I think McCain was clearly more comfortable on the substance, and he spent most of the evening on the offensive. Obama did a fair job for most of the evening of getting his talking points out on the table, but McCain wore him down as the debate went on, won the head-to-head exchanges, and was easily the more knowledgeable of the two candidates. By the end of the debate, the experience and knowledge gap was evident.
The reason I say that Obama did well enough for his purposes is that he just had to survive this debate. I think he accomplished that.
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