These numbers will probably bounce around a lot between now and Election Day, but they’re a nice bit of news for Team McCain:

In head-to-head contests, the poll found, McCain leads Clinton by 6 percentage points (46% to 40%) and Obama by 2 points (44% to 42%). Neither lead is commanding given that the survey, conducted Feb. 21-25, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The Arizona senator is viewed favorably by 61% of all registered voters, including a plurality of Democrats. The survey showed that McCain’s potential advantages extend even to domestic issues, where he is considered to be most vulnerable. Even though McCain has joked about his lack of expertise on economic issues, voters picked him over Obama, 42% to 34%, as being best able to handle the economy. However, Clinton led McCain on that issue, 43% to 34%.

This is the Los Angeles Times poll, and check out how well McCain is doing with this sample: 1,246 registered voters, 436 Democratic-primary voters and 290 Republican-primary voters.

Back in the early days of the Kerry Spot (good times… good times.) the L.A. Times poll of June 2004, which was more or less the first big buzz-generating national head-to-head poll, had Kerry up 51 percent to 44 percent nationally. The sample for that one was 38 percent Democrats, 24 percent independents, 25 percent Republicans, 7 percent other, and 2 percent didn’t know.

I’d like to see another poll or two with similar results to confirm it, but it can be argued that McCain is in better shape against either Obama or Hillary than Bush was in against Kerry in 2004.