“Embarrassing.” “In a downward spiral.” “Completely imploding.” No, these are not reviews of Nicholas Cage’s acting career; they are phrases that have been used to describe Mitt Romney’s campaign over the last week. Things seem to be going from bad to worse for the Republican nominee, and President Barack Obama is reaping the benefits.

Last Monday, a now-infamous video surfaced where Romney essentially wrote off half of the country. If it wasn’t true that 47 percent of the country isn’t going to vote for Romney before, it sure is now. Then, on an interview with 60 minutes, Romney continued to look unprepared in terms of having a plan for office as the interviewer had to ask for “specific details” multiples times on virtually every question. Right on cue, the only (previously) clean part of the campaign, Paul Ryan, got himself booed at an AARP convention for criticizing the Affordable Care Act in what has to go down as one of the biggest failures to read a room in campaign history.

But perhaps the most troubling news for the Romney camp came not from something he said, but shocking new poll results. No, not that he’s trailing Obama by 8 percent in Ohio, 5 percent in Florida, and in fact by at least 4 points in every swing state. The shocking poll I refer to is one that states that Romney trails Obama 48-41 percent amongst NASCAR fans. If there was one demographic you would expect to support the white Republican, it’s the NASCAR fans.

But looking closer, you can see that the significance of the poll goes deeper than just who isn’t voting for him. It shows yet another example of Romney mismanaging his campaign. It now looks relevant that Romney told a group of NASCAR fans he has “friends who are NASCAR team owners.” The comments are intended to help him relate to the crowd, but it does just the opposite. Then again, this is the guy who thinks having a horse in the Olympics makes him relate to Americans or being born in an American colony in Mexico and putting on self-tanner at a Univision forum makes him relatable to Latinos. The point is, the campaign has gotten to the point where Obama can say not a word and still rise in the polls. If I were in his shoes, my only concern about this election would be trying not to embarrass Mitt too badly.