Last night’s Wrap, as luck would have it, came out on Daily Kos Elections a half-hour after the combatants shook hands and feigned mutual respect in the hall in Denver. And, of course, that became 99 percent of the discussion in the comments section of the Wednesday Polling Wrap. To say there was a lack of consensus in the commentary would be one hell of an understatement.

The polar extremes of largely unmerited optimism and pessimism bordering on self-parody are both, in my best guess, off of the mark.

The bad news? That belief will remain merely an opinion for at least three or four days, because it will be that long before a critical mass of data to tell us what, if anything, can be gleaned from round #1 in the three-round verbal joust that will end up with one guy as president and the other guy as a footnote in history. Today, though, we did get one set of data that may well prove instructive.

More on that later. For now, though, on to the numbers:

PRESIDENTIAL POLLING:

NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Obama 49, Romney 45

NATIONAL (Ipsos-Reuters “Post-Debate” Poll): Obama 48, Romney 43 (LV); Obama 47, Romney 42 (RV)

NATIONAL (McLaughlin and Associates–R): Obama 49, Romney 45

NATIONAL (Rasmussen Tracking): Obama 49, Romney 47

NATIONAL (YouGov): Obama 49, Romney 44 (LV); Obama 49, Romney 41 (RV)

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COLORADO (McLaughlin and Associates–R): Romney 50, Obama 46

CONNECTICUT (Quinnipiac): Obama 54, Romney 42

MISSOURI (Rasmussen): Romney 49, Obama 46, Others 2

MISSOURI (Wenzel Strategies for the Akin campaign–R): Romney 50, Obama 40

DOWNBALLOT POLLING:

CT-SEN (Quinnipiac): Linda McMahon (R) 48, Chris Murphy (D) 47

HI-SEN (Benenson Strategy Group for the Hirono campaign): Mazie Hirono (D) 54, Linda Lingle (R) 37

MO-SEN (Wenzel Strategies for the Akin campaign): Todd Akin (R) 49, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) 47

WA-SEN (Rasmussen): Sen. Maria Cantwell (D) 57, Michael Baumgartner (R) 37

WI-SEN (WPA Research for Now-or-Never PAC–R): Tammy Baldwin (D) 48, Tommy Thompson (R) 45

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MO-GOV (PPP): Gov. Jay Nixon (D) 54, Dave Spence (R) 35

NC-GOV (Rasmussen): Pat McCrory (R) 54, Walter Dalton (D) 38

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AZ-02 (OnMessage for the McSally campaign): Rep. Ron Barber (D) 47, Martha McSally (R) 47

CA-10 (Momentum Analysis for the Hernandez campaign): Rep. Jeff Denham (R) 45, Jose Hernandez (D) 43

KY-06 (Public Opinion Strategies for the Barr campaign): Rep. Ben Chandler (D) 49, Andy Barr (R) 46

NJ-03 (Stockton Polling Institute): Rep. Jon Runyan (R) 49, Shelley Adler (D) 39

VA-02 (Benenson Strategy Group for the Hirschbeil campaign): Rep. Scott Rigell (R) 49, Paul Hirschbeil (D) 40

VA-02 (Public Opinion Strategies for the Rigell campaign): Rep. Scott Rigell (R) 54, Paul Hirschbeil (D) 32

A few thoughts, as always, await you just past the jump…

Daily Kos