Well, I sat up until 5:30 am watching the debate between Obama and McCain online. These are my impressions. Why is CNN's sole analyst (Leslie Sanchez) a Republican adviser? Are they going to have only a Democratic analyst next time? I thought Obama came out a lot stronger at the beginning, particularly when talking about the economy. Obama's opening salvo, enumerating his plans for the economy, stood in sharp contrast to John McCain's blather about bipartisanship and his old story about the DNA study for bears in Montana. Things seemed to turn for McCain, however, when the debate began to focus upon foreign policy issues. Not that I felt McCain's arguments were convincing. On the contrary, I think McCain's policies on Iraq, Iran, and Russia are really wrongheaded, even dangerous. McCain, however, managed to largely define the terms of the foreign policy component of the debate, with Obama deferring far too much to McCain's supposed 'expertise' in the field. Time and again, Obama appeared to offer little more than a softer version of McCain's out-of-touch policies. Moreover, Obama needs to make a case for himself, rather than simply pointing out all of the times in which Bush and McCain have been wrong. He came closest to doing this when he linked their bad decisions of the past to the question of who is best equipped to make future decisions. But Obama needs to do more if he is to be taken seriously in terms of a commander-in-chief. As he did with Hillary, he needs to show people that McCain's experience is part of a line of thinking that got us into the mess we're in today. Obama seemed to largely agree tonight with much of what McCain said about Georgia, Russia, and the Middle East, differing mostly with respect to tone, rather than policy substance. When discussing Iran, the two candidates simply got into a sterile disagreement regarding what 'face-to-face' contacts entail, with Obama seeming to backtrack. Obviously, there are clear differences between the two candidates with respect to Iraq, but once again Obama seemed more interested in showing how he was right in the past than in discussing what needs to be done now. McCain was very right in pointing out that the Crimea could end up being a very serious point of conflict with Russia, but (as I have written about earlier) his support for sped-up NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia is a terrible idea. Obama, however, didn't come across as knowing enough about the politics of the former Soviet Union to disagree. Fortunately for Obama, people these days seem far more concerned with domestic issues rather than foreign policy. According to a CBS poll of undecided voters taken right after the debate, McCain scored somewhat higher with respect to Iraq (56 percent thinking McCain would make the right decisions on Iraq, 48 percent thinking so of Obama). A far larger number of undecideds (66 percent) thought Obama would make the right moves on the economy than McCain (42 percent). 46 percent felt their opinion of Obama improved last night (32 percent for McCain), while 39 percent though Obama 'won' the debate (24 percent said McCain won, and 37 percent thought it was a draw). On TPM there is a breakdown of CNN polling data which showed similar numbers, including a couple of real eye-grabbers: Obama came off as far more likeable (61% to 26%) and "more in touch with the needs and problems of people like you" (62% to 32%). Ouch.