Who Won the 1st Presidential Debate, John McCain or Barack Obama?

In the first of three Presidential debates on Friday night Sept. 26, with the debate being held in a solidly red state and foreign policy, seen as John McCain's strong suit, being the main topic of discussion, the burden of proof in the eyes of many Americans was squarely on Barack Obama. Senator Obama had to prove to the nation that he had a solid grasp of foreign policy issues.

In my opinion, Barack Obama did just that and most commentators, even Republicans, seemed to agree. So does that mean Obama "won" the debate and thus is a cinch to win in November? As Lee Corso often says on ESPN's College Gameday, "not so fast, my friend". While Barack Obama was calm, relaxed and "Presidential" in his demeanor and grasp of issues, John McCain also performed well, most would agree.

Neither man made a monumental "gaffe" such as Gerald Ford made in 1976 when Ford said that Poland was not under control of the Soviet Union. Gaffes of the sort the press loves because it gives the talking heads something to talk for days or weeks leading up to the election. There were no "zingers" such as when Lloyd Bentsen told Dan Quayle in the Vice Presidential debate in 1988 that Quayle was "no Jack Kennedy" when the unknown Quayle compared his experience to be equal to that of JFK in 1960.

So, who won the debate? Both and neither. John McCain "won" in a way by not losing after the last few days of banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms and the like going under like dominoes falling in the past week.

Barack Obama "won" by holding serve on John McCain's court of foreign policy, appearing "Presidential" and by the fact that the first 45 minutes of the debate dealt with the economic crisis and all the federal bailouts.

At times, Barack Obama appeared unnerved by John McCain's debate points, but not so much that Obama lost his poise or got knocked off message. Barack Obama made the significant point several times of the Iraqis enjoying a budget surplus of $79 billion at the same time the U.S. economy is floundering with record deficits.

You see, for those of us with long memories, one of the selling points of George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq was that, supposedly, Iraqi oil would pay for the War, black gold would be plentiful., our troops would be greeted as "liberators" by the Iraqis and everybody would be happy. Whatever happened to those "talking points?" Nothing about the War could be harder to justify than these boomerangs. At the same time our country is spending $10 billion a month in Iraq, we are paying record prices for gasoline, our budget deficit has doubled in the last four years of Bush's "reign of error", and Americans are losing their jobs...and the Iraqis are sitting on a $79 billion surplus. And this is not a scene from Dr. Strangelove.

That being said, John McCain made some points that Barack Obama agreed with, highlighted his experience in the military and foreign leaders, but came across to many independents as condescending to Barack Obama when Mccain repeated several times "my opponent just doesn't understand". And that, my friends, to borrow a favorite phrase from John McCain, may be the difference in this debate.

By settling for a draw in this debate, it's kind of a loss for McCain due to McCain's deficit in the polls and the fact that foreign policy was seen as the area in which John McCain had a clear advantage. According to CNN polls taken of independent voters during and immediately after the debate, respondants not only thought Barack Obama had the better answers on the economy, but Iraq as well. 59% of the women in the poll gave the advantage to Obama in the debate, men gave McCain only a 46-43% edge and seniors gave Barack Obama an 8% margin. That's not good news for John McCain.

The way this first Presidential debate is being viewed by the public, it only raises the stakes for next week's Vice Presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin in St. Louis, Mo. After the widely panned interview Sarah Palin did with Katie Couric of CBS recently, the pressure will be squarely on Sarah Palin's shoulders to once again pull the McCain-Palin ticket into a tight race.

Then John McCain must confound the naysayers once again and perform in the next two debates as if this election depends on them. It does. With things breaking in the economy the way they are, Barack Obama mainly needs to avoid gaffes on his and Joe Biden's part and hold serve when the debates turn to domestic policy. Just as John McCain needed to win this first debate, Barack Obama needs to win on the domestic front. If he cannot do so, election night will be another 2000-style cliffhanger.