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Obama won the evening, according to a CNN poll.

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) – A majority of debate watchers think Sen. Barack Obama won the third and final presidential debate, according to a national poll conducted right afterward.

Fifty-eight percent of debate watchers questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll said Democratic candidate Obama did the best job in the debate, with 31 percent saying Republican Sen. John McCain performed best.

The poll also suggests that debate watchers' favorable opinion of Obama rose slightly during the debate, from 63 percent at the start to 66 percent at the end. The poll indicates that McCain's favorables dropped slightly, from 51 percent to 49 percent.

The economy was the dominant issue of the debate, and 59 percent of debate watchers polled said Obama would do a better job handling the economy, 24 points ahead of McCain.

During the debate, McCain attacked Obama's stance on taxes, accusing Obama of seeking tax increases that would "spread the wealth around." But by 15 points, 56 percent to 41 percent, debate watchers polled said Obama would do a better job on taxes. By a 2-1 margin, 62 percent to 31 percent, debate watchers said Obama would do a better job on health care.

Sixty-six percent of debate watchers said Obama more clearly expressed his views, with 25 percent saying McCain was more clear about his views.

By 23 points, those polled said Obama was the stronger leader during the debate. By 48 points, they said Obama was more likeable.

Watch the entire debate: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

McCain won in two categories. Eighty percent of debate watchers polled said McCain spent more time attacking his opponent, with seven percent saying Obama was more on the attack. Fifty-four percent said McCain seemed more like a typical politician during the debate, with 35 percent saying Obama acted more like a typical politician.

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The third presidential debate between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain was contentious at times.

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) – John McCain came out of the gate strong, but Barack Obama gained strength as the night progressed Wednesday in the final presidential debate where each candidate tried to convince voters that he is better equipped to steer the nation through these troubled times.

For McCain, the final result of the debate is not great news. When the sun rises Thursday morning, very little will have changed in the race for the White House.

Obama is leading in national polls as well as in key battleground states. McCain faces a financial deficit in these closing days where expensive television advertising will play a key role in helping the candidates deliver their closing arguments.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. Poll of debate watchers surveyed after the 90-minute match-up thought Obama did a better job than McCain by a wide margin, 58 percent to 31 percent.

While McCain was more assertive and clearer in stating his policies in this debate than in the two previous head-to-head meetings, the Republican nominee did not deliver a "game changer" needed to turn momentum back towards his direction.

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(CNN) – During Wednesday night’s presidential debate, Barack Obama ducked a question on whether or not he thought Sarah Palin is qualified to be president.

“That's going to be up to the American people,” Obama said. “I think that obviously she's capable politician. She has, I think, excited the base in the Republican Party and I think it's very commendable, the work she's done on behalf of special needs.”

Watch: McCain, Obama critique VPs

John McCain said he thinks Joe Biden, Obama’s running mate, is qualified to lead the country, but that he has been “wrong” on a variety of foreign policy issues. McCain said Biden voted against the first Gulf War and that he wanted to divide Iraq into three separate countries.

“There are several issues in which frankly Joe Biden and I openly and honestly disagree on national security policy,” McCain said. “And he's been wrong on the major ones.”

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) - A majority of debate watchers thought that Barack Obama won the third and final presidential debate, according to a national poll conducted at the end of the debate.

Fifty-eight percent of debate watchers questioned in the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll said Obama did the best job in the debate, with 31 percent saying John McCain performed best.

The poll also suggested that debate watchers' favorable opinion of Obama rose during the debate, from 63 percent at the start of the debate to 66 percent at the end of the debate. The poll indicates that McCain's favorables dropped, from 51 percent to 49 percent.

The poll was conducted by telephone with 620 adult Americans who watched the debate. The audience for this debate appears to be just a little bit more Democratic than the U.S. population as a whole. Forty percent of debate-watchers in this poll were Democrats and 30 percent Republicans. The
survey's sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points.

