(October 15, 2008) Majority Opinion Research, through our polling partner InsiderAdvantage, provided Politico with an exclusive post-debate poll to determine who voters thought won the third and final debate of the 2008 election.
Forty-nine percent of respondents said that Obama won the debate, compared to 46 who believed his opponent, Sen. John McCain, came out on top. The three-point gap separating the two candidates was equal to the poll’s margin of error. Five percent said they were unsure which candidate had the better evening.
Among respondents not identified with either major political party, McCain was judged tonight’s winner, 51-42 percent.
Hispanic voters said Obama bested McCain by a 50-36 percent margin.
The candidates were evenly matched among white voters, with McCain posting a narrow 49-46 percent advantage. African-Americans picked Obama as the winner, 88-10 percent.
The poll was conducted over a 15-minute period following the completion of the presidential debate, testing 715 respondents with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. The sample of uncommitted, likely voters, was selected from a pool of 160,000 voters across the country, and the results were demographically weighted. |
