A Rasmussen Reports poll done two days ago has Sen. David Vitter sitting atop a burgeoning 54-33 lead over Democrat challenger Charlie Melancon in the coming election for the former’s U.S. Senate seat.

Rasmussen’s poll surveyed 500 likely voters on Aug. 30.

Vitter’s lead grew by three points from a 53-35 advantage he had over Melancon in a poll Rasmussen conducted in late June. It appears Melancon isn’t gaining on the Senator. Polls conducted by Democrat firm Public Policy Polling and Clarus Research, operated by former Mary Landrieu campaign manager Ron Faucheux had the margin in the race at 10-12 points in August.

Vitter gets 85% of the Republican vote in the poll, while Melancon received support from only 59% of Democrats. Vitter holds a commanding 55-27 lead among independents. And there are some other interesting numbers as well:

– For all the screeching about his foibles, Vitter is beating Melancon among women 56-30. He’s only ahead 53-36 among men!

– Among younger voters (ages 18-29), Vitter is beating Melancon 52-34.

– Vitter is viewed favorably by a 56-37 margin. Melancon is viewed unfavorably by a 51-40 margin.

– The poll found that Gov. Bobby Jindal has a 76 percent approval rating.

The internals in the Rasmussen poll show that Louisiana has turned hard-core conservative. Among the findings:

– Vitter is regarded as a conservative by 70 percent of the respondents, but 53 percent said his views are mainstream (as opposed to 20 percent who say he’s extreme). Melancon is considered liberal by 46 percent, and by a 40-33 margin Louisiana voters say his views are extreme. It’s not an unreasonable deduction from these numbers to say that Louisiana voters consider liberalism to be extreme.

– For all the yelling and screaming about Vitter’s personal foibles in this campaign, he still has more people who strongly favor him than strongly oppose. Vitter’s strong favorable score is 25 percent, with 17 percent strongly opposing. Melancon, by contrast, only has 14 percent strong favorables and 30 percent in strong opposition. The lesson? Louisiana voters care about issues, not personalities and petty misdeeds.

– By a 58-25 margin, the respondents favor Louisiana filing a lawsuit to stop Obamacare from being implemented in the state.

– 52 percent of the respondents rated Louisiana’s economy as poor, against only 11 percent who said it’s good or excellent. Some 62 percent said it’s getting worse. 67 percent said we’re still in a recession.

– President Obama is poison in Louisiana. By a 63-38 margin he’s disapproved of. 59 percent register Strong Disapproval. This makes Louisiana one of the most anti-Obama states in the union, which isn’t a surprise considering what he’s done to us with his offshore drilling moratorium.

With numbers like these, Melancon has a massive hill to climb. And he’ll have to climb it using tools other than Vitter’s supposed dalliance with ladies of the evening or Vitter aide Brett Furer’s legal issues – because those aren’t working.