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Brian Montopoli / CBS News:
Poll Results Suggest More Uncommitted Voters Saw Obama As Debate Winner — UPDATED WITH NEAR-FINAL NUMBERS CBS News and Knowledge Networks conducted a nationally representative poll of approximately 500 uncommitted voters reacting to the debate in the minutes after it happened.
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CNN:
Round 1 in debates goes to Obama, poll says — OXFORD, Mississippi (CNN) — A national poll of people who watched the first presidential debate suggests that Barack Obama came out on top, but there was overwhelming agreement that both Obama and John McCain would be able to handle the job of president if elected.
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight.com:
Why Voters Thought Obama Won — TPM has the internals of the CNN poll of debate-watchers, which had Obama winning overall by a margin of 51-38. The poll suggests that Obama is opening up a gap on connectedness, while closing a gap on readiness. — Specifically, by a 62-32 margin …
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CNN:
Transcript of presidential debate — WASHINGTON (CNN ) — Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama debated on the campus of the University of Mississippi Friday night. The moderator for the debate was Jim Lehrer of the NewsHour on PBS. What follows is the full transcript of the debate:
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Time Edit / Swampland:
What Sayeth the Undecideds? — From TIME's Amy Sullivan: — Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg ran a dial-group with 45 undecided voters in St. Louis during the debate, polling them before and after to judge how the event changed their reactions to Obama and McCain.
Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard:
TWS Exclusive: Kissinger Unhappy About Obama — Henry Kissinger believes Barack Obama misstated his views on diplomacy with US adversaries and is not happy about being mischaracterized. He says: “Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage …
Noah Pollak / Commentary:
CNN's Poll vs. CNN's Spin — CNN's poll of debate viewers blares a puzzling headline: “Round 1 in debate goes to Obama, poll says.” — But the poll itself actually doesn't say that. This is blatant editorializing on the part of CNN. The first problem is the numbers:
Roger Simon / The Politico:
The Mac is back — John McCain was very lucky that he decided to show up for the first presidential debate in Oxford, Miss., Friday night. Because he gave one of his strongest debate performances ever. — While Barack Obama repeatedly tried to link McCain to the very unpopular George W. Bush …
CBS News:
CBS Poll: Obama Boosted Most By Debate — Uncommitted Voters Give Edge To Obama On Economy, McCain On Iraq — (CBS) The first presidential debate helped uncommitted voters learn about the candidates - and it appears that Democrat Barack Obama benefited the most, according …
Felix Salmon / Portfolio:McCain's Economics — Don't ask me who won the debate in terms …
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Washington Monthly
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:The reporters and the polls — The mild consensus in the press file …
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The Huffington Post, Slog, Politics Blog, Taegan Goddard's …, MSNBC, Kevin Drum and Stumper
Michelle Malkin:Debate video: Obama can't remember the soldier's name on his bracelet
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Confederate Yankee, Gateway Pundit, Guardian, NewsBusters.org, Tales from the Trail, Wizbang, The Strata-Sphere, Don Surber and Ed Driscoll.com
Mark Halperin / TIME.com:Excerpts of Mark Halperin's Report Cards for the First Presidential Debate
PR Newswire:
Newman's Own Foundation Celebrates the Life and Legacy of Paul Newman — Remembering the life and legacy of Paul Newman, Newman's Own Foundation has issued a statement. The statement, from Vice-Chairman Robert Forrester, follows: — “Paul Newman's craft was acting. His passion was racing.
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Aljean Harmetz / New York Times:
Paul Newman, a Magnetic Titan of Hollywood, Is Dead at 83 — Paul Newman, one of the last of the great 20th-century movie stars, died Friday at his home in Westport, Conn. He was 83. — The cause was cancer, said Jeff Sanderson of Chasen & Company, Mr. Newman's publicist.
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
SO ANGRY — McCain's unwillingness to make eye contact with Obama through the debate seems to be getting picked up by a lot of observers. Here's an interesting exchange on the subject between Chris Matthews and the Post's Eugene Robinson ... Here's one comment we got from TPM Reader EO ...
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Tom Shales / Washington Post:McCain's High Horse Meets Obama's High-Mindedness
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Los Angeles Times
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
“Horses**t”: Correction — I've removed the original post of a little time ago because after listening to the clip about two dozen times, what sounded like McCain saying “horses**t” actually comes through as having a hard “c” at the front of it. My husband insists that McCain said “Course not.”
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
RUNNING MATES AS SURROGATES.... After a debate, campaigns generally want high-profile figures telling the media how great their candidate did. And as a rule, it's hard to top the running mates as high-profile figures. — It was pretty interesting, then, that the Obama campaign was anxious …
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Jonathan Martin's Blogs, Philly.com, The New Republic, Politics Blog and No More Mister Nice Blog
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Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:BIDEN — Pretty measured debate, but on hammering McCain Biden was on fire ...
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Balloon Juice
Joe Klein / Time:
Obama Wins Debate On Tactics and Strategies — Toward the very end of tonight's debate—which was quite a good one, I believe—John McCain laid out his rationale in this election in just a few words: Senator Obama, he said, lacks the “knowledge and experience to be President.”
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William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
A Genuine and Immediate Crisis — What Congress has to do now. — I've received phone calls in the last hour from two economists I respect, one of them Larry Lindsey, the other in a position where he'd prefer not to be named. Both have government experience, neither is alarmist by nature, and they say this:
Jonah Goldberg / The Corner:
The SNL Skit & Focus Groups — It's hard to guess what, exactly, the SNL skit will look like. I think the press is congealing around the (erroneous) idea that Obama won precisely because that's what the focus groups seem to be saying, or at least what the focus groups are saying allows …
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