WASHINGTON (AP) — Growing numbers of people like what they see in John McCain, vaulting him into a tie with the two Democratic presidential contenders just a few months after Republicans faced a steep disadvantage.

The Arizona senator has made a race of the White House contest by attracting disgruntled GOP voters, independents and even some moderate Democrats who shunned his party last fall, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Thursday. About two-thirds of them have grown disenchanted with President Bush despite voting for him in 2004, including many GOP-leaning independents, while the remaining third usually support Democrats but like McCain anyway.

The AP

I said back around Super Tuesday that this would be one big advantage by having McCain as our nominee.  He wasn’t my first choice for a number of reasons, but I said he would bring back a lot of the disgruntled Reagan coalition that Bush has pissed off over the past seven years.  Bush has given conservatism a bad reputation and it may take someone moderate like McCain to take off the edginess that many Republican leaning voters are currently feeling.