Say It to My Face Debate Post-Mortem
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right — 11:02 EDT: [Nate] CNN poll from the tee-vee: Obama 58, McCain 31. 11:00 EDT: [Nate] CBS undecideds: Obama 53, McCain 22. 11:00 EDT: [Sean] Hillary Clinton on CNN sounding pretty good. The Clintons need to get their butts to southeast Ohio, West Virginia, and southwest PA. 10:55 EDT: [Nate] At the end of the day, one of McCain's problems is that he simply doesn't own the negativity very well. During the John Lewis sequence, during the ACORN and Ayers stuff, he came across as uncomfortable, insincere, ...

CBS Poll: Obama wins debate 53-22
AMERICAblog News — Holy cow. 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. ...

CBS Poll: Uncommitted Voters Say Obama Won Final Debate
Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News — ... 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. More uncommitted voters trusted Obama than McCain to make the right decisions about health care. Before the debate, 61 percent of uncommitted voters said that they trust Obama on that; after, 69 percent said that. For McCain, 27 percent trusted him to manage health care before the debate; 30 percent said so afterwards. Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/15/politics/horser...

The First Poll
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — CBS unsurprisingly gives it to Obama by a big 53 - 22 percent margin. McCain made some headway on taxes, but this is brutal: 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. ...

Snap Polls Give Overwhelming Win to Obama
TPM Election Central — 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%. ...

Public Agrees
Eschaton — Pundits wrong again.

Obama McCain Debate: McCain Improves But CBS Poll Finds Uncommitted Voters Declare Obama Big Victor
The Moderate Voice — For Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain you might say this about the third and final debate he had with Democratic Sen. Barack Obama: The third time was the charm. For the first half hour at least. But uncommitted voters by a large margin feel McCain lost the debate, according to a just-released CBS poll: As in the previous debates, CBS News and Knowledge Networks have conducted a nationally representative poll of uncommitted voters to get their immediate reaction to tonight’s presidential debate. In the first ...

Snap polling
Ben Smith's Blog — CBS: Obama 53% to 22%. CNN: Obama 58% to 31%. Luntz also gave his focus group to Obama.  

CBS poll: Obama won with indies
The Swamp — ... CBS News has posted a flash poll taken after tonight's final presidential debate and the results may surprise anyone who believe the contest was a draw or that John McCain reversed his fortunes. ...

CBS/Knowledge Network: Obama Won
The Atlantic Politics Channel — The full results: 53% said Obama won; 22% said John McCain won. 500 voters watched on TV and answered questions online. 28% of the uncommitted sample said they committed to Obama; 14% to McCain.

Who Won The Last Debate? Obama Dominates By Largest Margins Yet
The Huffington Post | Full News Feed — ... The results over at CBS show Obama to have scored the biggest victory to date: "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." ...

Who Won The Last Debate? Obama Dominates By Largest Margins Yet
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... The results over at CBS show Obama to have scored the biggest victory to date: "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." ...

President Obama
Lawyers, Guns and Money — ... race. For Obama it smells like victory. Meanwhile the McCain campaign is now unmistakably giving off the stench of defeat. Tonight's debate once again proved how crucial optics and stylistic considerations are in the age of visual media. McCain did OK (not great, but OK) in terms of substance, while Obama seemed cool to the point of almost boredom. But in the end, McCain's affect -- his barely concealed rage at the indignities to which he was being subjected -- killed him with the television audience, which once again gave the debate to Obama by huge margins. ...

if the debates were the playoffs, the dems take the pennant, 4-0
skippy the bush kangaroo — cbs: in the first presidential debate, second presidential debate and vice presidential debate, more uncommitted voters said the democratic candidate was the victor. and tonight's results have, by a wide margin, made it a clean sweep. here are ...

Emily Douglas: McCain Repeats Debunked 'Born Alive' Attacks in Debate
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... In the final presidential debate, Senator John McCain repeated long debunked lies about Sen. Barack Obama's record on the Illinois Born Alive Protection Act, lies that have been repeated and promoted since Alan Keyes lost to Obama in the US Senate race in 2004. This full frontal effort may appeal to the extreme far-right of his base, but it was a dial test loser on CNN. Americans are fed up with the far-right's Culture War. The CBS insta-poll shows Obama winning the debate 53 percent to 22 percent with 24 percent saying is was a draw. ...

The Eye-Rolling Debate
Politics Daily — ... now circling the globe shows McCain in full metal incredulity. He rolls his eyes. He interrupts. He snorts. He snickers. He is angry and agitated. All the while, the guy on the left of the split-screen stays cool and calm. The restlessness of McCain's demeanor was the single greatest reason he "lost" what began as his strongest debate. McCain quite simply exuded frustration. It is an emotion that many of his supporters have seconded. How can they be losing to Obama? They've had enough of this Effrontery of Hope business. Attack! Attack! ...

