Poll shows Obama has significant lead

The New York Times reports that a CBS News Poll released today puts Obama ahead by 9 points--49 to 40.

This should rejoice the heart of the Obama campaign:

A CBS News Poll released Wednesday that Mr. Obama’s favorability rating, at 48 percent, is the highest it has ever been in polls conducted by CBS and The New York Times. At the same time, the number of voters who hold an unfavorable view of Mr. McCain — 42 percent — is as high as it has been since the CBS News and The Times began asking the question about Mr. McCain in 1999, the first time he ran for president.

The CBS News poll showed that Mr. Obama has a 9 percentage-point lead over Mr. McCain – 49 percent to 40 percent. It marks the first time that Mr. Obama has held a statistically significant lead over Mr. McCain this year in polls conducted by CBS or joint polls by CBS and The New York Times. And several polls taken in battleground states released by other organizations on Tuesday suggested that Mr. Obama was building leads in states including Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

And no joy for George Bush:

The CBS News poll found that President Bush has tied the presidential record for a low approval rating – 22 percent, matching Harry Truman’s Gallup approval rating in 1952, when the country was mired in the Korean war and struggling with a stagnant economy. That finding put a new premium on Mr. McCain’s effort to distance himself from Mr. Bush, and suggests that Mr. Bush will continue to be a prominent figure in the Obama campaign’s advertisements attacking Mr. McCain.

And really bad news for McCain because he's been lurching from pillar to post on this issue:

The CBS News poll found economic anxiety among Americans as high as it has ever been in the history of the poll. Nine in 10 Americans said the economy is in very or fairly bad shape; the highest measure on that score since the Times and CBS News began asking the question in September 1986. (The percentage who said that the economy was in very good shape was less than 1 percent). And the number of Americans who think the economy is getting worse 76 percent — set another record; the gloomiest Americans have been since the question was first asked in April 1974.

Of course, there's five weeks until the election, and anything can happen.  But I am cautiously optimistic.