Debate Favorable to Obama?

Barack Obama and John McCain squared off at the University of Mississippi last week in the first of their Presidential debates. The debate, which surprisingly few people watched, seemed to have ended in a stalemate, verbally as well as non-verbally, with no prominent errors with either candidate. Although after the debate Obama was caught in several half truths that he had mentioned during the debate, this did not seem to hurt him at all. In fact, the result politically from the debate is that, as of yesterday, Obama has climbed in the polls, and has in fact climbed ahead of McCain in three swing states, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. This surge in popularity may be due to the debate in which, although he did not “win”, McCain was favored (due to his apparent knowledge in foreign policy). This lack of a victory for McCain may have been viewed by some as a sort of victory for Obama, causing him to poll higher.

Barack Obama, who was campaigning in Wisconsin at the time, announced this morning that he would be “flying back to Washington today to cast my vote to safeguard the American economy,” which he insists should be a bi-partisan priority.

In other news, Obama’s ‘veep’ candidate, Joe Biden, is preparing for the vice presidential debate which takes places tomorrow, Oct 2.