According to the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, which overal shows Barack Obama leading John McCain by a 53 percent to 43 percent margin among likely voters, the McCain's tactic of trying to make Obama seem risky not only isn't working, it's apparently backfiring:

McCain's efforts to portray Obama as a risky choice do not appear to have worked, either. In fact, voters are likelier to describe the Republican candidate that way, and although 29 percent said they consider Obama a "very safe" choice for president, 18 percent said the same for McCain. Voters were evenly divided on the question of whether McCain is safe or risky; 55 percent said Obama is safe, while 45 percent described the Democrat as risky.

Take a look at the trend among registered voters for the two candidates, which says even more than the most recent data alone:

McCain

	10/08	9/08	6/08
Safe	50	51	57
Risky	50	48	41

Obama

	10/08	9/08	6/08
Safe	55	55	50
Risky	45	44	48

Four months ago, before McCain started to ramp up the all-mudslinging review that is his campaign, he led Obama in the safe/risky metric by a net 14 points (+16 to +2). Today, in the heat of McCain's negative efforts -- as well as the tanking of the Bush economy and Obama's two strong debate performances -- Obama has taken a net 10 point lead on the question (+10 to +0). So much for making Obama an unacceptable alternative to the voting public.