Snap Polls Give Overwhelming Win to Obama
The first snap polls on the debate are out, and they're giving a resounding win to Barack Obama.
In the CBS poll of undecided debate-watchers, 53% say Obama won, only 22% say McCain won, and 24% say it was a tie.
The CNN poll was just read on the air, surveying all debate-watchers in general. It shows 58% saying Obama won, to 31% saying McCain won. Barack Obama's personal ratings are 66% favorable to 33% unfavorable, way ahead of McCain's score of 49%-49%.
Late Update: Some more numbers from the CNN poll were just read on TV. Obama was seen as stating his ideas more clearly by 66%-25%, was seen as the stronger leader by 56%-39%, and was more likable by 70%-22%. McCain did win in one category: He's the candidate who launched more attacks on his opponent, by a whopping 80%-7%.
Late Late Update: Independents, who made up 30% of CNN's sample, gave it to Obama 57%-31%, essentially the same as the overall margin for Obama.

4-0
Fat lady get your fat ass to the stage and sing your heart out.
October 15, 2008 11:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
She done sung - those are her last notes you hear hanging in the air...
I really thought McLame was going to lunge at Obama at any second and grab his nose between his little yellow teeth like an enraged ferret-
October 15, 2008 11:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
At this point there is a entire choir of fat ladies singing on stage.
October 15, 2008 11:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
i hope they sing at the inauguration.
October 15, 2008 11:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
i hope they sing at the inauguration.
October 15, 2008 11:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've read about your Secret Obama African Flag. For shame!
October 15, 2008 11:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Methinks McCain will be spending more time with his family...
President elect Obama.
Yup, I could get used to that.
October 15, 2008 11:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Arizona is a pretty nice place to retire from what I hear.
October 15, 2008 11:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
A Sedona ranch helps quite a bit.
October 15, 2008 11:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
For those who never been there, its very very very expensive to live there.
October 15, 2008 11:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, most of us cannot come close to being about to do so.
October 15, 2008 11:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
The magnetic vortices are free. We can drive by.
October 16, 2008 12:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
When your in Arizona, It is a must see. A beautiful drive up Oak Creek Canyon towards Flagstaff.
The town is full of tourists, and the leaves are changing color.
October 16, 2008 9:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
No shit - that's a gorgeous place.
I like Taos a hell of a lot better - but Sedona is beautiful.
October 15, 2008 11:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I want a president that DOESN"T have a ranch. GO BAMA
October 16, 2008 8:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
I want a president that DOESN"T have a ranch. GO BAMA
October 16, 2008 8:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is the first debate I watched a substantial portion of, live.
I was stunned at how angry McCain still is. It's amazing to me how after the last two debates, even after all the coaching he must be getting, he can't contain his anger and contempt.
And it THRILLS me to no end to see that the American people are seeing this too, and are turned off by it.
October 15, 2008 11:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain tried to label himself as the underdog, (are you kidding me) and it didn't work.
Even the Republicans I was with thought the weird breathing and out-of-context talking points recitation was weird and inappropriate.
I just kept say, "you pesky kids better get off of my grass; I know who your parents are". They laughed and totally agreed.
When McCain said, "I'm not George Bush (in 2004)", Obama should have replied, "The 2000 race is over and I'm not George Bush either."
October 16, 2008 12:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
I was pretty sure at one point that McCain was going to deck Obama. That's one angry man.
October 16, 2008 12:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
TRY to deck Obama. It seems to me that in that, as in the election, McCain would come up second best.
October 16, 2008 1:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
The split screen was a killer; Mickey couldn't stop fidgeting and blinking his beady eyes . . .
October 16, 2008 10:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Now that is funny, can't stop laughing
October 15, 2008 11:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now that is funny, can't stop laughing.
October 15, 2008 11:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
For people who pay attention to subtleties, what struck me most tonight was that McCain cried his crocodile tears -- as if going for the Joe Biden emotion moment -- over being called a racist. Obama's been called a racist, too, and worse. Far worse, including a baby killer. And none of that showed. He didn't stoop to it and you know what, I can support someone who knows that you don't let a bully see you cry -- that, to me, is Presidential. When was the last time any president you admired complained of hurt feelings? Obama's answer: Our feelings don't matter, the American people matter.
Presidential. Everything else that happened in the debate, to me, pales next to that moment.
October 16, 2008 1:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Same here. I think it just burns McCain's ass that he is being whipped by Obama. McCain strikes me as very racist and the notion that a black man is just handing him his ass is just too much to take. McCain is a very dangerous man and has no business anywhere near the White House.
October 16, 2008 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Same here. I think it just burns McCain's ass that he is being whipped by Obama. McCain strikes me as very racist and the notion that a black man is just handing him his ass is just too much to take. McCain is a very dangerous man and has no business anywhere near the White House.
