Jeff, How do your square this with the supposed republican bias of Rasmussen? interesting that among those who say the debate changed their mind, it's a pretty even split, with a modest Kerry tilt. I guess that pretty much mirrors the overall impression of the debate. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Debate I Oct 2.htm Voters Say Kerry Won, Few Change Minds Who did better in last night's Presidential debate? Bush 40% Kerry 52% Who Will Win the Election in November? Bush 53% Kerry 32% October 2, 2004--A Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 Likely Voters conducted Friday night found that 52% believe John Kerry "won" Thursday night's debate. Forty percent (40%) disagree and think George Bush emerged victorious. Predictably, by overwhelming margins, Republicans and Democrats each thought their candidate won. Those not affiliated with either party gave the nod to Senator Kerry by a 63% to 24% margin. Still, regardless of who they want to win, 53% of those surveyed believe George W. Bush will be re-elected. Thirty-two percent (32%) think Kerry will win. Coming out of the Republican National Convention, 52% expected a Bush victory while 38% thought the Kerry/Edwards team would win. Ninety-one percent (91%) of Bush voters still expect their man to win. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Kerry voters think the Democrats will win. Six percent (6%) of voters say the debate changed their mind about how they will vote this November. This includes 3% who now say they will vote for Kerry, 2% for Bush, and 1% who are now undecided. One interesting twist is that 64% of Kerry voters now say that Presidential Debates are very important. However, only 23% of Bush voters share that view.
Honestly, I don't think the undecideds, at least the undecideds who are making the effort to learn about the candidates, are going to make up their minds completely until after all of the debates. Kerry would have had to put on a debate the likes of which Clinton never dreamed to immediately jump to the winner's seat in every poll. Undecideds are going to watch both of the other debates (and maybe even the VP debate) and likely will not make up their minds until after the domestic policy debate in a couple of weeks. Kerry did well, but he will have to do similarly well in both of the other debates to make up the minds that Samantha Bee told to "s4it or get off the pot" on TDS the other night.
