as if seven million Democrats vanished and seven million Republicans joined the rolls overnight. The net result is giving Romney a two point advantage. An advantage that doesn't really exist.