Overall, Americans are evenly split on who did the better job in the three debates

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans who watched the third presidential debate on Oct. 22 are significantly more likely to say Barack Obama did a better job than Mitt Romney, by 56% to 33%. This is the second debate win for Obama. Romney overwhelmingly was seen as the winner of the first debate.

The third, and last, debate was held on the campus of Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., and dealt exclusively with foreign policy topics. The second debate included mixed topics asked by uncommitted voters recruited from the area around Hofstra University in New York, and the first debate at the University of Denver was focused on domestic issues.

Sixty-nine percent of Americans Gallup interviewed Oct. 23-24, the two nights after the third debate, said they watched the debate, while about half of the rest said they saw news coverage of it. This self-reported viewership is about the same as Gallup measured in the two days after the first debate on Oct. 3, but the first and third debates had lower viewership than the 76% who reported watching the second, town hall-style debate on Oct. 16.

There is little difference in the self-reported viewing of partisan groups; Democrats and Republicans were about equally likely to watch the third debate, while independents lagged behind both.

Debate watchers' assessments of who did the better job in each debate are not based on immediate reactions, but rather represent evaluations rendered up to two days later, and thus can reflect the impact of media news reports and the assessments of various commentators.

As would be expected, Democrats say Obama did the better job in the third debate, while Republicans say Romney did better. But Obama scores higher overall for two reasons. First, 16% of Republicans say Obama did the better job, compared with only 4% of Democrats who say Romney did the better job. Second, independents give Obama a 56% to 27% edge over Romney.

Democrats are the most certain in their choice, with only 2% not indicating a preference. Republicans and independents are significantly more likely to say both candidates did equally well, or to say neither candidate won, or to simply not be able to respond.

When asked a more general question about their view of who did the "better job overall in all three debates," Americans essentially break even, with 46% saying Romney and 44% Obama.

Thus, it appears that overall, in their summation of the debate "season" in this year's campaign, Americans may be giving as much weight to Romney's strong performance in the first debate as to their perceptions that Obama won two of the three debates.

Implications

Despite his poorly rated performance in the first debate, Obama came back and was rated the "winner" in the second and third debates. These two victories appear to have enabled him to neutralize the impact of his poor outing in the first debate, with the two candidates ending up in a virtual draw when Americans judge all three debates together. This mirrors the closeness of the race overall.

There are no more presidential debates left, and no more major public events in the 12 days left before Election Day. Both candidates are campaigning ceaselessly, and voters in selected swing states in particular continue to be inundated with direct mail, phone calls, and Internet entreaties, and to be exposed to almost continuous television and radio commercials for the two candidates. The debates no doubt played an important role in the unfolding of the 2012 presidential campaign, the ultimate outcome of which remains to be determined.

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