CNN Post-Debate Poll: Obama Won Big

By Jeralyn, Section Blog Related
Posted on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:08:07 PM EST
Tags: Barack Obama, John McCain, d (all tags)

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CNN's post debate poll (video here): Those polled all watched the debate. The breakdown:

40% D, 30% R, Rest Independents.
This tracks with voter registration.

Obama 58%
McCain 31%

Obama Favorables:
Was 63, Now 66
Unfavorables:
Was 35, Now 33

McCain's Favorables:
Was 51, Now 49
Unfavorables:
Was 45, now 49

Update: CBS (video here): 53 -22. Obama. [More...]

Fifty-three percent of the uncommitted voters surveyed identified Democratic nominee Barack Obama as the winner of tonight's debate. Twenty-two percent said Republican rival John McCain won. Twenty-four percent saw the debate as a draw.

CNN: 53% said Ayers matters to them "not at all." On shared values, CBS reports:

Before the debate, 54 percent thought Obama shared their values. That percentage rose to 63 percent after the debate. For McCain, 53 percent thought he shared their values before the debate, and 56 percent thought so afterwards.

< Hillary's Post-Debate Interview on CNN | McCain's Litmus Test On Roe >

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CNN Post-Debate Poll: Obama Won Big | 24 comments (24 topical)

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CNN also (5.00 / 0) (#1)
by shoulin4 on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:10:41 PM EST

just said that all the other stations say that Obama won by those margins or larger.

What was really funny though was the look of surprise on the CNN pundits' faces. It was almost hilarious McCain's "zero?" look.

: Try as they might (5.00 / 1) (#7)
by Pegasus on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:29:12 PM EST

they just can't convince the rest of the country that this race is close.

Duh (5.00 / 0) (#2)
by andgarden on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:11:36 PM EST

McCain acted like an @ss.

McCain (5.00 / 1) (#10)
by cal1942 on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:34:15 PM EST

IS an @ss


: Deep, very deep... (none / 0) (#19)
by marian evans on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 11:10:00 PM EST

this is the kind of policy analysis that really enriches our political understanding*
* BTW, did you know that the Chinese have no word for the concept of irony? Fortunately English is richly endowed with this very useful rhetorical device...Oh & I'm definitely not a McCain supporter.

McCain is Creepy (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by robrecht on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:22:38 PM EST

Don't go to his house on Halloween!

Any of his houses! (4.42 / 7) (#8)
by ruffian on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:29:17 PM EST

: Heh (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by robrecht on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:32:05 PM EST

I didn't understand (5.00 / 0) (#5)
by TomStewart on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:28:40 PM EST

McCain's performance tonight. Was this really the performance he meant to give? His expressions looked rehearsed but out of sync, his answers seemed to come from some 'Big Book of Fake Facts for Fun and Profit' but even those were disjointed and at times pure nonsense. His anger got the better of him several times, and his complaining came off as whining.

I bet he thinks he won, he got in all the stuff that he'd practised in the mirror, remembered his 'zingers' and even pulled out his 'old-hand-shaking-his-head-at-youthful-ignorance' bit that goes over so well with his staff. Yep, I bet he thinks he won...

And by this time, there no one left on the campaign to tell him different.

Absolutely (5.00 / 0) (#18)
by lilburro on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:54:01 PM EST

I thought he had taken lessons from Sarah Palin or something. His answers were about as incoherent as hers. He was winking. And he was clearly trying to draw in the American Joe, piggybacking on Joe Sixpack. His response to the woes of negative attacking in campaigns is actually an attack? Apparently he has no sense of irony either.

Heh, as a sidenote, my not very political mother made it through the first ten minutes, but only that. She kept slowly pulling her blanket over her head whenever McCain spoke.


: IT was like a Parody (5.00 / 0) (#20)
by TomStewart on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 11:11:13 PM EST

of McCain. Really, he could join the cast of SNL, he does a better send-up of himself than Darrell Hammond does.

They could put the time to use reading some (5.00 / 1) (#6)
by ThatOneVoter on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:28:45 PM EST

economics texts, and some post 1st century AD philosophy, and a basic biology text or two.

Can't help this (5.00 / 0) (#11)
by cal1942 on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:38:06 PM EST

can't hold back any longer.

The Undecided voters that CBS has been showing are complete idiots.

: Yes, too bad they are not as educated as the (5.00 / 1) (#13)
by ThatOneVoter on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:40:35 PM EST

decided voters you can find at Dailykos, eh?
Truly, There is no spoon.

I thought this was Obama's best debate (5.00 / 1) (#14)
by Coral on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:43:01 PM EST

so I am astounded that so many of the pundits I saw (ABC, PBS) seemed to see it as even, with the edge to Obama.

