Warm And Cool

During Friday night’s presidential debate, CBS and Nielsen captured real-time reactions to the candidates’ performance. As they watched the debate, a panel of 44 members turned a dial to indicate their approval or disapproval of the candidates’ comments. The panel and its results are not part of CBS’s election polling, and the panel is not large enough to be statistically significant according to Nielsen’s standards.

Nevertheless, Nielsen concludes that this tool does provide some interesting insights:

-- Barack Obama’s discussion of oil independence and health, at roughly 26 minutes into the debate, drew the overall most positive response from the CBS/Nielsen panel.

-- Obama’s lowest response came during his discussion of investing in the American dream.

-- In contrast, 92 minutes into the debate, John McCain’s closing comments summarizing his qualifications for the presidency and his plans for keeping the U.S. safe drew some of the least positive responses from the respondents.

-- McCain’s high point came just minutes earlier when discussing the importance of success in Iraq.

-- The candidates’ contentious exchange on energy policy (at 83 minutes) also drew negative responses from the CBS/Nielsen panel.

Also, ICYMI, the overall number of people who watched the debate was 52.4M, well below the 62.5M who watched the first debate between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry four years ago.