Immediately after the debate, CBS News interviewed a nationally representative sample of 178 debate watchers assembled by Knowledge Networks who were "uncommitted voters" – voters who are either undecided about who to vote for or who have a preference but say they could still change their minds.
Forty-one percent of these uncommitted debate watchers said Edwards won the debate tonight. Twenty-eight percent said Cheney won. Thirty-one percent thought it was a tie.
WHO WON THE DEBATE? (Uncommitted Voters Who Watched Debate)
Edwards
41% Cheney
28% Tie
31%
Both men and women who are uncommitted in their vote gave the win to Edwards tonight.
In the days right after the 2000 vice-presidential debate, by 47 percent to 22 percent, voters said Cheney had won the debate over his Democratic opponent Lieberman; another quarter said the 2000 vice-presidential debate was a tie.
Edwards also greatly improved opinions of him among these voters, and Cheney also made some gains. Nearly half of these uncommitted voters said their opinion of Edwards has changed for the better as a result of the debate. Just 14 percent said they have a lower opinion of Edwards after tonight, and 37 percent didn’t change their views of Edwards.
As for the Vice President, 32 percent of uncommitted viewers said that their image of Cheney changed for the better as a result. Fifteen percent say their opinion of Cheney got worse. But a majority, 53 percent, did not change their opinions.
Before tonight, most of these uncommitted voters were undecided in their overall evaluations of either Edwards or Cheney.
OPINIONS OF THE CANDIDATES AFTER DEBATE (Uncommitted Voters Who Watched Debate)
Edwards Changed for the better
49% Changed for the worse
14% No change
37%
Cheney Changed for the better
32% Changed for the worse
15% No change
53%
Uncommitted voters came away from the debate believing that both John Edwards and Dick Cheney could be an effective president if needed.
The North Carolina Senator is better liked among uncommitted voters than the Vice President. Eighty-two percent of men and 72 percent of women of this group of voters said they would like Edwards personally, while half of both men and women said Cheney was likeable.
Eighty-two percent of tonight’s uncommitted viewers said Edwards shared their priorities for the country, nearly twice the number who said this about Cheney. The Vice President did receive higher scores on leadership qualities from tonight’s uncommitted viewers, but majorities said both candidates had strong qualities of leadership.
Most of uncommitted voters watching tonight said the vice-presidential candidates would have a great deal of influence on their vote for President in November. Forty-three percent said the vice-presidential candidates would not affect their vote on Election Day. But these individuals had just watched (and reacted to) 90 minutes of the candidates.
Kerry was widely viewed by as the winner by voters nationwide in a CBS News poll following last week’s debate. He improved his likeability with uncommitted voters, especially on the issue of Iraq in the first debate. In a post-debate CBS News/New York Times national poll, the horserace tightened after the debate to 47 percent to 47 percent among likely voters, changing from the Bush-Cheney ticket’s pre-debate nine-point lead over Kerry and Edwards. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20041006/32af0f18/attachment.htm>