Any good news for McCain in latest ABC poll?

Well, the answer to that question is tough to provide with any certainty. One thing that is sure, you have to dig pretty far down into the poll results to find any positives for Senator McCain. With forty-two days until the election, Senator Obama has taken a 8-point lead, nationally, among likely voters.

But that's just the beginning of the McCain disaster outlined in the full poll. Across large demographic swaths of the electorate, Senator Obama is enjoying the lead. Immediately following the conventions, white women favored McCain by 11 points, but now Obama has a slight lead of two percent. White Catholics favored the GOP ticket by 19 following the conventions; now the Dems have drawn that race to a dead heat. Independents, who favored McCain by 10 two weeks ago, now break for Obama by 14. Voters in the Midwest, who've been targeted by both campaigns lately, have shifted from +11 for McCain to +13 for Obama. McCain does hold a 14 point lead among white men, but that's down from 28 points after the conventions.

Worse for McCain, Obama has gained ground on issues typically seen as solid McCain strengths. Two weeks ago, McCain led by 10 in trust to handle the Iraq war; now, Obama leads by 4. McCain's 20-point lead on the issue of handling terrorism has all but vanished, as well; now, Obama only trails by 4. What does these numbers mean? Basically, the GOP argument that the recent polling shifts favoring Obama are economics driven is not entirely true. Obama is enjoying improvement in his numbers across all issues, not just the economy.

Don't get me wrong, though, the economy's downturn has favored Obama. 53% of respondents list the economy as the most important issue facing the nation this year, and Obama beats McCain 53-39 on ability to handle the economic. He also bests McCain (51-38) on ability to resolve the banking crisis.

Finally, on personality issues, Obama takes a lead in all categories in this poll: would do more to bring needed change to Washington (58-33); better understands the economic problems people in this country are having (57-33); is more honest and trustworthy (47-36); and is the stronger leader (47-46).

None of these numbers, except possibly his double-digit lead among white men, can be too comforting for Senator McCain. He's spent two weeks attacking Senator Obama on virtually all of these points, but, as the ABC News poll shows, the attacks haven't stuck. In fact, with several media outlets (including Fox News) calling the McCain campaign on its lies in anti-Obama ads, McCain may have shot himself in the foot on the trustworthiness issue. It remains to be seen how the three presidential debates may affect the polling, but with Obama heading into the foreign policy debate with much-improved numbers in that category may shield him from the polling fall off many pundits are predicting after Friday's debate on MSNBC.

Indeed, if there's any good news for McCain in this latest poll, it's this: the date. It's almost over.

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