"Here's a brash assertion: The debates did it."

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: The Debates: No Drama but a Dramatic Effect
By Robert G. Kaiser
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 31, 2008; Page C01

....It's been quite a month -- financial collapses, Sarah Palin and Tina Fey, Joe the Plumber and more political commercials on television than we have ever seen before.

But what if none of that was as important as four 90-minute television programs seen by more Americans than any episode of "American Idol"? Here's a brash assertion: The debates did it....

There is now a lot of evidence from polls and focus groups suggesting that Sen. Obama has significantly improved his standing with a great many Americans since the first debate on Sept. 26, exactly five weeks ago. Americans find Obama more empathetic, stronger, better prepared to be president and just more sympathetic a figure than they did before the debates.

Most important, Obama has moved into the lead. In early September, the race was tied. In the Washington Post-ABC News poll on Sept. 9, soon after the Republican convention, McCain had a two-point lead among likely voters, 49 to 47 percent. By the poll taken just after the second Obama-McCain debate, released Oct. 13, Obama led 53 to 43. In the three weeks since, the race has been utterly stable. Yesterday, the Post-ABC tracking poll had Obama ahead 52 to 44 percent. (The margin of error in all of these polls is plus or minus 3 percent.)

Were the debates responsible for these developments? Probably. They attracted many more Americans than any other event or aspect of the campaign. According to Nielsen, the four debates this fall attracted a total audience of 242 million (of course, many people watched all four). "The debates had a big impact," says Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, the dean of American pollsters. "Obama won all three by huge margins."...

***

"I think it took Obama three debates for people to see how calm he was, how composed he was, that you couldn't get to this guy," says (Frank Fahrenkopf, Republican co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates). "He was very well organized. By the time that final debate was over, I think he satisfied the qualms of the American people."

"Then," he adds, "when the economy went into the ditch, McCain had a really tough battle."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103004452_pf.html

[PBS Poll-435]

1. One line and One word stood out to me.

"In the three weeks since, the race has been utterly stable"

"empathetic"

[cliffordu]

2. Someone should duct tape this to Pat Buchanan's fat ass....

[expatriate]

3. I can agree with this.

At no point during the debates did Obama come of as anything other than calm, collected, competent and erudite. McCain came off as flippy, irrational, confused and beset with weird facial tics. One debate like that might have been dismissed as a fluke, but when it happened three times, people started to realise that Gramps was worrisome indeed.