Most of those links favour Obama and say he won the debate. I would tend to agree, but don’t forget that McCain knew that he had in fact won before it had happened – he’s got the future on his side:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/09/mccain_wins_debate.html

Hey Jamie,

Yeah, my reading list is heavily biased in favour of Liberal sites, but I did dig out the NRO link and the pro-McCain one from Politico.

And yeah, I heard on MSNBC’s Countdown about the pre-debate ad. Hilarious. Thanks for the link!

I’ve watched a few highlights vids, but I haven’t seen the entire 2hr debate. Real bloggers with more commitment, such as Tom Freeman, stayed up until the wee hours to watch it. From what I’ve seen it was a score draw – but this is McCain’s favoured subject, so maybe it’s Obama who comes out the winner.

I’ve read quite a lot of opinion that it was pretty equal, but for me (who also didn’t have quite as much commitment as Freeman – I watched the highlights) Obama comes across clearly, authorititvely and persuasively. You get the impression he knows what he’s talking about, and believes every word he says.

McCain on the other hand flounders, appears uncertain, hesitant and maybe a little confused. I actually lost track of what he was talking about in his first answer, and then the stuff about Eisenhower kinda made me think, ‘Did he not hear the question? Why’s he talking about the Normandy landings??’

NRO thinks the opposite, as does Politico. But then I wouldn’t really expect anything else.