Poll Tracker

In line with voter reactions about the campaign in general, 80 percent said McCain spent more of his time attacking compared to 7 percent who said that of Obama. McCain's focus on Obama's association with former radical William Ayers didn't resonate: 51 percent said it didn't matter to them at all compared to 23 percent who said it mattered a great deal.

Independents tend to prefer debates that are dominated by substance and light on discussion of personal characteristics," said Keating Holland, CNN polling director. "The perception that McCain attacked Obama gave red meat to GOP partisans, but it probably didn't help McCain with independents."

Fifty-four percent said McCain came across as a typical politician compared to 35 percent for Obama.

Debate-watchers said by 56 percent to 41 percent that Obama would do a better job on taxes and by 62 percent to 31 percent he would do a better job on health care.

Men gave thumbs up to Obama's performance by 54 percent to 35 percent while women overwhelming saw Obama as the winner by 62 percent to 28 percent.

A CBS News/Knowledge Networks poll of uncommitted voters said 53 percent called Obama the winner, 22 percent chose McCain and 25 percent thought it was a tie.

Forty-six percent of the uncommitteds said their perception of Obama improved because of the debate, 10 percent said they got worse and 44 percent said their opinions had not changed. Thirty percent said their perceptions of McCain improved but 26 percent said they got worse.

CBS said debate watchers used worlds like "eloquent" and "confident" to describe Obama but said that McCain appeared too defensive and they used words like "rude," "mean," and "Caustic" to describe his performance.

Sixty-five percent of voters said Obama would make the right decisions on the economy compared to 54 percent who said that before the debate, and 48 percent said after the debate that McCain would make the right decisions compared to 38 percent before the debate.

The number of voters who thought that Obama would do a better job on health care rose from 61 percent before the debate to 68 percent at its end, while McCain started at 27 percent and rose to 30 percent. Sixty-four percent of voters thought Obama would raise taxes but 50 percent also believe that McCain would.

McCain's strongest score was on who would better handle a crisis. Eighty-two percent said after the debate that they would trust McCain more, compared to 78 percent before the debate. Sixty-three percent said they would trust Obama, a big improvement on the 50 percent who said that before the debate.