Forget the numbers showing women voters surging toward Obama. Mitt Romney's bigger problem may be the number of male voters who are moving away from him.

Roll Call's Stuart Roethenberg says the "gender gap" is not new - women have preferred the Democratic candidate over the Republican presidential candidate dating back to the 2000 election.

The real problem for Romney is male voters may turn away from him in November. One national poll showed Romney enjoying a 16-point advantage among men in October of 2011. In March of 2012, that number had shrunk to just 3 points.

Clearly, Romney can’t win the White House if he is winning only 40 percent of female voters nationally or 36 percent of female voters from the 10 swing states. But it’s equally true that Romney can’t defeat Obama if the Republican carries men by only 3 points (as he does in Gallup’s most recent national poll) or by a single point (as he does in the most recent Swing States survey).

Why have we heard so much about female voters and little or nothing about men? I’d guess that it is because the narrative has been set (about the Republican “war on women”), so journalists look for data and anecdotes that fit into it. Certainly, some of it has to do with the reach of USA Today.