From Media Matters:

ABC News and The Washington Post issued staggered releases of the results of their latest poll, withholding from their first release results favorable to Sen. Barack Obama, including the finding that 50 percent of registered voters would vote for Obama for president versus 42 percent for Sen. John McCain. The next day, the Post ran an article headlined "Poll Finds Voters Split on Candidates' Iraq-Pullout Positions," which did not mention Obama's 8-point lead over McCain. Later that day, ABC News and the Post issued a second release with additional poll results that stated: "Obama continues to hold most of the advantages in the presidential race."

Here's the article the Washington Post chose to run the next day, where they failed to mention that, when asked,

If the 2008 presidential election were being held today and the candidates were (Barack Obama, the Democrat) and (John McCain, the Republican), for whom would you vote?

...50% said Obama and 42% said McCain. The article also failed to mention that if Bob Barr was included in the choices, Obama's lead went up to 10 points.

ABC News went with a lengthly article titled, "McCain Tops Obama in Commander-in-Chief Test; Stays Competitive on Iraq," also without bothering to mention the most important finding in the poll.

Details, details, why bother their readers with the details when it would mess up the planned narrative? They can always release those later.

We know the horse race numbers don't matter, but there's no reason in this latest ABC/WaPo poll for depressed Republicans to cheer up.

Americans Losing Confidence in Current Leadership

Americans are gloomier about the direction of the country than at any point since 1992, and Democrats have matched their biggest advantage in 25 years as the party better able to deal with the nation's main problems, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Despite more than eight in 10 now saying the country is headed in the wrong direction and growing disaffection with the Republican Party, Sen. John McCain, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, remains competitive in a general election matchup with Sen. Barack Obama, the favorite for the Democratic nomination, and runs almost even with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Those findings indicate that McCain continues to elude some of the anger aimed at his party and at President Bush, whose own approval dipped to an all-time low in Post-ABC polling. Maintaining a separate identity will be a key to McCain's chances of winning the White House in November. Overall, Democrats enjoy a 21-point advantage over Republicans as the party best-equipped to handle the nation's problems.

McCain eludes some of the anger but not all. And that's now, before the campaign really heats up, and highlights his positions on the issues and ties him to Bush.

       May April  (+/- 3%)
McCain   44 (44)
Obama    51 (49)

The important numbers are Bush at 31 and wrong track at 82. McCain may run better than most other Republicans, but he still has to run against the fundamentals. In addition to right track/wrong track and Bush unpopularity, far more people (38%) are uncomfortable with McCain's age than an African-American President (12%) or a woman President (16%) - the explanation for the pushback against McCain 'losing his bearings'.

Obama will run as a fresh face, and do his best to highlight where McCain and Bush are inseparable (Iraq, health care and the economy). McCain will do the usual Republican shtick about "liberals and Pelosi and San Francisco values", all the things that didn't work in IL and LA special elections (there are new Dem congressmen as a consequence).

Oh, and by the way, Dems are in no hurry to see the race end (Hillary stay in-drop out is 64-35) and don't see it hurting Democrats (despite daily bloviating about this on cable TV, only 27% think it hurts and 56% think it makes no difference).

So, McCain trails by 7 compared to:

Overall, which party, the (Democrats) or the (Republicans), do you trust to do a better job in coping with the main problems the nation faces over the next few years?

Democrats   53
Republicans 32

meaning that McCain loses less. Still, he loses, with numbers consistent with the latest LA Times Bloomberg poll. And with short coat tails, Republicans and their severely damaged brand are in real trouble this fall.