VP Debate Polls

I'm loving the polls these days, so here's another for you; this time, it's the reaction of uncommitted voters to the VP debate last night (h/t Charles Kuffner):

CBS News and Knowledge Networks have conducted a nationally representative poll of 473 uncommitted voters to get their immediate reaction to tonight's vice presidential debate. 

After the first presidential debate, a similar survey showed that more uncommitted voters identified Barack Obama as the winner 

Final numbers from tonight's poll have yet to come in, but we do have some early results. (These numbers may change as more respondents complete the survey.) They suggest that once again more voters have responded favorably to the Democratic candidate. 

Forty-six percent of the uncommitted voters surveyed say Democrat Joe Biden won the debate, compared to 21 percent for Republican Sarah Palin. Thirty-three percent said it was a tie. 

Eighteen percent of previously uncommitted percent say they are now committed to the Obama-Biden ticket. Ten percent say they are now committed to McCain-Palin. Seventy-one percent are still uncommitted. 

Both candidates improved their overall image tonight. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed say they now have a better impression of Biden. Five percent say they have a worse opinion of the Delaware senator, while 42 percent say they debate did not change their opinion. 

Fifty-five percent say they now have a better opinion of Palin. Fourteen percent say they have a worse opinion, while 30 percent say their opinion hasn't changed. 

After the debate, 66 percent see Palin as knowledgeable about important issues – up from 43 percent before the debate. But Biden still has the advantage on this – 98 percent saw him as knowledgeable after the debate. That figure was 79 percent before the debate. 

I think polls like this confirm the first impression of Adam (and others) that this debate wasn't a game-changer in either direction, which is fine since a game-changer is what McCain, not Obama, needs.

VP Debate Thoughts

-Given the dismal black hole of a low bar Sarah Palin had going into this, she did well simply not falling on her face. But while that might help with conservatives, I doubt it had any effect on independents. Joe Biden is as good as he normally is and avoided putting his foot in his mouth. Gwen Ifil did a great job moderating. The pre-debate spin from Republicans that she was in the tank for Obama just seems more absurd now.

-This debate was very similar to the first presidential debate: the Democrat won on the merits, the Republican did better than expected, there were no major gaffes, pundits didn't see it was game-changing, and the insta-polls and focus groups favored Biden. We'll see if there's any effect in the polling in the days to come. However, as Kos noted, the good thing about the insta-polls on what people thought about the debate is that it forces the pundits to adjust their analysis to what people actually thought (in both debates, a Democratic win versus how they called it a tie), which, in turn, affects how people react to the debate in the days to come.

-Most interesting moments included Palin seeming to agree with Biden on gay rights more than evangelicals probably wanted her to sound and when Biden choked up in response to her snide dig about not knowing what it's like to raise a family (this was the best moment of the debate and got the highest response from debate watchers).

Watch the Palin-Biden debate

We'll find you a link of the recorded debate when it's over.

Here's an article with accompanying video on ABC News.

UPDATED (Xanthippas): Here's a transcript if you're stuck at work and can't watch video.