Obama is pulling away from Romney

I have long said this election will not be close, that it will be a 1996 style reelection for Obama at best, or a 2004 style reelection at worst. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that while Mitt Romney has solidified his position for the Republican nomination and now leads Newt Gingrich by a substantial margin, 39% to 23%, President Obama has also soldified his position for reelection against Mitt Romney. Obama now leads Romney 51% to 45%.

Fifty percent of Americans in this new ABC News/Washington Post poll approve of Obama’s job performance, the most since spring. Fifty percent say he deserves re-election, better than Bill Clinton at the start of his re-election year and as good as George W. Bush a month before he won a second term. […]

Two chief factors are at play. One is the economy’s gradual but unmistakable improvement, marked by the newly reported January unemployment rate of 8.3 percent, the lowest since a month after Obama took office. The president’s approval rating on handling the economy, while just 44 percent, is its best in 13 months.

The other: questions focused on Romney’s wealth, his low tax burden and, relatedly, his ability to connect with average Americans. Notably, 52 percent in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, say the more they hear about Romney the less they like him – double the number who like him more.

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.

That’s the election right there, in that last paragraph. If Obama keeps those numbers the same for the rest of this campaign, then he will be reelected quite easily.