Results from Tuesday's debate

"Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain sparred about domestic policy during their second presidential debate."
(source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/08/debate.poll/index.html)

CNN has two different beliefs about last Tuesday's debate: that Barack Obama performed better than John McCain, and that neither gave a better-than-average performance. Members of their political team, including Paul Begala, Gloria Borger, and David Gergen, agreed that Obama was more calm, collected, and prepared for the debate, and on several occasions rose to a challenge from McCain and destroyed his opponent's credibility. Other members of CNN's political team, including William Bennett, Alex Castellanos, and John King thought that neither candidate succeeded in laying down unique solutions that would solidify voter confidence.

Turning now to an article from CNN, results from their telephone polls show that the audience thought that Obama did much better than McCain, and that McCain didn't gain any ground in the debate despite his advantage in the town hall format. I won't plague you with numbers this time around, but here are a few statements from the article that I thought were relevant:
--Obama's favorable rating went up after the debate. McCain's didn't change.
--A majority of those polled said they thought that Obama appeared to be a better leader and was more likeable than McCain in the debate.
--An overwhelming majority thought that McCain spent more time than Obama in attacking his opponent.
--Democrats thought Obama won. Republicans thought McCain won.

It's interesting to me that the results of the poll show that Obama did better than McCain on a majority of points, despite the near-even ratio of Republicans to Democrats in those polled--yet when asked directly who won the debate, both parties thought their own candidate won.

It seems like CNN is maybe asking questions that pertain more to Obama than McCain to make him look like he has the spotlight, especially when there is a clear split in the last point I made.

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" Highlights, analysis of the second presidential debate." CNN.com. 8 Oct 2008. CNN. 14 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/08/second.debate.highlights/index.html#cnnSTCOther2>.

Steinhauser, Paul. " Obama picks up second debate win, poll says." CNN.com. 8 Oct 2008. CNN. 14 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/08/debate.poll/index.html>.