ROMNEY GAINS AMONG WOMEN VOTERS – AT 8:15 A.M. ET:  Mitt Romney is rapidly closing the gender gap, which is bad news for the White House.  From The Hill:

Mitt Romney has significantly narrowed the gender gap with President Obama despite massive Democratic attacks on the GOP over a variety of issues.

As recently as April, Obama led Romney by 18 percent among women voters in a USA Today/Gallup poll of 12 swing states. The huge advantage with women gave Obama an overall edge of 9 percent.

Recent polls show Romney has sliced into that lead.

In the same USA Today/Gallup poll from early May, the president’s lead among women was cut to 12 percent, reducing Obama’s overall swing state lead to 2. A CNN-ORC poll released this month showed Obama’s lead among women nationally was down to 3 percent, 49 percent to 46, and equal to the president’s overall lead in that poll.

A majority of women have voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election going back to 1980. But with the candidates in a dead heat nationally, and neck and neck among male voters, President Obama can’t afford for the gap among women voters to narrow much more.

Romney’s improving fortunes among women has also helped to negate one of the more worrisome trends his campaign faced during the primary season – his historically low favorability rate. According to historical data from ABC News-Washington Post polling, Romney is the only modern-day candidate to have a negative approval rating through the end of May in an election year.

However, this month’s CNN-ORC poll showed Romney inching toward positive ground, at 42 percent favorable and 44 unfavorable, and he went positive for the first time in a Gallup poll released Wednesday, at 44 positive and 42 negative.

COMMENT:  Romney is a methodical, plodding candidate, but so far his approach is paying off.  If it leads to victory, we're all for plodding. 

One thing Romney is doing is replying vigorously to every attack, and staying constantly on message.  At this rate he may even start to generate some real enthusiasm.  Members of the president's political team were recently spotted with increasing patches of gray hair.

June 7,  2012