Uncommitted voters favor Obama over McCain after final debate

As soon as the third presidential debate ended, CBS News interviewed a nationally representative sample of 638 debate watchers assembled by Knowledge Networks. These were the “uncommitted voters” - either undecided about who to vote for, or who could still change their minds. 50% of them said Obama won the debate, 22% said McCain won, and 25% thought the face-off was a tie.

Majority of Uncommitted voters, in a CBS News/Knowledge Networks poll, also said that Obama defeated McCain in the first two presidential debates as well.

Talking in terms of health care, Democrats are usually perceived as better than Republicans. The figures for uncommitted voters who said Obama would make the right decisions about health care, pre-debate and post-debate were 61% and 68% respectively; while these were 27% and 30% for McCain.

SoAs far as the tax issue is concerned, McCain had an edge over Obama - half of the uncommitted voters after the debate thought McCain would raise taxes if elected, and 64% thought Obama would.

Perhaps the best news for McCain is the rating he received from independent voters. Among such respondents not identified with either major political party, McCain was judged tonight’s winner, 51-42%.

According to a similar nationwide survey, of 715 undecided debate-watchers, by exclusive Politico/InsiderAdvantage, voters are closely divided over which presidential candidate won the final general election presidential debate.

The candidates were evenly matched among white voters, with McCain posting a narrow 49-46 percent advantage. African-Americans picked Obama as the winner, 88-10 percent.

Earlier polls, taken after the first debate by CNN and CBS, gave the win to Obama by double-digits. For the second debate, a CNN survey showed Obama winning among undecided voters, 54-30 percent, and a CBS poll had him winning the exchange, 39-27 percent.