According to a poll just conducted for the governor’s favorite out-of-touch fish-wrapper, Nathan Deal is in relatively good shape, politically speaking.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll has found that 49 percent of respondents approve of his performance and 24 percent disapprove.

That's a solid, if not overwhelming, number that matches the results of the January poll commissioned by the AJC.

But drill down deeper into the poll and there's more encouraging signs for Deal. Some 65 percent of self-described Republicans think he's doing a good job and only 9 percent disapprove. (The rest are undecided).

That's bound to give his GOP challengers, Superintendent John Barge and Dalton Mayor David Pennington, some heartburn.

Among the independent voters crucial to a general election victory, 50 percent approve of Deal's performance and 25 percent disapprove. And among Democrats, a surprising 46 percent are fans and 36 percent aren't.

Deal's strongest bastion of support is in his north Georgia base, where 68 percent see him favorably. That number shrinks to 39 percent in metro Atlanta.

The poll was conducted by telephone Sept. 12-17 -- before the governor's latest problems surfaced -- among a random sample of 801 Georgia adults, whether or not they intend to vote next year, including users of cellphones. The results from have a margin of error of 5 percentage points. It was conducted by the research firm Abt SRBI.

Get ready to see the above paragraph again. The newspaper plans a series of stories on the polls, starting Saturday with polling on immigration and continuing with results of questions on health care and gay marriage.