Obama tops Romney in new poll

By Michael J.W. Stickings

A new WaPo-ABC poll shows Obama up 51-45 over Romney among registered voters nationally. The gap is even wider among Americans generally.

It's obviously still very early, and it's still just hypothetical at this point, but it's certainly encouraging that the president is over the 50 mark. And of course this is before he has started his campaign in earnest -- and we know how good he is on the campaign trail, where he can make a persuasive case for himself without having to govern from his technocratic center.

And, too, this is before most voters get to know Romney, a gaffe-prone shell of a human being (at least in candidate form, a robot politician) who comes across as, because he is, a rich and privileged douchebag who wants to be president so as to make life even more profitable for the super-rich like himself at the expense of everyone else, and who, try as he might, just can't relate to, or connect with, ordinary folk. Just wait for the awkward interviews with the Katie Courics of the popular news media. People already like him less the more they know him. That's likely only going to get worse for him as we go along, with the spotlight shining brighter and brighter, and with the real Mitt being exposed for all to see.