The new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that 63% of respondents say that higher gas prices have had either a "great deal" or "quite a bit" of impact on them and their families.

That percentage is up from March, when just under half -- 49% -- said that about the higher gas prices.

In this poll, 38% said the higher prices were having a "great deal" of impact; 25% said they were having "quite a bit" of impact; 23% said they had "just some" impact; and only 14% said they had "not much" impact at all.

The full NBC/WSJ poll -- which was taken of 1,000 respondents (250 reached by cell phone) and which has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points -- will be released at 6:30 pm ET.

Since emerging as the Republican Party's presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney has seen his favorability score increase to its highest mark, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

But that score still remains a net-negative, and it trails President Obama's.

In the poll, 33% view Romney positively -- which is higher than it has ever been in the survey -- versus 36% who view him negatively. That's an improvement from March, when his score was 28% positive-39% negative.

Much of this can be attributed to Republicans who have begun to coalesce around Romney. In March, his score with them was 50%-16%; now it's 62%-12%.

By comparison, Obama's positive/negative score is 48%-39%, and those numbers have been fairly consistent over the past two years.

Looking inside these numbers, two other things stand out:
-- The gender gap is helping Obama: His positive/negative score is even among men (44%-42%), but he has a big advantage with women (51%-37%).
-- There isn't much of a gender gap for Romney (both men and women view him pretty evenly), but his big gap is with Latinos (23%-42% vs. Obama's 57%-26%).

A final point: Both Romney and Obama aren't as popular as their wives. Ann Romney's positive/negative score in the poll is 27%-17%, and First Lady Michelle Obama's is 54%-20%.

The full NBC/WSJ poll -- which was conducted April 13-17 of 1,000 respondents (250 of which were reached by cell phone), and which it has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points -- will be released at 6:30 pm ET.

Edited by NBC's Matt Loffman.

With President Obama's and Vice President Biden's 2011 tax returns now posted online, the Obama campaign is calling on Mitt Romney to release his -- as well as those going back several years.

“Mitt Romney’s defiance of decades of precedent set by presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle, including his own father, begs the question -- what does he have to hide?" Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina asked in a statement. "Did he exploit loopholes in the tax code by keeping his investments offshore and is that why he’s protecting those loopholes now? Why did he open a Swiss bank account instead of an American bank account and establish a corporation in Bermuda instead of on our shores? Did he pay a lower income tax rate than the 13.9 percent he paid in 2010 and is that why he opposes the Buffett Rule to ensure millionaires don’t pay less taxes than middle-class families?”

Files / AFP - Getty Images

With President Obama's and Vice President Biden's 2011 tax returns now posted online, the Obama campaign is calling on Mitt Romney to release his.

Earlier this year, Romney released his 2010 tax returns, which showed he paid an effective tax rate of 13.9%, as well as an estimate of his 2011 returns.

According to Obama's 2011 returns, he paid an effective tax rate of about 20%, and Biden paid about 23%.

*** UPDATE *** Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul replies, "It’s no surprise with the worst job creation record in modern history that President Obama would try to distract Americans from the real issues with a series of sideshows. Gov. Romney has already released his 2010 return and an estimate of his 2011 income and taxes. He will release his full 2011 return when it is filed."

We are gearing up for our last installments of 'Inside the Boiler Room' for 2011! Please post your questions for Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro below. 

You can also tweet us, @NBCFirstRead, @mmurraypolitics or@DomenicoNBC, or post on our Facebook page.

Inside the Boiler Room NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro debate how serious the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is taking GOP hopeful and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's rise in the polls, and whether the Romney camp will now reconsider Iowa.

Thanks to phinephancy-4252115 for the question! Keep an eye out for the next editions of Inside the Boiler Room and don't forget to post your questions for Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro. You can also tweet us, @NBCFirstRead,@mmurraypolitics or @DomenicoNBC, or post on our Facebook page.

Video edited and transcribed by NBC's Morgan Parmet. 

TRANSCRIPT:

MARK MURRAY: Welcome to the latest edition of inside the boiler room. I'm Mark Murray joined by my colleague Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, we have a question from phinephancy. This is phinephancy's first question, I think, inside the boiler room. How serious is the Romney campaign taking Newt Gingrich's rise in the polls? Will they now reconsider Iowa?

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Well, we know they're reconsidering Iowa a little bit. They went up with their first TV ad. So they're actually going to play there a little bit. I think they're taking New Gingrich's rise a little bit more seriously than they were a week ago. You know we've started to see a back and forth over about two or three days. Newt Gingrich called Mitt Romney the former front runner.

MARK MURRAY: Right. 

DOMENICO MONTANARO: And Romney hit him back calling him a lifelong politician. Newt Gingrich hit him back. Romney hit him back. So, you know, I think it's going to be a really interesting next 30 days. 