John McCain had a very strong start in the first 30 minutes or so, and I thought that he was heading toward a debate victory - his first. But he veered off course in the middle as the conversation turned toward the negative quality of the campaign - and he became more and more the angry, older candidate, bringing back memories of the performance by Bob Dole back in 1996 that helped to doom his campaign. He also seemed to grow more tired over the course of the debate.

Barack Obama had a good first answer about his economic plan then seemed flat for the rest of the first half hour. But then things picked up for him. During the assaults by McCain, he kept his cool - he never took the bait (rumors were heavy before the debate that McCain would try to goad him into losing his steadiness). Coming out of that second half hour, Obama became much stronger in the last third of the debate, scoring extremely well on health care, education, abortion, and the Supreme Court.

McCain likely helped himself with his base tonight, but I doubt that he helped himself much with undecided voters.

Overall, I would score Obama at an A minus for the night, and McCain at a B plus.

It appears that Obama will come out of these debates with a general public perception that he has won three in a row.

PS: A hearty salute to tonight's moderator, Bob Schieffer, he deserves an A plus.

(CNN) – McCain aides expressed relief Wednesday night that the Arizona senator “finally” used a line that took on one of Obama’s central campaign themes.

Watch: I'm not Bush, McCain says

“Sen. Obama, I am not President Bush,” he said. “If you wanted to run against President Bush you should have run four years ago. I will take this country in a new direction."

McCain advisors – who said they had been pushing him to stress that distinction more explicitly than he had in the past - immediately uploaded the quote to YouTube, and circulated it to reporters.

Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama join their husbands on stage as the final presidential debate comes to a close at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.(CNN PHOTO)

The Statement
Sen. Barack Obama said at the Oct. 15 debate at Hofstra University that Republican opponent John McCain's plan to stem the mortgage meltdown "could be a giveaway to banks if we're buying full price for mortgages that now are worth a lot less. And we don't want to waste taxpayer money."

Watch: McCain, Obama discuss taxes

Get the facts!

Read the rest of this entry »

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) – John McCain refused Wednesday to commit to nominating only judges who opposed abortion, saying he would "never impose a litmus test" on court nominees.

Watch: McCain and Obama on abortion

But he qualified the statement a moment later, saying he would base his nominations on "qualifications" - and that he did not believe a judge who supported Roe v. Wade, the case that legalized abortion, "would be part of those qualifications."

McCain hammered his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, on abortion, accusing him of "aligning himself with the extreme aspect of the pro-abortion movement in America."

Obama rejected the charge out of hand, saying: "Nobody is pro-abortion."

He advocated sex education as a way of reducing the number of unintended pregnancies that result in abortions.

"We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and they should not be engaged in cavalier activity," he said.

Did Obama vote to raise taxes?.

The Statement
Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, speaking at the Wednesday, Oct. 15, debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, repeated a charge that his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, voted to raise taxes. "He voted twice for a budget resolution that increases the taxes on individuals making $42,000 a year," McCain said.

Get the facts!

Read the rest of this entry »

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) – Both Obama and McCain are free traders, but McCain's problem is that he is a more full-throated ideological free trader and that doesn't play well in economic times of trouble.

The public is very suspicious of free trade.

Crowley: Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama finally begin to engage each other.(AP PHOTO)

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) - This is by far the most interesting debate of the three. They are engaging each other. They both brought their game.

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) - John McCain Wednesday praised his running mate, Sarah Palin as a "role model to women and reformers all over America" when challenged to defend her qualifications to be president.

"It's time that we had that breath of fresh air coming into our nation's capital and sweep out the old-boy network and cronyism that's been so much a part of it," the Arizona senator said of his running mate, the first-term governor of Alaska.

McCain was speaking at his third and final debate with Democrat Barack Obama before the November 4 presidential election.

Obama offered measured praise for Palin, whose qualifications have been widely scorned by Democrats.

"I think that obviously she's a capable politician," Obama said, adding that she had "excited the base in the Republican party."

