Overall, Obama is leading 53 percent to 43 percent among likely voters, and for the first time in the general-election campaign, voters gave the Democrat a clear edge on tax policy and providing strong leadership.

McCain has made little headway in his attempts to convince voters that Obama is too "risky" or too "liberal." Rather, recent strategic shifts may have hurt the Republican nominee, who now has higher negative ratings than his rival and is seen as mostly attacking his opponent rather than addressing the issues that voters care about. Even McCain's supporters are now less enthusiastic about his candidacy, returning to levels not seen since before the Republican National Convention. [...]

Nearly two-thirds of voters, 64 percent, now view Obama favorably, up six percentage points from early September. About a third of voters have a better opinion of the senator from Illinois because of his debate performances, while 8 percent have a lower opinion of him. By contrast, more than a quarter said they think worse of McCain as a result of the debates, more than double the proportion saying their opinion had improved. McCain's overall rating has also dipped seven points, to 52 percent, over the past month.

I guess when the economy is in the dumper as bad as it is now, all the negative manure which worked so well for Republicans in 2000 and 2004 just isn't the best fertilizer for a political campaign to employ. People want answers and some idea that the people running for office have some clue as to what to do to make things all better again so they can go back to watching WWW Raw or American Idol again. Suddenly wild eyed accusations that your opponent has "terrorist" associations and lacks sufficient love for his country don't cut the mustard. Instead, they are seen as irrelevant, at best,and as petty, divisive and cynical at worst.

But hey, John McCain is an honorable guy. That's why he let's the two most prominent women in his campaign make all the nastiest allegations. Because honorable men don't stoop to that level. They just let other people do it for them.

Too bad for Johnny Mac not enough folks recognize just how honorable he truly is. What a shame, eh?