DEMS GO BERSERK, BUT MISS THE ASTERISK – AT 10:01 A.M. ET:  There is hysteria, glee and chest thumping this morning among Democrats over a new poll that shows Barack Obama almost in a position to be elected king, or at least prince:

President Barack Obama's approval rating has hit its highest point in two years — 60 percent — and more than half of Americans now say he deserves to be re-elected, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll taken after U.S. forces killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

In worrisome signs for Republicans, the president's standing improved not just on foreign policy but also on the economy, and independent Americans — a key voting bloc in the November 2012 presidential election — caused the overall uptick in support by sliding back to Obama after fleeing for much of the past two years.

Comfortable majorities of the public now call Obama a strong leader who will keep America safe. Nearly three-fourths — 73 percent — also now say they are confident that Obama can effectively handle terrorist threats. And he improved his standing on Afghanistan, Iraq and the United States' relationships with other countries.

Despite a sluggish recovery from the Great Recession, 52 percent of Americans now approve of Obama's stewardship of the economy, giving him his best rating on that issue since the early days of his presidency; 52 percent also now like how he's handling the nation's stubbornly high 9 percent unemployment.

The economy remains Americans' top issue.

COMMENT:  In the immortal words of that distinguished philosopher, George Gobel, wait a gosh-darned second.  You have to dig down to the last paragraph of this giddy story to find the very big asterisk, and here it is:

The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted May 5-9 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,001 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

Are we serious here?  A poll among "adults" is the least accurate, and the one most likely to oversample Democrats.  These aren't even registered voters.  And they're certainly not likely voters.  Maybe they're not even citizens, or even adults.  I'd love to know how many 16-year-olds answer their cellphone and think it's cool to say, "Hey, man, yeah, I'm an adult dude."

If I had a desk at Democratic National Headquarters, I'd stay calm and not break out the champagne, or goat's milk, or whatever they drink.  Good polls are taken among likely voters, and they're showing a more modest bin Laden bounce for the president.

May 11, 2011