Washington ? When it comes to the public’s image of John McCain, it’s as if somebody dialed the electricity down in the past month. For Barack Obama, the juice is still flowing.

People’s regard for the Republican presidential nominee has deteriorated across the board since September, an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll showed Friday, with McCain losing ground in how favorably he’s seen and in a long list of personal qualities voters seek in White House contenders.

Perceptions of Obama have improved or remained steady. Beyond views of the two rivals’ character traits, McCain faces another problem – Obama is more trusted on the economy, the contest’s commanding issue, including a 15 percentage-point edge for better grasping how the raging financial crisis is affecting people.

Obama’s image has been sturdy even as voters’ views of the overall campaign have tumbled since September. The portion of people saying the contest excites them has sunk to 32 percent while those calling it frustrating have grown to 41 percent – and in both cases, six in 10 of those whose feelings have worsened are McCain backers.

Negative campaigning and a month of intense public focus on collapsing global economic and financial markets have not been kind to McCain. The new AP-Yahoo News poll of likely voters, conducted this month by Knowledge Networks, shows more people viewing him favorably than unfavorably by just 5 percentage points, down from a 21-point difference in mid-September.

During the same period, Obama went the other way, increasing a 5 percentage-point net favorable rating to 15 points. Now, Obama is seen favorably by 57 percent and McCain by 52 percent – a close margin that masks the opposite direction the two rivals’ ratings are heading.

“He kind of scared me,” Leesa Zick, 48, an undecided Republican from Edwardsville, Ill., said of McCain’s abrupt and short-lived suspension of his campaign last month during Capitol Hill talks on a financial rescue package. “We need a president who can deal with multiple tasks. It seemed like it overwhelmed him.”

Overall, the polls showed Obama with a narrow lead over McCain. Forty-nine percent of likely voters backed the Democrat, compared with 44 percent for McCain.

For McCain, the poll’s good news is that despite a difficult month, his public image is not dramatically worse than Obama’s and in several areas remains better. The public still rates him higher than Obama for keeping America safe, working with both political parties and being decisive, experienced and competent.

“He’s more qualified than Obama, definitely, because of his experience and history, ” said Richard Tosti, 67, a Republican from Rochester, N.Y.

Less than three weeks from Election Day, Obama has taken a solid lead over McCain in most national and swing-state polls. The AP-Yahoo News survey underscores the morale problem McCain faces.

The numbers don’t get better for McCain when it comes to personal traits.

Following debates between the two rivals in which the Arizona senator has appeared angry at times, 46 percent consider him hot-tempered, more than triple the 13 percent who say so about Obama.

“He’d be a little nerve-racking to have in the White House, jumping real fast,” Darlene Finley, 48, an Obama-leaning independent from Ossineke, Mich., said of McCain. “When you’re talking about war, that’s something you don’t want to do, jumping real fast.”