Both presidential candidates received positive reviews after their first debate, but voters who tuned-in to the event offered very different impressions of the two men; “confident” is the word used most often by voters to describe Obama’s debate performance while “experienced” is the most common description of McCain’s. (The tallies of the one-word descriptions of the candidates are the actual numbers of respondents offering that description rather than percentages.) “Inexperienced” and “intelligent” tied for the second most used descriptor of Obama’s performance, with “presidential” close behind in third place. The second most used descriptor of McCain’s debate was “old,” followed by “knowledgeable” and “confident.” Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.