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Watched the debate and here's my opinion:
No one threw a knockout punch. No one gave us an embarrassing gaffe. No one 'won.' If you came in thinking that McCain is your man, you were proud that McCain managed to keep Obama on the defensive for most of the debate and reframed the economic portion of the debate as being about "earmarks" rather than being about the actual economy -- and Obama let him do it. If you're an Obama supporter, you were pleased that Obama came across as calm, knowledgeable, and presidential, while McCain increasingly resembled like your grumpy Uncle Fred, who is condescending and refuses to even look at you. McCain gave us the only emotional moments when he talked about the soldiers asking him to allow them to 'win' while Obama appeared ineffective at tying issues to the people they affect. On the other hand, Obama gave us a far, far better idea of the specifics of what he would do as president while McCain gave us only vague, blustery fluff.
No one won. No one changed any minds, and I doubt that the "undecided" voters out there learned enough to convince them one way or the other.
That's my feeling. What's yours?
EDITED TO ADD: After I wrote this, I went to electoral-vote.com and found this: "CBS ran a poll immediately after the debate and found that among undecided voters, 39% thought Obama won vs. 24% who thought McCain won. In addition, 46% of the uncommitted voters said their opinion of Obama got better and only 8% said their opinion got worse. For McCain, 32% said they now thought more of him but 21% thought worse of him after the debate. Many observers have said this election is about Barack Obama. There is no doubt the country agrees with him on almost every policy issue. The key question is do people think he is up to the toughest job in the world. In terms of convincing people that he is ready for the top slot, the debate definitely helped him."
If true, then Obama wins on points. I still think there's no clear winner.
No one threw a knockout punch. No one gave us an embarrassing gaffe. No one 'won.' If you came in thinking that McCain is your man, you were proud that McCain managed to keep Obama on the defensive for most of the debate and reframed the economic portion of the debate as being about "earmarks" rather than being about the actual economy -- and Obama let him do it. If you're an Obama supporter, you were pleased that Obama came across as calm, knowledgeable, and presidential, while McCain increasingly resembled like your grumpy Uncle Fred, who is condescending and refuses to even look at you. McCain gave us the only emotional moments when he talked about the soldiers asking him to allow them to 'win' while Obama appeared ineffective at tying issues to the people they affect. On the other hand, Obama gave us a far, far better idea of the specifics of what he would do as president while McCain gave us only vague, blustery fluff.
No one won. No one changed any minds, and I doubt that the "undecided" voters out there learned enough to convince them one way or the other.
That's my feeling. What's yours?
EDITED TO ADD: After I wrote this, I went to electoral-vote.com and found this: "CBS ran a poll immediately after the debate and found that among undecided voters, 39% thought Obama won vs. 24% who thought McCain won. In addition, 46% of the uncommitted voters said their opinion of Obama got better and only 8% said their opinion got worse. For McCain, 32% said they now thought more of him but 21% thought worse of him after the debate. Many observers have said this election is about Barack Obama. There is no doubt the country agrees with him on almost every policy issue. The key question is do people think he is up to the toughest job in the world. In terms of convincing people that he is ready for the top slot, the debate definitely helped him."
If true, then Obama wins on points. I still think there's no clear winner.