The AP reports the presidential battleground map “is as compact as it’s been in decades, with just nine states seeing the bulk of candidate visits, campaign ads and get-out-the-vote efforts in the hunt for the 270 Electoral College votes needed for victory. That means just a fraction of Americans will determine the outcome of the race for the White House.”

Pollster David Paleologos of Suffolk University told Bill O’Reilly that his organization will not be doing any further polls in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia because he believes President Obama has no chance to win those states.

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“We weren’t geniuses last week and we’re not stupid this week. It’s going to be a tight race. We’ve always said that.”

— An unnamed Obama adviser, in an interview with Mark Halperin, while adding that “we have more routes to win than he does.”

Nate Cohn: “Over the next few days, more surveys will weigh-in on the size of
Romney’s post-debate bounce. But it’s important to keep an eye on
whether the polls are measuring the peak of Romney’s bounce, which looks
like it was around 4 points before the polls with Sunday interviews
pointed toward a smaller one, or whether they’re measuring the weekend
and later, when there are signs that Romney’s bounce began to fade.
Resolving the size of Romney’s bounce and whether it lasted are two
important, but separate questions. We’ll need to be careful to track
both.”

President Obama “will attend his last fundraiser of the 2012 campaign Thursday and then shift into top gear following his disastrous recent debate performance that vaporized his polling lead over challenger Mitt Romney,” The Hill reports.

Sources say the president “will spend the rest of the campaign at swing-state rallies or preparing for the next two debates instead of attending more private fundraisers.”

“You have to scratch your head when the president spends the last week talking about saving Big Bird. I actually think we need to have a president who talks about saving the American people and saving good jobs.”

— Mitt Romney, quoted by Politico.

Here are the latest polls from the battleground states:

Colorado: Romney 50%, Obama 46% (American Research Group)

Nevada: Obama 47%, Romney 47% (Rasmussen)

New Hampshire: Obama 47%, Romney 41% (WMUR)

North Carolina: Romney 50%, Obama 41% (Gravis)

Ohio: Romney 48%, Obama 47% (American Research Group)

Ohio: Obama 45%, Romney 44% (SurveyUSA)

Ohio: Obama 51%, Romney 47% (CNN/ORC)

Pennsylvania: Obama 43%, Romney 40% (Siena)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has hired Allison Gollust, former head spokesperson at NBC Universal, as his new communications director, Azi Paybarah reports.

“Gollust may be a more out-front presence than her predecessor, particularly once Cuomo lifts his self-imposed virtual ban on non-New York media in the run-up to 2016. She is replacing Richard Bamberger, a personal-publicity-shy former television producer who is departing for a job in the private sector.”

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) touts a major endorsement in a new ad — his own mother. Carol Duffy explains that she’s “a lifelong Democrat” and her Republican son “really had to earn” her vote.

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President Obama “did not take his debate preparation seriously, ignored the advice of senior aides and walked off the stage in Denver believing he had got the better of Mitt Romney,” Toby Harnden reports.

A top Democrat “said that Obama’s inner circle was dismayed at the ‘disaster’ that the first presidential debate had turned out to be and believed that the central problem was that the President was so disdainful of Romney that he didn’t believe he needed to engage with him… The Democrat, who is aligned with the Obama campaign and has been an unofficial adviser on occasions, said that David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, was stunned that the President left the stage feeling that he had won the debate.”

The DNC “had more debt than cash on hand when the general election started in September, a troubling fact few people have noticed to this point in the campaign,” the Washington Post reports.

“We already knew that the Republican National Committee had more than 10 times as much cash as the DNC while the party’s were holding their conventions, but a closer look at the DNC’s August report shows it also took out $8 million in loans during that month — which means it had more debt ($11.8 million) than cash on hand ($7.1 million).”

E.J. Dionne: “Personally, I am suspending judgment about the extent to which the debate helped Romney until we see a full round of polling from Ohio. The first Ohio polls contain positive news for Romney.”

“But his most important achievement cannot be measured by polls. What he did was change the political mood — of the media coverage, and of partisans on both sides. I’ve been in Ohio and Virginia over the past few days, and my utterly unscientific conversations suggest there is still too much talk about the debate for President Obama’s own good.”

“Moods matter because they shape decisions. Going into the debate, Romney looked like a loser. The coverage reflected that. Republican comments (usually off-the-record) reflected that. The rumors reflected that… All that has stopped. Obama supporters still don’t expect him to lose, but they are fidgety and unhappy.”

David Frum: “Political science proclaims, ‘debates don’t matter.’ After this election, we may need to retire a lot of political science.”

Here are the most recent national polls, updated as needed:

DailyKos/SEIU/Public Policy Polling: Romney 49%, Obama 47%

Gallup: Romney 49%, Obama 47%

American Research Group: Romney 48%, Obama 47%

Rasmussen: Obama 48%, Romney 48%

Reuters/Ipsos: Obama 45%, Romney 45%

Washington Times/Zogby: Obama 45%, Romney 45%

A new WBUR poll in Massachusetts finds Sen. Scott Brown (R) edging challenger Elizabeth Warren (D) by four points, 47% to 43%.

A new Western New England University poll finds Warren with a five point lead, 50% to 45%.

A new University of Massachusetts poll finds Warren with a two point lead, 48% to 46%.

First Read: “More than a week ago, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie predicted on Meet the Press that the entire narrative of the presidential contest would change after the first debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney. And White House senior adviser David Plouffe responded to Christie’s pronouncement this way: ‘If it’s going to fundamentally change, that means in seven or 10 days from now you’ll see states like Ohio tied, states like Iowa tied. Because that’s what really matters here.'”

“After some of the first polls since that debate (including Pew), Christie — who campaigns with Romney today — looks pretty prescient. But the point Plouffe made is the important development to watch in the coming days. Will the polling out of Ohio and Iowa, especially the ones conducted a few days after the debate, show a dramatically different race? Or will they show, despite some tightening, that Obama still holds the advantage on those states? If Ohio is in Obama’s column, it is VERY difficult for Romney to get to 270 electoral votes; he can do it without Ohio, but it’s hard. We’ll find out later this week where things stand in the Buckeye State.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times writes that Romney is making a big push in Ohio over the next couple of days.