Ah...Naje, here we go again.

The latest poll released by The New York Times/CBS News showed an unchanged 48 to 43 point Obama lead over John McCain among registered voters.

Interestingly enough, however, the poll also showed that nearly half of those voters surveyed viewed the troop surge supported by McCain as a positive move in the war in Iraq. While that comes as a notable bonus to the GOP ticket, the numbers failed to show any significant shift in the women vote, which McCain was hoping to attract with by saddling himself up next to Gov. Palin as his running mate.

Obama still holds the independent vote over McCain and boasts a 16 point lead in the influential youth vote. McCain took a sizable advantage over Obama in the white male vote and still has an advantage in the white female vote (though not as much as I'm sure his campaign are hoping for in November.)

All said and done, I consider the most important stat to be derived from these numbers is the 46% of American voters who think a McCain administration will just be a continuation of the Bush administration and the 22% who argue the Arizona Senator will be more conservative than Bush.

As we follow these elections, the predominant message nearly all Republican candidates are sweating to get across to their voters is that they are NOT "Bush-era" Republicans. The last 8 years have built a mighty wall for the GOP to scale over. Whether or not they will be able to achieve such a feat before November is only a matter of time. Time that, with 47 days left till the election, is quickly running out.