10/16 Daily Kos R2K Tracking Poll: Obama 52, McCain 41
Daily Kos — ... which is a combined three day sample), Obama was up +10 Mon, +12 Tues and +10 Wed. Friday's polling will start to reflect the debate. Here's a good summary of the debates: Four and out? A sweep for the Democrats? It could have followed the same script as the past three encounters: Obama or Biden win on points and demeanor, pundits call it a draw anyway, polls mock the pundits by showing an easy win for the Dem. CNN, CBS, MediaCurves, the focus groups, all the same results. Obama wins big. One ...

Polls: Obama Won Debate (Again)
Outside The Beltway | OTB — ... Shocking news:  All the major polls show that Barack Obama won the third debate, just as they showed that he won the first two and Joe Biden won the VP debate.  Between the liberal media conspiracy and the fact that Obama and Biden are better debators than McCain and Obama, it’s not even fair. At any rate, the numbers.  Bold text all added for emphasis. CBS : In the ...

Debate Reaction and Poll Numbers
PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts — ... forth). As James Joyner noted: Obama seemed cool and confident throughout, occasionally amused, while McCain seemed too eager to get in some rather poorly crafted and rehearsed talking points. The attack lines seemed forced rather than conversational, let alone amusing. Indeed. Given that maintaining the status quo was a win for Obama, then Obama clearly won the round. Here are the early poll numbers: Via CBS: Uncommitted Voters Say Obama Won Final Debate - Horserace Fifty-three percent ...

No surprises
The Sideshow — I couldn't bring myself to watch or listen to the debate last night. Maybe some other time. Obama won with viewers, unsurprisingly. I did watch the last minute or so of it ...

McCain Repeats Debunked ‘Born Alive’ Attacks in Debate
Firedoglake — ... In the final presidential debate, Senator John McCain repeated long debunked lies about Sen. Barack Obama's record on the Illinois Born Alive Protection Act, lies that heve been repreated and promoted since Alan Keyes lost to Obama in the US Seante race in 2004. This full frontal effort may appeal to the extreme far-right of his base, but it was a dial test loser on CNN. Americans are fed up with the far-right's Culture War. The CBS insta-poll shows Obama winning the debate 53 percent to 22 percent with 24 percent saying is was a draw. ...

Final Debate, Final Analysis
Comments from Left Field — ... .  If you’re John McCain or one of his supporters, the numbers get even worse when you look at the CBS poll which shows that 53% thought Obama won, but only 22% felt McCain did a better job. ...

Debate wrap
The Reaction — ... give it overwhelmingly to Mr. Obama, and that will probably be the indicator of the rest of the responses, and the so-called "uncommitted" voters gave it to Mr. Obama as well. As I ...

Mitchell Bard: "I'm Not President Bush": Uh, Senator, Sorry, But Your Voting Record Says You Are
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... , I want people better than me to serve as president, and clearly the Obama campaign knew better. By staying positive, keeping the focus on the economy, and remaining, again, calm, cool and presidential, Obama was able to win over voters. A CBS poll released minutes after the debate showed that the debate was a rout win for Obama, with 53 percent of the uncommitted voters giving him the victory, and only 22 percent thinking McCain was the winner (24 percent had it as a draw). CNN's focus group panel had it as a 15-10 victory for Obama, ...

Polls Bullsh*t, Don’t Buy Any Of That Crap
Pat Dollard | Young Americans — Yo, Dollard Readers, what do you make of all of these polls? Sound off, we want to know. Geez, two references to feces in the same headline. But here’s what I’m saying… The Drudge Report Poll had John McCain winning the debate: McCain 76% and Obama 23%. But the CBS poll had Obama winning the debate: McCain 22% and Obama 53%. The rest were still Undecided. Look at this for McCain, a 50 point swing! Bullshit. Fuck the polls. Go and vote and get your family, friends, and loved ones to get ...

10/16: The Final Debate
Blogometer — ... of liberal bloggers believe that McCain may have actually hurt his candidacy with his performance. They believe that McCain alienated swing voters with his "surly" demeanor and his aggressive attacks on Obama. Nate Silver writes: "McCain [treated] this debate as though all the undecideds were Fox News viewers." As they did after the first two Presidential debates (as well as after the VP debate ), liberal bloggers pointed to snap polls to bolster their argument that their candidate won. Many liberal bloggers are ...

Polls: McCain gains among likely voters in both Gallup and Rasmussen
Hot Air » Top Picks — ... Send to a Friend | printer-friendly He’s up a point in each: 50/46 now in Rasmussen , his best showing this month, and 49/47 in Gallup’s model of traditional likely voters. In the expanded model, which tries to account for the higher turnout among new voters that will probably occur this year, it’s 51/45. The bad news? Neither tracker includes data gathered after the debate, which means he’s headed for another downturn if the CNN and CBS snap polls last night were right (but a major uptick if Treach’s poll of one was!). ...

New Polls--Room for Hope?
The Discerning Texan — ... some rays of sunshine: He’s up a point in each: 50/46 now in Rasmussen, his best showing this month, and 49/47 in Gallup’s model of traditional likely voters. In the expanded model, which tries to account for the higher turnout among new voters that will probably occur this year, it’s 51/45. The bad news? Neither tracker includes data gathered after the debate, which means he’s headed for another downturn if the CNN and CBS snap polls last night were right (but a major uptick if Treach’s poll of one was!). ...