Not sure how useful this is but I subjected you to an eeyorish “no bounce yet” post about Romney during the convention so I owe you a tentative high-five. Mitt ended up with the most modest possible bump after the GOP shindig ended; maybe this new poll is a sign that O won’t fare any better.

Major, major caveat: The poll was conducted (via online interview) from September 2 through today, which means the sample contains lots of people who hadn’t yet heard Michelle Obama or, especially, Bill Clinton speak. As I say, not that useful, but worth flagging as a marker for the more robust polls that’ll trickle out tomorrow and Saturday.

The latest daily tracking poll found Republican Mitt Romney still clinging to a narrow lead of 45 percent to Obama’s 44 percent among likely voters. Romney had led by 46 percent to 44 percent in Wednesday’s poll.

“We’re not seeing a sort of glimmer, at this point, of a bump,” said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark…

“I do think we probably will see a small bump still. Maybe we won’t start seeing it until Friday, Saturday or Sunday. I think it will be very modest,” Clark said…

For Romney, Thursday’s poll was good news. He is holding steady so far despite rampant criticism of him at the convention.

Even if he gets an immediate bounce, remember that Romney’s about to unleash the heavy attack-ad artillery tomorrow. He could have done it earlier this week, but why waste money on ads before O speaks when there’s a chance they’ll be instantly forgotten if he performs well tonight? Better to let him have his moment in Charlotte and then unload to try to instantly neutralize his momentum. And what happens if O gets a surprisingly big bounce and the Romney fusillade fails to dent it? Well, then we’re going to an all-eeyore-all-the-time format here at HA, baby. Prepare yourselves. Gray skies at the ol’ blog homestead until September at least.

Here’s O admitting to an NBC affiliate that he made a terrible mistake with his “you didn’t build that” line — in his choice of syntax, not the underlying sentiment. Poor messaging is, now and forever, the only sin Democrats will happily confess to. Right, Nicholas Kristof?