Barack Obama Elected President!

[Roman]

40% of uncommitted voters who watched the debate tonight thought Barack Obama was the winner. 22% thought John McCain won. 38% saw it as a draw.

68% of these voters think Obama would make the right decision

about the economy. 41% think McCain would.

49% of these voters think Obama would make the right decisions about Iraq. 55% think McCain would.

[Jess]

That's good for Obama. This was supposed to be McCain's big area. I'm surprised about Iraq. I base that on the lines though. The fact that 40 percent thought Obama won and 38 percent thought it was a draw is good. I wonder if it changed any minds though.

[George008]

{{{{DRUDGE POLL}}}} WHO WON THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE?...

MCCAIN 67% 113,875

OBAMA 31% 53,418

NEITHER 2% 3,866

Total Votes: 171,159

drudgereport.com

according to the Drudge Report...

LOL!

[George008]

Iranians mock Holocaust on annual Jerusalem Day

[George008]

Surprise, surprise...I thought McCain's many "he doesn't understand", "naive", and "dangerous" comments were very effective (especially his closing comment about his feeling that Obama is not ready). I think McCain nailed him on Iran and spending...

[George008]

Brand new ad..."John McCain is right"

watch on youtube

[Toups]

That ad was so dumb!! LMAO!!

Taking sound bites/portions of what Obama said to make JM look good?

[Roman]

Drudge?

Ok. That's objective.

I tell you this......

I don't respect anyone who won't look someone in the eye. For McCain to not look at Obama once, really made him look very bad.

And Obama nailed McCain to the wall with his stance on Iran. Bringing up that stupid song that McCain sung.....that shows how silly McCain can get in certain points.

[Roman]

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/...1845106,00.html

[Roman]

Poll: Both men beat expectations — but Obama had the edge

Posted: 11:28 PM ET

OXFORD, Mississippi (CNN) – A national poll of people who watched the first presidential debate suggests that Barack Obama came out on top.

Fifty-one percent of those polled in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey of Americans who viewed the debate say that Obama won. Thirty-eight percent of those polled say that John McCain did the best job.

“According to our CNN survey, McCain and Obama both exceeded debate viewers’ expectations tonight,” noted CNN Senior Political Researcher Alan Silverleib. “It can be reasonably concluded, especially after accounting for the slight Democratic bias in the survey, that we witnessed a tie in Mississippi tonight. But given the direction of the campaign over the last couple of weeks, a tie translates to a win for Obama. McCain is trailing right now; he needed a game changer. There are no indications he got that tonight.”

Men were nearly evenly split between the two candidates, with 46 percent giving the win to McCain, and 43 percent to Obama. But women voters tended to give Obama higher marks: 59 percent thought he was the night’s winner, while just 31 percent said the same of McCain.

Both men did better than expected, according to those surveyed: 57 percent say Obama exceeded their expectations, and 60 percent said the same of McCain. One in five voters thought each man under-performed.

National security has been an issue where McCain has held an advantage, but his 4 point edge over Obama — 49 to 45 percent — on the question of which candidate would best handle terrorism is within the poll’s 4.5 percent margin of error.

The economy, which has been Obama’s terrain this cycle, dominated the first half of the debate – and debate watchers gave him a 21 point edge, 58 to 37 percent, on the question of which candidate would do a better job handling the economy. By a similar margin, those polled said he would be better able to deal with the current financial crisis facing the nation.

But the real impact of the debate may not be apparent right away. "The real test will come in a few days when we see whether support for Obama or McCain changes in polls involving all voters, not just debate watchers," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "In post-debate polls after the first face-off in 2004, John Kerry got virtually the same numbers as Obama did tonight. Polls released a few days later showed Kerry gaining five points in the horse race."

Good numbers in a post-debate poll don't always spell success in the horse race. "Kerry also won the third debate in 2004 with the same numbers that Obama got in tonight's poll, but his support dropped five points after that event," Holland noted.

The poll consisted of interviews with 524 adult Americans who watched the debate conducted by telephone on September 26. All interviews were conducted after the end of the debate. The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The audience for this debate appears to be more Democratic than the U.S. population as a whole. Because of this, the results favor Obama simply because more Democrats than Republicans tuned into the debate. The sample of debate-watchers in this poll were 41 percent Democratic and 27 percent Republican. The best estimate of the number of Democrats in the voting age population as a whole indicates that the sample is roughly 5-7 points more Democratic than the population as a whole.

[David_Vickers]

A Republican neo-con site has McCain winning the debate. I'm utterly speechless lmfao. Who'd thunk that?

John McCain is NOT right on any damned thing. Another McCain lie.

[Greg's GL]

Roman, thanks for posting this. This analysis was very thorough and it echoed what many that were watching the debate with me thought.

IA Roman that the fact McCain couldn't look at Obama directly left me with a bad taste in my mouth. And it made him look even worse because Obama was addressing him directly.

Secondly, McCain's answers were stiff and wooden, IMO. Barack clearly has the personality edge and he came across to me as very much in command of the issues. He looked very confident. There may not have been a "knock out punch" like in some debates past, but there didn't have to be. Obama went toe to toe with McCain and didn't blink. He was respectful and in no way came off as inexperienced, despite McCain's efforts to paint him as such. McCain came off a little weaker and less confident in his answers. This was supposed to be his forte and he should have been able to sweep the floor with Obama. He didn't. And that's why he lost.

It's funny the only media outlet saying McCain won is Drudge. Every other major news outlet that I've seen gives it to Obama. Oh, wait. Yeah....they're the "liberal" media. I forgot.

I find it hard to believe that anyone - when watching the debate sans bias - would say McCain "won". It was a big night for Obama, topping off a very bad week for McCain/Palin and I'm very interested in watching what happens with the polls.

I was watching CNN. In addition to the lines at the bottom of the screen (which Jess is right - personal attacks did not go over well), they had "scorecards" of analysts displayed on the screen. 3 Libs and 3 Conservs. At the end of the debate, Obama clearly had the win, even with the Conservatives.

[Jess]

McCain was condescending and angry throughout the debate. I've decided he is just a pissed off man. His ads are starting to backfire again, I think. As far as the Drudge poll, that was an online poll of people who log into his site. It would be like going to Obama's web site and voting on who won. Of course, McCain won, who goes to read the Drudge report? It's like the Fox poll. It ws 92 percent McCain, but really who votes on Fox online? If there is a biased and conservative s news outliet, that is it.

Does it seem to anyone else as if McCain has decided he'll participate in the events and then try to reconstruct history with paid ads? He seems to do the minimal campaign-wise, but then invest heavily in not only running ads, but promoting them in advance and also plopping them up quickly on the internet.

[Greg's GL]

You're right, Jess. But lookie here what I found at FauxNews. One of the commentators made this statement -

AND

[Roman]

Well, I'm watching MSNBC, and there are some columnists who feel McCain won. But what I now keep hearing is this........Obama held his own, and came off much better on FP than anyone thought he would. There is a HUGE number of people who think it was a tie. If that is the case, it does not bode well for McCain. I didn't see it, so I can't honestly say who won or lost. I will say this....the clips I have seen have McCain looking like "Who does this punk think he is?! Doesn't he know who I am?!" McCain seemed to look down on Obama, and Obama looked into his eyes, and stood tall. He didn't shout, but was foreceful. People can see him as POTUS, which was the one thing the McCain campaign didn't want.

But, both men have to get to some subsance next time. Neither had it, from what I understand, and Obama missed some openings by being too much "above it all".