Glad to see the instant polls validate my opinion.

It wasn't McCain's worst debate (the first was absolutely dreadful), but he went on and on saying meaningless things over and over.

The Joe the Plumber stuff seemed pointless after the first few mentions. And I began to think about how expensive it is every time I call a plumber -- yet I still don't think my plumber is netting over a quarter of a mill a year...and if he is, well, he should pay his share of taxes. So, he seemed to be running on thin ice there.

All he seems to have is taxes.

Obama had a great moment on the autism thing, showing that McCain's spending freeze (or across the board cut) would mean that research money couldn't be spent on problems like that.

Obama came back with very clear arguments against many of McCain's points, and I thought he was most effective in showing that McCain really had no viable plan or program, just a bunch of empty talking points.

He did a similar thing with the Ayers accusations, listing other participants on the education board he served on with Ayers.

This was the closest to a real debate of any of the presidential campaign debates I've seen.

There was a real logical flow that is rare on television.

: I was wondering if some of the pundits (5.00 / 0) (#21)
by TomStewart on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 11:17:34 PM EST

were feeling sorry for McCain was skewed towards him. Maybe they have this secret pundit checklist they go down:
Good soundbite, check
Got in Ayers, check
Zinger, check
Called Obama names, check
Says nice things about Palin, check
Says bad things about Biden, check
No taxes, check
Big tax cuts, Check
"Well, Wolf, I'd have to give this one to McCain. He did everything on my checklist, so he must have won!"

I didn't realize.. (5.00 / 1) (#15)
by lucky leftie on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:45:54 PM EST

...ACORN was such a threat to our way of life. What did he say, "threatens the very fabric of our democracy?' Sheesh.

: He is such (5.00 / 0) (#16)
by shoulin4 on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:49:11 PM EST

a drama king.

You aren't mistaken. I don't agree that (5.00 / 0) (#17)
by Teresa on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 10:51:25 PM EST

being in the military qualifies anyone to teach kids but I do think that people highly qualified in their fields should be allowed to teach without going back to school for a teaching certificate.

It depends on the field but my daughter is taking high school accounting and I know I would be a better teacher than her teacher is. Every night, I have to teach her what he was supposed to.

: I think teachers should (5.00 / 1) (#22)
by Amiss on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 11:43:10 PM EST

be held to higher standards than currently are and they should be keeping up with their credentials just as other professions such as Doctors and Nurses etc are. They have our children's futures in their hands and should be held to the highest standards.
The way it sounded to me was he would let any serviceman or woman come back and teach without any certification, just because they served in the Military and that is just bull pucky, IMHO, of course.
Our schools here in Florida used to be among the top in the nation, now we are either at or near the bottom. We need to get rid of our idiocy in continually electing Republican Governors and start electing some Democrats, it is shameful to me to see what goes on in schools these days after so much Republican state and national majorities.

I came away thinking Obama is becoming more (none / 0) (#23)
by thereyougo on Thu Oct 16, 2008 at 12:52:22 AM EST

poised and self assured as this thing draws to a close, unrattled by anything McCain threw at him.

If the mute button was on, I wouldn't be able to tell if Obama was sweating like when the Kennedy Nixon debates as Nixon was visibly rattled by the sweat on his face.

I for one will be glad we'll get over this drama so we could get to work on fixing the mess left by the worse administration in modern history.

McCain doesn't get it (none / 0) (#24)
by Sandra S on Thu Oct 16, 2008 at 01:55:21 AM EST

McCain keeps using the same tactics and he keeps hitting the brick wall. The harder he pushes the worse he makes it for himself. Talk about hard headed. Obama of course came across as presidential because after all the force of the hot air that is McCain, the reed was still left standing. Remember that one? The hurricane knocked down the tree which resisted the winds, but the reed bent with the winds and was left standing.

: It's not tactics. (none / 0) (#26)
by LarryInNYC on Thu Oct 16, 2008 at 06:42:56 AM EST

That's just John McCain you're seeing.

Polls are SKEWED! (none / 0) (#25)
by sunshinek67 on Thu Oct 16, 2008 at 04:52:02 AM EST

These so called undecided "focus" groups that are wired during these debates are a joke! The mainstream media once again is trying to define and dictate an election outcome! Exit polling from states in the eastern time zone in the election of 2004 at 3:00pm submitted from media outlets declared a landslide victory for Kerry, and we all know how that turned out! CNN post debate poll results are prefaced with a declaration that there are 10% more Dems than Reps in the sampling and yet they STILL submit the results on air and then subsequent headlines read "Obama Won" without mentioning who was polled. Whatever. I will never believe another poll result in my life!