Preference Polls vs. Favorability Polls

People may make up their mind about who they're going to vote for at the last minute—something conventional polling cannot account for or predict—but candidate favorability/unfavorability polls shed light on why voters like or dislike candidates on political positions as well as more personal, emotional levels.

That's why I think Newsweek's set of Obama and McCain favorability polls released today are so exciting:

Obama: Favorable +24.0
McCain: Favorable +23.0

Obama's number is down from an all-time high of +36, while McCain weighs in relatively high after a few months of polling placed him somewhere between +/- 0 to +20.

Do these numbers show that Obama is losing supporters and is now more widely disliked than he was previously? No. But the polling shows that two relatively well-liked candidates are running for the Presidency this November, and that's pretty exciting.