CBS poll shows Obama making headway on Wright, gas tax holiday

Good national numbers in the latest CBS News poll. I don't like to put too much emphasis on the horserace numbers for any one poll, but this one does have Obama leading by 12 nationally, 50-38, and it has both Democrats leading McCain by double digits, Clinton by 12, and Obama by 11.

There's also a lot of positive news about attitudes towards Obama's handling of Jeremiah Wright, which may be the reason that his net approval jumped by 9 points from 39/34 to 44/30. The biggest unresolved issue seems to be the impression (held by 47%) that Obama's "divorce" from Wright was based on political expediency, but overall 60% approved of his handling of Wright and 23% disapproved.

The most interesting numbers to me were on the gas tax holiday. 49% now think it's a bad idea compared to 45% who think it is a good idea. There's no trend line, but based on what the Clinton campaign has said about the gas tax holiday being a political winner, I have to think that this is a bit of a reversal on the numbers. Still, voters who make less than $30k support the idea, though CBS did not report to what extent.

Perhaps most importantly, 60% of independent voters thought the gas tax holiday was a bad idea, compared to 32% who favored it. Democrats also opposed it, but by a smaller margin (50 against/47 for), and Republicans favored it (58 for/37 against).