Another debate, another poll just before it

There’s plenty of talk about the Republican CNN debate in Nevada, asking who won and who lost. I’ve enjoyed using the polling to make those determinations, because the debates have tended to swing the numbers. But, to know where the swing is, we have to know where we started.

The new Associated Press/GfK/Roper poll helps tell us just that.

It’s a telephone poll, mobile and landline handling. 431 Republican adults. MoE around 5.

The key result: I’d love to have more favorability polling among Republicans, but AP didn’t do that. They only got favorability readings for the entire sample of adults. They did pare down to Republicans for the horse race poll, which Mitt Romney won at 30 to Herman Cain’s 26, and Rick Perry’s 13. This is not a surprising result at all, as it matches well with other results we’ve seen lately. Perry’s clinging on, Romney’s just barely held off Cain, and Cain’s still well in the thick of it.

So now we wait eagerly for the next batch of polling, to take into account a debate whose consequences are being debated hotly across the Internet. For once, I’m seeing no punditocracy consensus on winners and losers, which I find to be an exciting development.