Daily Kos Elections Polling Wrap: Lack of data leads some to really awful polling analysis

With the convention heading towards the balloon drop in Charlotte this evening, the raw number of data points this week has continued to dwindle down to just a small handful.

Perhaps eager to fill the void, the internets have been burning up with some really dreadfully weak polling analysis. I mean, some almost comically piss-poor crap.

We'll lay some of those horrifically bad polling memes to rest in a bit, but for now, suffice it to say that if anyone wanted to put in some halfway decent analysis of today's data, it would be that (a) it doesn't tell us a hell of a lot more than we knew yesterday, and (b) it is still too early to even attempt to play the "guess the bounce" game with regard to this week's festivities in Charlotte.

On to the numbers:

PRESIDENTIAL GENERAL ELECTION TRIAL HEATS:

NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Obama d. Romney (47-46)

NATIONAL (Ipsos-Reuters Tracking): Romney d. Obama (45-44 LV; 44-43 RV)

NATIONAL (Rasmussen Tracking): Romney d. Obama (47-44)

NEW JERSEY (Quinnipiac): Obama d. Romney (51-44)

DOWNBALLOT POLLING:

CA-47 (Probolsky Research for the DeLong campaign): Gary DeLong (R) 53, Alan Lowenthal (D) 44 (+)

CT-05 (National Research for the NRCC and the Roraback campaign): Andrew Roraback (R) 42, Elizabeth Esty (D) 35

NJ-SEN (Magellan for the Kyrillos Campaign): Sen. Robert Menendez (D) 45, Joe Kyrillos (R) 41

NJ-SEN (Quinnipiac): Sen. Robert Menendez (D) 50, Joe Kyrillos (R) 40

(+)--A mega-caveat on this one. Read below the jump.

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