Fox News poll: 2012 Obama-Romney race would be tight

[Drunken Irishman]

83. No one knows that...

But Romney is getting about as much free press as he'll get in this campaign. Generally, when one party is in the process of picking its nominee, they receive relative good numbers against the sitting president. Kerry, at this point eight years ago, led Bush, and in some instances the lead was by a sizable margin (7 points).

Why? Because the focus is almost entirely on the candidate as he wraps up victories. Obama is president, but he's not getting near the spotlight as Romney. So, it shouldn't be a surprise people would consider this his high watermark because once it's mano a mano, Romney's numbers are unlikely to rise and more likely to fall (as was the case for Kerry in '04 and Dole in '96 - whose high numbers were earlier in the year).