MARK MURRAY: Right, the only question is is this two man race going to stay? I mean remember it wasn't too long ago we thought we had a two man race between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney in August and September. Look how that ended up turning out. One other thing about Mitt Romney. He's actually going to have Chris Christie campaigning for him. I mean yes, there is a play going on for Iowa. They might not be all in, but this is now a significant contest and the stakes are very high.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: They're like two legs in. 

MARK MURRAY: Right. 

DOMENICO MONTANARO: One other small thing, The Hill newspaper today had a blind item from a member of congress Republican saying Newt Gingrich's finger is always six inches away from the self-destruct button. 

MARK MURRAY: (laughs)

DOMENICO MONTANARO: So, you know, that's what a lot of people are talking about. If he's able to maintain the message discipline and he said himself he needs to be more disciplined. If he maintains that discipline, maybe he can be the guy over the next 30 days to compete with Romney head to head. 

MARK MURRAY: We have about 30 days to go until Iowa.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: We'll see.

MARK MURRAY: We'll see. Thanks.

Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro weigh the possibility of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., or Gov. Bob McDonnell, R-Va. as a vice presidential candidate on the 2012 ticket.

NOTE: Since we taped this segment, Republicans won control of the state Senate in Virginia. Both Democrats and Republicans hold 20 seats in the Virginia Senate. Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling holds the tie-breaking vote, giving Republicans their one-vote advantage.

Thanks to Bob-1887910 for the question! Keep an eye out later in the week for our next Inside the Boiler Room segments!

TRANSCRIPT: 

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Welcome again to another edition of Inside the Boiler Room. Well, we have another question from Bob 1887910 we always love to be able to get comments from Bob and he says: “If my immensely popular Governor Bob McDonnell helps flips the State Senate to the GOP next week, giving Republicans unprecedented full control of Virginia government, will he then top Marco Rubio in the Veepstakes rankings?” A lot there.

MARK MURRAY: Well, right. Here’s how I kind of look at the GOP Veepstakes stakes right now. Marco Rubio had kind of a tough row with that Washington Post report about when his parents came to the United States. You can get into the particulars, but it came to the point that he hasn’t yet been vetted. You can almost look at him “1A,” Bob McDonnell “1B.” What McDonnell essentially ends up giving you is somebody who could, is a popular governor of a battleground state in Virginia, so automatically they might think, look you know we’re going to have a problem in Virginia. If you get Bob McDonnell. He could also end up helping if say, Mitt Romney is the nominee. Sure some of that evangelical, social conservative--

DOMENICO MONTANARO: -- Sure, a lot of people don’t know he takes a very moderate tone, he’s been a moderate governor, but he went to Liberty University and is a strong Evangelical.

MARK MURRAY: Yeah, absolutely. So, and one other thing to keep in mind about Bob McDonnell: his job runs out in 2013. And so when you’re looking at Marco Rubio’s world, he’s only been in the senate for one year, he has big ambitions. Chris Christie of course, he might end up running for re-election. Bob McDonnell is actually going to need a job, come pretty soon because he’s terminated, you only get one term as governor. And so, if you are the republican nominee, he ends up making a lot of sense.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Yeah, that’s definitely true. Rubio, you’re right, took a hit because of that story. You know there are also some other issues with Rubio as to whether or not you know, he’s experienced enough, but Barak Obama had that issue. And you know, whether or not he actually appeals to, what demographic he appeals to, you know, who knows. But, picking him would be all about Florida. If Republicans felt that they couldn’t win Florida. His popularity there--

MARK MURRAY: And you know the Latino vote too, potentially--

DOMENICO MONTANARO: Well, in Florida. But, and then when you look at somebody else, Chris Christie, you know could be another person, you know, John McCain picked Sarah Palin, that most of us had taken her of the veep list because of issues back in Alaska that we thought, she’s under investigation, he’s not going to pick her. But he did because she could fire up the base. Nobody fires up the base like Chris Christie does. So you know, maybe there’s somebody like him. And McDonnell also, aside from the state senate stuff, which you mention would be a nice feather in his cap, just what he’s done with jobs in the state. You know, he beat out Maryland for these defense contractor jobs. He understands federal workers, and he can speak that way because they are a large constituency group in Northern Virginia. So, I think that he, because of that, is an attractive candidate because he’s not going to make too many mistakes.

MARK MURRAY: He is. The one thing that, to note about Virginia though, is that all of their recent governors have been very popular. You  have Mark Warner with his job growth, Tim Cain was very popular and now you have Bob McDonnell. One of the reasons Virginia is doing so well is it’s so close to Washington, DC. There’ve been a ton of jobs, the defense contractors, etc. and it doesn’t look like the rest of the nation just yet. But, I mean, I think that he, right now Bob McDonnell certainly looks like a 1A or 1B to me on whoever is on the veepstakes next.

DOMENICO MONTANARO: They’re real popular until you give them a second term, right. We’ll see.

Transcribed by NBC's Annie Emberland and Laura Olson.