Bouncing back.

Bouncing back.

Let's get this straight—every poll this week that was in the field last Thursday and Friday will not look good for us. There's no doubt that President Barack Obama took a serious hit from his crappy debate performance. Not only did he let Mitt Romney walk all over him verbally and rhetorically, hyper-motivating the conservative base, not only did he demoralize base Democrats itching for a fighter, but he gave the media a reason to quit the "Romney is a loser" talk.

Fact is, Obama doesn't like to play the partisan fighter role. He wants to be the conciliator who brings people together to blah blah blah. That's why he let the health care debate drag on 14 months instead of genuinely ramming it down the GOP's throat. That's why he waited until this year to act on Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the DREAM kids. Every time you think he has learned that Republicans want to utterly destroy him, he comes back with his rhetorical embrace of the enemy, telling everyone that we should all come together because we're not really all that different! You see, Republicans want to destroy Social Security, and Democrats want to ... destroy it a little less? God, I hope not. But that's the Obama people got last week.

And as we've seen time and time again, every time Obama shies away from standing firm he gets burned, and he got burned badly.

The irony, of course, is that Romney scored his biggest points by moving to Obama's left. The Etch-a-Sketch was in action, as Romney transformed himself from a "severe conservative" to "Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney."

But conservatives didn't care, because one, they know Romney is malleable and they'd be able to shape him like silly putty, and two, they'd embrace Bernie Sanders if the Vermont socialist went on stage and punched Obama.

But here's the data, post-debate: In what were the worst polling days for the president all cycle, the GOP's hack pollster Rasmussen found Nevada tied 47-47, Obama up in Iowa 49-47, Obama up in Colorado 49-48, and Obama up in Ohio 50-49. He also found Romney up 49-47 in Florida and 49-48 in Virginia.

PPP found Obama winning Virginia 50-47 and Wisconsin 49-47. Ann Selzer, one of the best pollsters in the biz, found Obama leading in Colorado 47-43. We've got a CNN poll of Ohio coming out in several hours which will also help paint a better picture of where things stand. But again, remember—if the poll was in the field last Thursday and Friday, the results won't be great. But in this, the highest point in Romney's campaign thus far, this is the best he can muster?

(Continue reading below the fold.)





Likely Voters' Choice for President: Obama 51%, Romney 47% (MoE +/-3.5% pts)

@PeterHambyCNN via web CNN/ORC POLL October 5-8 OHIOLikely Voters' Choice for President: Obama 51%, Romney 47% (MoE +/-3.5% pts)

Told y'all.

Note, that CNN poll was in the field Fri-Mon, which means it avoided that bad Thursday, and added a good Monday (and maybe Sunday). This week, the numbers will be heavily dependent on when exactly the poll was taken.