October 16, 2008 11:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can I just say....WoooHooo!
October 15, 2008 11:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
This was the first debate I thought Obama won outright. I have no idea why the punditry thought McCain was ahead until the Lewis exchange.
October 15, 2008 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought this was the first debate that McCain crowded Obama enough to even claim a tie.
I'm actually a bit surprised to see undecideds split like this since I'm assuming that at this point, most of the undecideds left are actually McCain leaners who haven't seen enough to come to him yet. If this is an indication of how the remaining undecideds are going to fall, Obama's looking at 400 EV's in 20 days.
October 15, 2008 11:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
mcSame is really like an incumbent here. So as far as the undecideds go, they've had many, many years to get to know mcSame. If they weren't for him before, then they'll likely break for Obama. That's where the momentum is. I agree. We're looking at a landslide coming.
October 15, 2008 11:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Could someone please explain to me why we're supposed to believe that "I am not President Bush" is such a powerful line? Is it that pundits desperately want to hear echoes of "you're no Jack Kennedy" in it?
October 15, 2008 11:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nail on head.
October 16, 2008 12:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Game. Set. Match.
October 15, 2008 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Al Hunt: McCain started out great then turned "schizoid".
October 15, 2008 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought he was a disaster from the beginning, with the stuttering and the shaking and the repetition of "they're angry. They're angry and they're angry."
October 15, 2008 11:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Co-sign.
October 15, 2008 11:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did he say so? I thought McCain was shaky and incoherent from the beginning. And nervous laugh, contempt, anger -- near explosion, throughout. I just don't understand why those pundits are saying it was McCain's night -- then again, I guess they will change their initial reaction after seeing poll results, just as they did in the previous two.
October 15, 2008 11:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I couldn't get past the botox.
October 15, 2008 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
My feeling was that the pundits were going to say, as usual, that McCain was strong here and there, but that he didn't do enough to help his cause.
I think he did MUCH worse than that. I agree, his anger is phenomenal.
October 15, 2008 11:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is what Hunt actually said on Charlie Rose. Actually used the word "schizoid".
October 15, 2008 11:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
By the by, if you get the "No suitable nodes are available to serve your request" when you submit your post, try going back to the previous page (back button) and reload it. It works for me -- the reloaded page shows my comment, without any double post etc whatsoever.
(This should be an emergency rescue solution).
October 15, 2008 11:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
4-0
Fat lady get your fat ass to the stage and sing your heart out.
October 15, 2008 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can I just say....WoooHooo!
October 15, 2008 11:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love these instant polls - it puts the spin into context before the next days newscycle.
October 15, 2008 11:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. They take all of the spin out of the spin room.
October 15, 2008 11:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
checkmate yahtzee and gin my friends
October 15, 2008 11:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I feel like the heaviest bureden is lifted off my shoulders.
Relieved
October 15, 2008 11:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Given no game changers in this one and the fact McCain still hasn't found his straight talk this time, it's probably over but the paper work by the people on November 4th to make it official.
Say good night John and go back to the senate.
October 15, 2008 11:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
You guys are all sadly wrong. I just spoke with Joe the Plumber, and he strongly believed that this performance delivered EXCELLENT NEWS FOR JOHN MCCAIN.
October 15, 2008 11:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS FOR JOE THE PLUMBER!!
October 15, 2008 11:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
CBS actually had the guy on the phone with a live interview with Katie Couric who promptly cut him off because it was coming up on the top of the hour. They cut off Joe the plumber (oh you can watch him online...).
October 15, 2008 11:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nobody cuts off good ole' Joe and gets away with it.
October 15, 2008 11:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't worry. Apparently, John McCain feels more than comfortable speaking for Joe.
October 15, 2008 11:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Joe the Plumber SO has a LOCK on the Republican nomination. Unless Palin want it. Or Zombie Reagan.
October 15, 2008 11:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Joe the Plumber at this point can just write his own ticket. I'm thinking maybe he can be Secretary of Plumbing in the new administration.
October 15, 2008 11:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Given no game changers in this one and the fact McCain still hasn't found his straight talk this time, it's probably over but the paper work by the people on November 4th to make it official.
Say good night John and go back to the senate.
October 15, 2008 11:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
This certainly is encouraging - but I really want to know what independent voters thought (exclusively) -- to see where we are going.
October 15, 2008 11:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, before the debate MSNBC ran the results of a poll in which the question was whether the debate was going to effect their decision and the results were: 94% No, I've already decided and of course, 6% undecided.
As I said earlier, I suspect that 6% may never have voted in their lives and won't start now. LOL!
October 15, 2008 11:18 PM | Reply | Permalink