Obama went in with the sense that his oratorical style and his foreign policy chops made him an underdog. While I don’t think he scored any knock-outs against McCain, I think he easily stood his own. Given that he has the lead in the polls, that was what he needed.<\/p>\n
McCain had the minor victory of coming off not as bumbling and goofy as he has been. That may reinforce some of his existing support, but is unlikely to gain him anything new.<\/p>\n
In short — I don’t think either side “won” or “lost.”<\/p>\n
On style … Margie commented (and I agree) that Obama came off as more polite and gracious — McCain as more overtly political, continuously hitting on (a) Obama’s inexperience, (b) his own relative experience, (c) Obama being a stubborn goofball, along with (d) mentioning how cool his running mate is.<\/p>\n
I don’t think either candidate was particularly inspiring. I think Obama’s answers were a bit better organized and coherent than McCain’s, but both sides kept hitting their major talking points. <\/p>\n
Neither candidate did or said anything egregiously awful, or scary.<\/p>\n
Obama went in ahead on points (in the polls). I don’t see any change in that, one way or the other, from the debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Obama went in with the sense that his oratorical style and his foreign policy chops made him an underdog. 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