Romney is the least-liked presidential contender since Bill Clinton

Though Mitt Romney has racked up five straight wins in recent weeks and hopes to take Ohio tomorrow, a new poll shows that he is the least liked presidential candidate in years. 

Romney and Santorum traded ten points in one week; Romney was at 29 percent while Santorum was at 36 on February 27, and today, Romney leads Santorum 34 percent to 31 percent, a Quinnipiac University poll showed.  

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But another poll released today illustrates some of the challenges that may face Romney in a general election. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed that Romney's favorability ratings keep dropping, and his unfavorability ratings keep rising. In January, 36 percent of respondents held an unfavorable view of Romney, and 31 percent held a favorable view. Now, it's 39 percent unfavorable and 28 percent favorable. According to MSNBC, that means "Romney’s image right now is worse than almost all other recent candidates who went on to win their party’s presidential nomination: Obama’s favorable/unfavorable ratio was 51/28 percent and John McCain’s was 47/27, in the March 2008 NBC/WSJ poll; John Kerry was at 42/30 at this point in 2004; George W. Bush was 43/32 in 2000; and Bob Dole was 35/39 in March 1996."

Only one person fared worse: Bill Clinton. In April 1992, his favorable/unfavorable ratio was at 32/43 percent. Clinton had been hounded by allegations of sexual misconduct with Gennifer Flowers, as well as accusations he evaded the Vietnam War draft.

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President Obama saw improvement in the recent WSJ/NBC poll. Optimism over the direction and state of the economy have helped push his approval rating to 50 percent, the highest since the death of Osama Bin Laden, MSNBC reported. He also beats Romney 50 to 44 percent in a general election matchup, by winning independents, women, and Midwesterners. His poll numbers also show him defeating contenders Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. MSNBC wrote: "Forty percent believe the economy will improve during the next year, a three-point increase from January. And looking back at the economic recession, 57 percent say that the worst is behind us, while 36 percent say the worst is still to come. Back in November, only 49 percent said the worst was behind us."

The Washington Post reports that Romney has been racking up many endorsements too, but few "front bench" conservatives. Eric Cantor, House majority leader, threw his weight behind Romney on Sunday, but the Post said Romney's lack of endorsements from other major GOP players is due to the fact that his nomination isn't yet viewed as inevitable. "The last thing any politician wants to do in this fervently anti-incumbent, anti-status quo environment is make it look as though they are playing an active role in circumventing the wishes of Republican voters," the paper wrote. "Why stick your neck out for a guy who might not even be the nominee?"