22% saying lack of experience & dishonest should be a concern...

Normally I agree with most of what Chris Cillizza focus on, but this time I think he missed a huge point in his latest post, "Old" vs. "Change" and the Battle of Perception.

I totally agree with him that perception is everything but focusing on 19 percent that said "old" for McCain and 20 percent that said "outsider/change" for Obama misses the next two items that he points out that should be worrying the Obama campaign more than the McCain camp should be worried:

Compare that to "lack of experience" (13 percent) and dishonest (9 percent) -- the second and third most mentioned words or phrases chosen to describe Obama.

That means 22 percent's first thought of Obama was not a positive one. If you take the next higher two comments about McCain:

Nine percent said "military service" came to mind when McCain was mentioned while eight percent said "record/qualifications".

It's the almost the same end result for McCain, 17 percent have a first thought that's positive, 19 percent a negative. Is "old" worse than "lack of experience/dishonest" is the real question, and I think for many the answer would be no...

Hence, the recent polling is not worse for McCain than it is for Obama and that's the way the post from Chris is written as if this is going to be a larger problem for McCain to overcome than the negative words selected to describe Obama. Personally I'd call it a draw which means there are people out there not thrilled with either one as their choice...