Barack Obama, John McCain: What Comes To Mind

A fascinating AP survey lists the top ten "first reactions" that more than 1,700 voters give when they hear the names John McCain or Barack Obama.

So I've taken the liberty of adding up the good and bad qualities and coming up with a favorable/unfavorable number. What percentage of people have a generally favorable reaction? What percentage of people have a generally unfavorable reaction? Note that I'm distinguishing "reaction" -- the brain's instantenous response -- but a "view," which is a sum of one's reactions and one's judgment.

Unscientifically, I've decided that some of the qualities are both good and bad -- like, for example, McCain's being a Republican. (There are still Republicans who are proud to be Republicans. I'm considering Iraq a net negative and terrorism a net positive.

McCain scores 41.5% favorable and 45.5% unfavorable.

For Obama, I'm assuming that the "Muslim" reaction is negative because it's false, the "young" and "his race" reactions are equivocal -- young voters like it, older voters don't, African Americans are proud of Obama, but racists aren't, and that "liberal" is half good and half bad because, yes, there are liberals who are proud to be liberals.

That gives Obama a favorable score of 41% favorable and a 39% unfavorable score.