By MICHAEL FALCONE
This was supposed to be Mitt Romney's week. Back-to-back wins in Florida and Nevada have helped to cement him as the all-but-certain Republican nominee.
Instead, the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll points to President Obama as the biggest winner of the GOP primary contest.
President Obama has snuck ahead of Romney among registered voters, 51 percent to 45 percent. What's more, 50 percent of voters in the new poll approve of Obama's job performance and the same percentage say he deserves re-election. http://abcn.ws/z3pXsy
"Two chief factors are at play," according to ABC News pollster Gary Langer. "One is the economy's gradual but real unmistakable improvement, marked by the newly reported January unemployment rate of 8.3 percent - the lowest since a month after Obama took office. The other: questions focused on Romney's wealth, his low tax burden and, relatedly, his ability to connect with average Americans."
Here's a worrisome marker for the former Massachusetts governor: Fifty-two percent of those polled said the more they hear about Romney the less they like him.
ABC's senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper dug into the details of the new poll on "Good Morning America" today. "The more the American people hear about Mitt Romney, the more they don't like," Tapper noted, adding this caveat: the White House "is taking nothing for granted. They know there's probably going to be another valley ahead. But this is going to be a very tight race assuming Romney is the nominee." WATCH: http://abcn.ws/xOTCtW
POLL SNAPSHOTS from ABC pollster Gary Langer:
ROMNEY AND HIS WEALTH: "Based on his roughly 14 percent tax rate on 2010 income of about $22 million, the public by a broad 66-30 percent says Romney is not paying his fair share of taxes; even nearly half of Republicans say so, as do half of very conservative Americans. The public by 53-36 percent, a 17-point margin, thinks Obama better understands the economic problems people are having. Obama leads Romney by 55-37 percent in trust to better protect the interests of the middle class, and remarkably, by 10 points, 52-42 percent, in trust to handle taxes."
