McCain disappointed by media debate 'tie' consensus

[ In-depth debate poll results from Gallup ]

John McCain says he's disappointed.

His campaign has maintained he won Friday night's first presidential debate of the general election, outpointing Obama. They've said they were pleased that their man came off aggressively and was on the attack much of the time. Going unspoken, no doubt, was relief that McCain, did not lose his infamously volatile temper.

According to Reuters, McCain said:

“I was a little disappointed the media called it a tie but I think that means, when they call it a tie, that means we win,” McCain said during a telephone call that was caught by cameras filming him at his campaign headquarters.

The media consensus did run to a declaration of tie. And a tie was not what McCain needed after what many suggested was the worst week of his campaign, with a near-disastrous Katie Couric primetime interview with McCain VP running mate Sarah Palin, a week that began once again with McCain's assurance that US economic fundamentals were, in his words, "sound," and ended with him publicly putting his campaign "on hold" until an economic bail-out could be fashioned in Congress -- a move that was widely seen by the public as a "gimmick" -- and only two days later rescinding that suspension -- despite the fact that no agreement had been reached -- so that he could participate in the long-scheduled presidential debate, which polls had shown American's overwhelmingly wanted to proceed.

If McCain was disappointed by the media's tie designation, where does that leave his emotional state in the wake of polling that uniformly has shown that Americans by substantial margins felt that Obama had bested McCain in the debate?

ABC News:

A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows 46% of people who watched Friday night's presidential debate say Democrat Barack Obama did a better job than Republican John McCain; 34% said McCain did better.

Obama scored even better -- 52%-35% -- when debate-watchers were asked which candidate offered the best proposals for change to solve the country's problems.

The effects of the win were somewhat muted on opinions of McCain, though, at least by the numbers:

The poll suggested the debate was to some extent a wash for McCain: 21% of those who watched say it gave them a more favorable view of him, 21% say less favorable and 56% say it didn't change their opinion much.

Obama did somewhat better:

Three in 10 said their opinion of Obama became more favorable after seeing the debate, compared to 14% who said less favorable and 54% who said it didn't make much difference.

But the takeaway on what really matters to Americans at the moment -- the economy -- had to be a major disappointment for McCain, who has shot himself in the foot repeatedly on economic matters, conceding to reporters earlier this year that he doesn't know much about economics, and, on at least two occasions when the news of the day screamed the opposite, telling Americans in so many words that the US economy was "fundamentally sound." (And it certainly doesn't help McCain's image as a chief exec that his key adviser on the tech economy, Carly Fiorina, was, quite famously, fired as CEO of Hewlett Packard for poor performance.) Last week, his attempts at reassurance on economic fundamentals came almost simultaneously with economic analysts calling the yawning chasm of US debt the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930's.

More than one-third of viewers, or 37%, said they had less confidence in McCain to fix economic problems after seeing the debate; 23% said more. For Obama, the survey results were 34% more confidence, 26% less.

And, on foreign policy -- a topic on which McCain has previously been seen by US voters as more experienced and more capable than his younger rival -- the debate was a draw in the minds of those polled:

Neither candidate broke away on national security and foreign policy. About a third of viewers said they had more confidence in each man on that front after the debate, and slightly less in each case said they had less confidence.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of post-debate polling for the McCain camp comes directly from the Gallup organization's own write-up on the attitudes of all-important independent, "swing" voters:

[...] among the crucial group of independents who watched the debate -- those most likely to actually be swayed by what transpired, Obama won by 10 points, 43% to 33%.