Drexel students pick debate winner: Obama

[maximusveritas]

Interesting results. When compared with the pre-debate results, Obama picked up 3 points, while Clinton lost 6 and Edwards lost 3. I'd probably include Biden as a co-winner of this poll since he got 12 percent of the vote, much higher than his pre-debate polling numbers.

http://media.www.thetriangle.org/media/storage/paper689/news/2007/10/31/StudentExperience/Drexel.Students.Pick.Debate.Winner-3068312.shtml
Hundreds of Drexel students selected Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as the debate winner Oct. 31, through the new campus-specific polling web site, www.open-vote.com.

With 383 votes cast as of 1:04 a.m., Obama garnered 47 percent of student support. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., finished second with 18 percent, Sens. John Edwards, D-N.C., and Joe Biden, D-Del., won 12 percent and the remaining candidates won 6 percent and less.

Obama gained three points over a pre-debate poll where 375 students expressed their preference if the Democratic primary election was held that day. At 2 p.m. Oct. 30, 44 percent of students supported Obama, 24 percent supported Clinton, 15 percent supported Edwards, with the remaining candidates drawing less than five percent.

[zulchzulu]

1. Of course Obama won

It was a good night for Barack.

[Colobo]

2. It's obvious: Obama won. Hillary lost.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Obama winning the youth vote! As always. Too bad they don't vote in the Gen. Election. nt

[ClarkUSA]

7. Actually they do. It was the only age demographic Kerry won in 2004.

A more accurate statement would be that they do not vote as reliably as the over-45 crowd
but the year-over-year percentages have increased from 2002 to 2004 to 2006. 2008
might be a banner year for the Democratic Party overall.

[Captain Hilts]

8. The turnout of under 30s in the last election was REALLY low. nt

[ClarkUSA]

9. The youth turnout was higher than in 2006 than 2002.

And it was higher in 2004 than in 2000. Also, every demographic poll shows that the youth
demographic is becoming overwhelmingly Democratic relative to 2000, when the breakdown
was more or less even.

If the upward trending - and I don't see any reason why it should not - 2008 should break
records again.

[IndianaGreen]

4. Obama will not win the election!

Obama has shown that he lacks the wherewithal to confront the GOP in a Presidential election. He should have hit the ball out of the ballpark on the first question asked by Brian Williams to state his differences with Hillary.

Obama is beginning to remind me of Dukakis.

[earthlover]

5. I am not sure Obama won, but Hillary stumbled.

It is a pretty pathetic defense of Hillary for pundits and supporters to try to spin her performance as "no knock out punches, so she won". With endorsements like that, who needs criticism?! It also doesn't make any sense at all. It would make sense if Iowa was in a few days and it was the last debate. However....helloooooo.....Iowa is over two months away, there are more debates, and lots of time for Hillary's opponents to exploit her weaknesses demonstrated by last nite's debate. Hillary really gave them an opportunity and provided a pretty stark glimpse of Hillary demonstrating some of the memes about her.

In my view, Obama needs to look into the camera more. He needs to say uh a heck of a lot less. He needs to show his heart, some passion and some clarity of message. While Hillary had a poor showing, Obama did not win the debate as much as Hillary lost it. Edwards and Biden, in my view, were a heck of a lot more convincing.

[maximusveritas]

6. Hillary stumbled and Obama will benefit from that

I agree that he needs to cut down on the "uh"'s. I think he's getting better, but still looks nervous every time he's up there. Edwards and Biden looked more comfortable, but they also looked desperate at times in my opinion.