I think, overall, Obama came off better than McCain in the debate. It was still a bit of a disappointment though. McCain needed a decisive win to regain some ground, whereas Obama needed to be cautious and well reasoned in order to maintain the lead that he has without taking any real risks. Obama did just that, but no more - he was being cautious, too cautious for his supporters who watched in annoyance as he made no move for the jugular. It did seem obvious that Obama was debating McCain, whereas McCain time and again was debating a straw man - not actually responding to his opponent but arguing against his campaign's mischaracterizations of Obama's platform and positions. That came across in the debate pretty clearly, a CBS poll of undecided voters had Obama as the winner at 53% compared to McCain at 22%. CNN's poll was also for Obama at 58% to 31%. There was, however, no clear knockout moment. This leaves the McCain campaign with a couple weeks to try to swiftboat Obama - throw out charges and accusations hoping that there won't be enough time to debunk or answer the charges and hoping that they will be sensational enough to get significant coverage in the media - this is why we are seeing things like the silly Acorn tactic being used now. Their hope is that there won't be time for people to figure out who Acorn is, what Obama's involvement with them was, and what exactly they are accused of. Anyone remember Dukakis being slammed for being a "Card Carrying Member of the ACLU"?