With Mitt Romney poised to accept the Republican nomination for president on Thursday, the results of an ABC News/Washington Post poll show the former Massachusetts Governor with the lowest favorability rating of a major-party nominee in over thirty years.
The poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, showed that 40 percent of registered voters have a favorable view of Romney, while 51 percent have an unfavorable view.
Romney's favorability rating is the lowest for a major-party nominee since before the 1984 election between Walter Mondale and Ronald Reagan.
President Barack Obama is viewed somewhat more favorably, with 50 percent saying they have a favorable view of the president compared to 47 percent that have an unfavorable view.
However, ABC noted that since 1984 only President George H.W. Bush in 1988 had a favorability rating as low as Obama's and went on to win the presidency.
A separate USA Today/Gallup poll showed that both the Republican and Democratic parties also have relatively low favorability ratings.
The poll showed that 44 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the Republican Party, while 50 percent have an unfavorable view of the GOP.
Similarly, the Democratic Party is viewed favorably by 43 percent of Americans and unfavorably by 52 percent of Americans.
Although the favorability ratings for both parties are roughly even, the rating for the Republican Party is similar to where it stood before the conventions kicked off in 2008, while the rating for the Democratic Party is eleven percentage points lower.
The decrease in favorability for the Democratic Party is partly due to a notable drop in the party's favorability rating among Independents.
Meanwhile, decreases in the Republican Party's favorability among young and non-white Americans have been offset by increases in favorability among older and white Americans.
The ABC News/Washington Post survey of 814 registered voters was conducted August 22nd through 26th and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
The USA Today/Gallup poll of 1,033 adults was conducted August 20th through 23rd and also has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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