All over the world, people have hyped the significance of this year's presidential and vice presidential debates. Australia's Canberra Times proclaimed "McCain, Obama Debates Crucial." The Guardian in London stoked the "make-or-break presidential debates." And here in the United States, viewers have tuned in at historic levels. With the three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate now behind us, it's worth asking who won.
Actually, that's somewhat of a silly question, and it is amusing that "experts" like Pat Buchanan and Paul Begala divine the victors and losers for us. It's like ESPN analysts huddling together after each Red Sox-Rays game to squabble over who really came out on top. We know who won the debates; we need only to look at the scoreboard. Cable news talking heads don't decide the outcome - undecided voters do. And undecided voters say that Obama and Biden have won each debate. [This column went to press before polls from last night's debate were released.]
After the first debate, a CNN poll found Obama won 51-38 percent. CBS found a similar 14-point margin of victory for Obama among uncommitted voters. After the vice presidential debate, CNN's poll found Biden won 51-36 percent among all viewers; CBS pegged Biden's victory at 46-21 among uncommitted viewers. And after last Tuesday's debate, Obama won 54-30 percent according to the CNN poll, and 40-26 percent according to CBS. Other polling firms corroborate the large Democratic wins.
So instead of asking who won, a better question is how the Democrats have managed to sweep the debates so far - especially given that McCain has more foreign policy experience than Obama, Palin had exceedingly low expectations to clear and McCain is more comfortable than Obama in town hall formats.
I suspect that in each of the debates, voters had an instinctive feel for who came across as more presidential. During the first debate, Obama skillfully engaged probing questions on the economic crisis and world affairs with facility. Whether or not one agrees with his positions, Obama never validated McCain's critique that he is too young and unprepared. Conversely, McCain, full of scowls and references to Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, resembled a cantankerous politician ready to lead us back to the 20th century.
The vice presidential debate was much more lopsided. While everyone tuned in to see if Palin would say something stupid enough to get dumped off the ticket, the real story of the night was Biden's career performance. Palin, lost in empty "you betchas," sounded like she was in middle school. Biden was direct, frank and knowledgeable - he sounded like a vice president.
The second presidential debate was a replay of the first. Obama rambled at times and occasionally succumbed to answering in talking points, but he made a reassuring case for voters still anxious about his experience. McCain was again condescending and dismissive. Instead of demonstrating his self-extolled knack for bipartisanship, McCain was full of scorn for "that one." Instead of articulating a new vision for the next four years, McCain was stuck defending policies from the past eight.
It's little wonder that CNN's poll of debate viewers found that McCain was seen as the more typical politician by a 16-point margin. It is also hardly surprising that an Ipsos/McClatchy poll conducted after last week's debate found undecided voters swung to Obama by a 24-point margin. Last night pundits should have taken a break from instantly crowning their favorite candidate the winner, or deciding that the absence of embarrassing gaffes renders the match a tie. In this democracy, let's let the voters decide.
Jacob Shelly is a senior in the School of Public Affairs, president of AU's chapter of Students for Barack Obama and a liberal columnist for The Eagle. You can reach him at edpage@theeagleonline.com.
