After a backlash against his negative advertising threatened his re-election prospects, Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman has mounted a comeback of sorts, pulling back into the lead in recent polls and garnering tons of positive editorial ink.

The latest poll, conducted for NBC by Mason-Dixon, surveyed 625 likely voters for a margin of error of +/- 4%. Coleman, satirist Al Franken and Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley were tested.

General Election Matchup
Coleman........42
Franken........36
Barkley........12

Barkley, as always, is the X factor. More Democratic voters are abandoning Franken to vote for Barkley than Republicans are leaving Coleman behind, the poll shows.

Even so, Coleman's new lead is a dramatic reversal from earlier this month, when polls showed him spiraling downward. After pledging to end all negative advertising from his own campaign, the Republican won endorsements from some of the state's largest newspapers, including the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Rochester Post-Bulletin and, in the surprise of the cycle so far, the liberal Minneapolis Star-Tribune (The "Strib," to locals). A recent strong debate performance for Coleman also won him rave reviews.

Democrats contend Coleman's pledge to end negative ads is hollow as the NRSC continues to hammer Franken as "angry" and unfit to serve in the Senate. But Franken's numbers have unquestionably sunk in relation to Coleman's; the Democrat last led a poll eight days ago.