What?  

OK, I had to be watching some other debate, Johnathan then you...

I thought McCain was much sharper at the last debate, but maybe all that wandering around on stage made him lose his train of thought.
That was aggravating.
Anyway, he got better at the end, but there's nothing new about his lines, so I'd say Obama won slightly.

Even Bill Kristol is saying McCain was lackluster.  

Looking at MSNBC's post debate coverage, some of those "undecided voters" sure look thrilled at having their picture taken w/ Obama. :D

Obama killed him on tone...

He was all over the map....

Of course, I am usually wrong about these things...

so, correcting based on last time, Obama won.

We woefully underscored him during the 1st debate.

He was troll-like tonight.  

Obama.... by a lot.

I didn't think that was close - I thought Obama came off much stronger.  Hey - perhaps I'm overly influenced by the CNN insta-tracker, but I thought Obama won this one easily.

McCain didn't so much lose (though I thought he was off, even for grumpy John) - Obama was just flat out better.

This was a very plus debate for Obama.  He's never gonna be Bill Clinton, but he doesn't need to be.

McCain, not Obama.  

Why are the cameras only following Obama and Michelle- did McCain leave or something?

Did anyone notice that on CNN after the debate, Obama offered his hand to McCain, and McCain didn't take it?

The one concern I have coming out of this debate is McCain's homeowner bailout plan.  it seems to be getting all the media attention now.

Other than that a narrow win for Obama.  He's gotten a lot better at debating.  Maybe all those debates during the primaries paid off.

I think McCain's "that one" reference to Obama belied his overuse of the phrase "my friends", so he lost out on both the respectful and genuine scales.

McCain referring to health care as a "privilege" verses Obama's "it's a right" guaranteed he didn't connect with 95% of the country while Obama did.

Obama will be our next president, I'm quite sure.

I thought Obama won.. He got stronger as the debate went on.. he started a bit flat.. His strong suit- again in my opinion- was foreign policy..his bit about killing Bin Laden, about "I don't understand...", and his answer on health care being a right... those were the home runs..

I think McCain continues to make mistakes on issues like Pakistan....

I cannot imagine this being a gamechanger.. if anything it should help Obama cement or even build his lead..

The best moment by far was his answer about going after Bin Laden... imho

I will be a contrarian, but McCain threw out this buying  bad mortgage idea (which really is Hillary Clinton idea). Now, it makes sense and somehow Obama has to work it in in his plan.

if you wanna update

Obama won the Fox focus group also

My personal evaluation is that people will tend to think their guy won. No huge knock-outs. Obama seemed to play with the lead, McCain couldn't catch up.

As for "that one", I immediately sat up when he said it and even my Republican roommate gave a quizzical look over his reading material. It probably won't resonate until November. My mind, for some reason, immediately went to Bob Kelso from Scrubs:

12-10-3 Obama-McCain-tie on CNN's focus group, with criticisms for lack of specifics.

I think that the biggest problem is that we've seen these guys so much over the last year that hearing what is essentially repetition and slight elaboration on their stump speeches sounds hollow. Advantage Obama in that case, but it'll be a tepid victory by a large margin.

freeper or NQ or somewhere similar and hear all the conspiracy theories about all the -quote - undecided voters - quote -  who are now taking pictures with and getting autographs from Obama.

Very few minds were changed, so the debate seems to be a wash. Favorable ratings went up for both candidates. A lot of questions are being asked about McCain's proposal for the Government to buy up failing mortgages.

A significant plurarilty of the voters said that Obama won the debate.

Lots of repetition because almost all of the questions were standard town hall questions.  No real curve balls.  McCain's attacks of Obama positions were entirely predictable.

Obama wins because his answers to these standard questions are better than McCain's.  Both did a little better than the first debate - and the difference between the two was about the same too.

Obama is now over 70% on Intrade... if he stays there, no candidate in the history of Intrade has ever lost after reaching 70%...

I'm still going to work as hard as I can, 'cos I'm a democrat and I still think we might lose! ;-)

focus group on MSNBC thought so too, roughly 60-40.

Obama comes off as cool, intelligent, and with policies far superior to McCains.

I must also say in this debate Obama did a much better job of conveying real empathy and concern for average voters.  He finally sounds like he really cares about what happens to people, something he no doubt has felt all along, but hasn't been comfortable expressing.

He also did a better job of explaining how tax cuts for the wealthy were a bad idea for the economy.

Keep it up, Obama.  Show that compassion. Explain how we knew those tax cuts for the wealthy were going to screw up the economy many, many years ago.  And keep finding ways to give past Democratic administrations credit for managing the economy instead of destroying it.