Are you surprised by this? Me neither.
I'm surprised that the true-believers haven't bothered to respond to this data.
John McCain was trumpeted as ALL THAT (and more) on the covers of Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report the same day, one week after he beat Bush (with all that Dem crossover crap) in the New Hampshire primary.
I've never seen such a media push as Crash McCain got from the Olympians. Oh, until Howard Dean. That is, until Wesley Clark.