Here we go again...

The Associated Press and Yahoo have done some polling on voters' impressions of the presidential candidates. And what gets reported in the lead paragraph? Not who you'd rather have a beer with. No, it's much more profoud. Who would you rather go bowling with, or maybe take along on a family vacation?

The poll looked at a number of factors, asking participants how well certain words described each candidate. The five most important being "decisive", "strong", "honest", "experienced", and "ethical". Yes, "likable" was on the list, but the writers were forced to report, albeit reluctantly, that the participants didn't consider it to be very important. That's a good thing, given that the Republican candidate who was most often rated likable was -- wait for it -- Rudy Giuliani. Obama won the popularity contest on the Democratic side.

Oh, btw, on the top five -- you remember, the factors that might really mean something when evaluating a leader -- Clinton outranked Giuliani across the board. But, hey, who cares? Rudy would be more fun on league night.

* sigh *