58% of likely voters view the President favorably? That's an awesome number at this stage of the campaign if true.
And, don't forget, early voting is going on now. I hope to vote tomorrow.
While there's no way to ever determine the truthfulness of a poll, this is the time of the year when polling firms have the greatest incentive to be as accurate as possible. They know that soon people will be measuring their last few polls leading up to the election against actual results.
IF true, what it means is that JF'nK's relentlessly negative attack strategy has failed.
And, in fact, I think it really has failed. People have known for months what F'n is going to say about anything: "I have a plan, and W stinks."
Folks tune that stuff out after a while, and then all they hear is W, being his good ol' optimistic self.
Anecdotal evidence can be found in my own home: today my 12-yo daughter was lamenting the fact that there would be no more presidential debates. She said she loved listening to them so that she could make fun of the "blah blah blah" -- which I know to be directed at Kerry much more than W.