Washington Voters Finally Get a Debate Right

Washington State voters have been polled up the wazoo by SurveyUSA after each debate this campaign season. And while they turned in a win (within the margin of error) for McCain in the first Presidential debate, and a split decision (later amended to a slight win for Biden) in the Vice Presidential debate, this time around, the Washington State sample polled clearly thought that Obama won the second presidential debate.

Immediately following last night’s town-hall debate, SurveyUSA interviewed 1,000 state of Washington adults, of whom 741 watched the debate. Of debate-watchers:

54% say Obama was the clear winner.
29% say McCain was the clear winner.
18% say there was no clear winner.

After the first Presidential Debate, Washington State gave McCain equal marks with Obama. Last night, Obama's margin is almost 2:1.

Audience was 21% Republican, 40% Democrat, 38% Independent. This is significant because it means some Republicans may have lost interest in the race. Republican audience was larger for the 1st presidential and the vice presidential debate. Republicans by 7:1 saw McCain as the clear winner. Democrats by 11:1 saw Obama as the clear winner. Independents, the most critical and coveted group, broke 5:3 for Obama.

Other interesting stats from the survey: 42% thought McCain was too forceful, while 58% thought Obama was just right in his forcefulness. 60% of Washington state debate-watchers said Obama laid out a better vision for America’s future, while 49% said McCain appeared angrier than his opponent.

These findings fall into line with the national polling, where pretty much every group sampled indicated that Obama won the debate. Same with the focus groups: even the FOX/Frank Luntz group went for That One.

The third and final Presidential debate will take place at Hoftstra University in New York next Wednesday at 6 p.m PDT.

"Obama" by Seattlest Flickr pool member ~wesa~.