ROMNEY STILL MUCH LESS POPULAR THAN THE LAST GOP CANDIDATE, WHO LOST

In isolation, this seems like pretty good news for Mitt Romney:

Mitt Romney's favorable ratings are on the rise....

According to a CNN/ORC International survey released Monday, Romney's favorable rating among Americans has jumped from 34% in February, during the heat of the divisive GOP presidential primaries, to 48% now....

This will be spun as a sign that Romney is doing everything right and that President Obama is struggling. But -- as Gallup noted when Romney showed a similar favorability gain in its survey -- candidates generally have favorability spikes after winning nominations ... and John McCain's spike took him to a much higher rating in '08:

Fifty percent of Americans now have a favorable opinion of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, up from 39% in February and his highest by 10 percentage points....

The spike in Romney's favorable rating in the May 10-13 USA Today/Gallup poll is predictable, given that he has become the presumptive Republican nominee. Presidential candidates typically get a spike in their favorable ratings in the wake of winning the nomination....

Click on that last link and you see that, while Romney got to 50% favorability after winning the nomination, McCain got to 67%.

And, um, McCain lost.

But the new poll of Romney's favorability is from CNN. How did McCain do in CNN's polls in '08? Let's check: McCain was at 59% in late June of '08, at 62% in late July, at 61% in late August, and at 59% in September and October. So Romney, at 48% now, is way behind the Republican who lost four years ago, according to CNN.

And he's way behind Obama now -- Obama's at 56% favorable.