CNN: Forty-eight percent of voters who watched the vice presidential debate think that Rep. Paul Ryan won the showdown, according to a CNN/ORC International nationwide poll conducted right after Thursday night’s faceoff. Forty-four percent say that Vice President Joe Biden was victorious. The Republican running mate’s four point advantage among a debate audience that was more Republican than the country as a whole is within the survey’s sampling error.
Half of all debate watchers questioned in the poll said the showdown didn’t make them more likely to vote for either of the candidates’ bosses, 28% said the debate made them more likely to vote for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and 21% said the faceoff made them more likely to vote to re-elect President Barack Obama.
According to the survey, 55% said that the vice president did better than expected, with 51% saying that the congressman from Wisconsin performed better than expected… (more)
EDITOR: CNN monitors the emotional reactions of a representative group of individuals that are selected to sample the public. They showed separately at the bottom of the screen how men and women were responding to what was being said.
What was most surprising was the obvious antipathy men were experiencing to talk of American further military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and possible military involvement in Syria or Iran while the women appeared far more hawkish on these subjects.
Biden really held Ryan’s nose to the grindstone. The moderator’s questions were spot on.