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) - Took him longer than expected, but McCain did go the William Ayers route, but then segued into one of Obama's campaign trail lines. People don't care about William Ayers, they care about the economy.

Obama campaigns in Holland Ohio

(CNN) – Joe the Plumber was the star of the final presidential debate on Wednesday night. But who is he?

Watch: Obama meets 'Joe the plumber'

Last weekend, while Barack Obama was canvassing for support in the small town of Holland, Ohio, the Democratic nominee ran into a tall, bald man, since dubbed Joe the plumber. He asked Obama if he believed in the American Dream — he said he was about to buy a company that makes more than $250,000 a year and was concerned that the Democratic nominee would tax him more because of it.

Obama explained his tax plan in depth, saying it’s better to lower taxes for Americans who make less money, so that they could afford to buy from his business. John McCain attacked Obama for this exchange, saying the Illinois senator is trying to “spread the wealth around.”

“We're going to take Joe's money, give it to Senator Obama, and let him spread the wealth around. I want Joe the plumber to spread the wealth around,” McCain said. He added, “Why would you want to increase anybody's taxes right now? Why would you want to do that to anyone, anyone in America, when we have such a tough time?”

Joe the plumber was mentioned 11 times at the beginning of the debate, nine times by McCain and twice by Obama.

Watch: Voters sour on 'Joe the plumber' story

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) - Barack Obama distanced himself Wednesday from William Ayers, an education professor with a radical past to whom the Republicans have been aggressively linking him in recent weeks.

Watch: Obama on Ayers, ACORN

Obama said Ayers had committed "despicable acts" 40 years ago as a member of the Weather Underground, which took credit for a series of domestic bombings - but pointed out that he himself had been eight years old at the time.

Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists" on the campaign trail.

The presidential contest has degenerated into an overlong season of American Idol. Obama is the finalist with the charm and charisma - the fan favorite. McCain can still win but, unlike Obama whom the media has put on the fast track to victory, his pathway forward is indeed a tough row to hoe. He has to overcome voter fatigue, anxiety about the economy and America's habit of tossing a party out of power after eight years.

Despite the gloomy outlook, McCain has been in tough spots before; and we know how that turned out. It's a wise political observer who never bets against him. The race, according to at least a few polls, is closing - not by much - and it will continue to tighten.

For McCain, tonight's debate will not be won by defining complex policy issues or a new grand idea. It doesn't work. His focus must be on the two C's: character and crises.

Character matters to McCain as an election issue and a defining issue of his life. He's yet to make the strong character argument, which outlines how he put his country first and Obama took a pass.

Secondly, he must convince undecided voters why he's best prepared to navigate this country through a crisis-filled environment, now and in the future.

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) - McCain is falling into the weeds by taking the bait and talking about the campaign ad squabbling.

Obama is making an effort to come across as Joe Cool, McCain is noticeably addled.

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) - Obama is trying to rise above the squabbling. The moderator invited it in asking them to address the attacks, but Obama would be wise not to be baited.

By keeping his eye on the ball and addressing the economy he looks more presidential.

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN) – John McCain accused Barack Obama of spending "more money on negative ads than any campaign in history" as the two men met for their final debate before the November 4 presidential election.

Watch: McCain, Obama debate negative campaigning

Obama responded that McCain's campaign had been running exclusively negative ads, and that the public found McCain to be running a more negative campaign than Obama.

The McCain campaign put out a press release moments after the exchange saying the Obama campaign had spent more than $42 million on negative ads in the past month, while their own campaign had spent only $27 million on them. The release cited CMAG, a media analysis group which does work for CNN among others.

The Obama campaign shot back with an article from the liberal blog Talking Points Memo, citing CMAG's Evan Tracey as saying "virtually 100 percent" of McCain's ads were negative, while only about half of Obama's ads were.

McCain challenged Obama to repudiate comments by his supporter, Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, that compared the atmosphere at some Republican rallies to that of the segregationist George Wallace in the 1960s.

Obama said he had rejected the remark.