Second Presidential Debate Has No Game-Changers, But Obama Emerges as Clear Winner

By: Sean Yoes and Bobbi Booker

Most political observers argued that Arizona Sen. John McCain needed a knockout -- a game changer -- during the second presidential debate Tuesday night with his Democratic rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. The consensus is that he got neither.

In fact, the verdict of uncommitted and independent voters who watched the debate was the same verdict rendered after the first presidential debate on September 26 -- Obama was the decisive winner.

By virtually every post debate metric taken, it was Obama who was the winner, despite the fact that the town hall format was allegedly a clear advantage for McCain, who has, on several occasions, challenged Obama to a series of similar debates across the country and suggested that the race's tone would not be as ugly if Obama has agreed.

The debate, which took place in Nashville, Tennessee on the campus of Belmont University, was moderated by NBC’s Tom Brokaw, who selected questions relating to the economy and foreign affairs gathered from a pool of millions submitted by email. Other questions were asked by the audience, which consisted of one-third of people leaning towards Obama, one-third leaning towards McCain and the other third undecided. They were selected by Gallup, the polling organization.

Second Presidential Debate Has No Game-Changers....