Daily Kos Elections Polling Wrap: Will third-party candidates crash the presidential stage?

Relying on some somewhat old numbers (the poll was in the field during the second week in June), Gallup offers a good news/bad news assessment for Democrats and fans of the president regarding the impact that third-party candidates may have on the upcoming battle for the White House.

The good news for Democrats: Any success for third-party candidates is liable to come from Mitt Romney, and will pad the president's advantage.

The bad news for Democrats: Whatever numbers those third-party candidates swing in polling data is almost certainly not going to be replicated in November at the ballot box.

So ... there's that. Onto the numbers:

PRESIDENTIAL GENERAL ELECTION TRIAL HEATS:

NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Obama d. Romney (48-44)

 NATIONAL w/THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES (Gallup): Barack Obama (D) 47, Mitt Romney (R) 40, Gary Johnson (L) 3, Ron Paul (?) 2, Jill Stein (G) 1, Virgil Goode (C) <1

NATIONAL (Rasmussen Tracking): Romney d. Obama (46-44)

CALIFORNIA (Field Poll): Obama d. Romney (55-37)

DOWNBALLOT POLLING:

TX-SEN'R (WPA Opinion Research for Cruz): Ted Cruz 49, David Dewhurst 40

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