Top Items:
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.
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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 …
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:
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.
Discussion:
Wilshire & Washington, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, AMERICAblog News, Eunomia and No More Mister Nice Blog
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Why Obama Won Big — Nate Silver is a must-read. This is a fascinating nugget: … The more it sinks in, the more I think Obama actually knocked it out of the park last night. He is, in some ways, the inverse McCain. McCain is all drama and explosions but then ... the air smells like damp, finished fireworks smoke.
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.
Discussion:
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CBS News:CBS Poll: Obama Boosted Most By Debate
Discussion:
DCCC, Yahoo! News, Guardian, Electoral-vote.com, Taegan Goddard's … and The Huffington Post
Marisa Katz / Washington Post:The Debate: The All-Important Grumpiness Factor
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, culturekitchen, democracyarsenal.org, Jules Crittenden, Greg's Opinion, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog News and Balloon Juice
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.
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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.
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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Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
How McCain Stirred a Simmering Pot — When Sen. John McCain made his way to the Capitol office of House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) just past noon on Thursday, he intended to “just touch gloves” with House Republican leaders, according to one congressional aide …
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Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Gingrich: Bush doesn't understand fiscal crisis, and treasury secretary should resign — Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich, whose criticism helped spark a GOP revolt against the bail-out of Wall Street proposed by the Bush Administration, predicted Saturday that House Republicans …
Hilzoy / Washington Monthly:
“John Was Right” — Last night, the fact that Obama said that McCain was right on several occasions caused consternation among some liberals, and great rejoicing on the right. I didn't agree. It would have been one thing had Obama not also been willing to say, forcefully, that he thought McCain was wrong.
Discussion:
Sic Semper Tyrannis 2008
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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.”
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:
Catherine Lucey / Philly.com:
Palin grabs a seat at the bar — Perhaps it was coincidence that the song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” was playing as Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin worked the crowd at the Irish Pub last night. — But her amorous fans were definitely ready to let the moose-hunting Alaska governor rule.
James Fallows:
On strategy and tactics — The least self-aware moment for John McCain in last night's debate came at the half-way point, when he said, “I'm afraid Senator Obama doesn't understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy.” — In a sense McCain was sticking to his battle plan in saying this …
Gallup:
Gallup Daily: Obama Holds 5-Point Lead — Momentum in his favor going into debate — PRINCETON, NJ — Barack Obama leads John McCain, 49% to 44%, when registered voters are asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, according to the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update.
Marc Ambinder:
Dr. Kissinger Parses Dr. Kissinger — A debater's trick: answering a charge that was not leveled. … That was Dr. Henry Kissinger, interviewed by CNN special correspondent Frank Sesno on the 20th of September. — Dr. Kissinger was referring to negotiations with Iran
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 …
Rich Lowry / The Corner:
Palin on CBS — I've been swamped with other stuff, but just for the record: I thought Palin was dreadful. She obviously didn't have the reaction to the Charlie Gibson interview that I had hoped. She had better be better prepared for next week or she risks damaging her political brand forevermore.
John Podhoretz / Commentary:
Ratings Shock — Last Night's Audience Smaller than Bush-Kerry's — After predictions that these Obama-McCain debates would earn record audiences in the 80-100 million range, the “overnights” from the five broadcast networks are in — and at least where they are concerned, the viewership for last night's debate was surprisingly low.
Discussion:
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