Daily Kos Elections Polling Wrap: Some Democratic challengers show signs of strength in new data

While the presidential race continues to look absurdly tight in most national polling, and perhaps a tad less so in a state-by-state analysis, the banner headlines for the Tuesday edition of the Wrap come from opposite ends of the country, where two Democratic candidates are in a position where they have not been in a while'out in front.

While both are in what are generally considered to be tossup races, both gubernatorial aspirant Jay Inslee of Washington and Senate contender Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts are sporting actual leads in new polling out today. That, and another example of internal polling counterstrike, grace our edition of the Wrap.

On to the numbers:

PRESIDENTIAL GENERAL ELECTION TRIAL HEATS:

NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Obama d. Romney (46-45)

NATIONAL (Hart and McInturff for NBC News/Wall Street Journal): Obama d. Romney (49-43)

NATIONAL (PPP for Daily Kos/SEIU): Obama tied with Romney (46-46)

NATIONAL (Rasmussen Tracking): Romney d. Obama (45-44)

MICHIGAN (Rasmussen): Obama d. Romney (48-42)

DOWNBALLOT POLLING:

FL-16 (PPP for Fitzgerald): Rep. Vern Buchanan (R) 44, Keith Fitzgerald (D) 36

MA-SEN (MassINC): Elizabeth Warren (D) 40, Sen. Scott Brown (R) 38

NY-01 (Garin-Hart-Yang for the House Majority PAC): Rep. Tim Bishop (D) 56, Randy Altschuler (R) 32

WA-GOV (Elway): Jay Inslee (D) 43, Rob McKenna (R) 36

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