Obama wins CNN poll in racous debate

Barack Obama won the debate according to a CNN online poll, but it was a wonder he got through it relatively unscathed.

There was a lot of booing from the crowd directed mainly at Obama and Edwards, and for awhile a heckler could be heard in the background while Obama was speaking. Usually in these debates, the audience is instructed not to make any noise at all during the moderated session.

Nevertheless, here are some positive reviews for Obama from the news dailies:

"Obama Exposes Regional Difference With Clinton As Debate Turns For Him"

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama tonight turned in his strongest presidential debate performance and exposed a clear regional difference with front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Is $97,000 a lot of money? In most of Obama's Illinois and just about all of Iowa, the answer to that is "yes," which makes Obama's position on the question of whether to raise or lift the cap on Social Security taxes more reasonable to Hawkeye State voters than the New York shape-shifting of Clinton.

As it stands, the first $97,500 of a person's annual income is subject to the Social Security tax. Obama supports lifting that to shore up the future of the system while Clinton went with the nostalgia card, suggesting that she could resurrect the macroeconomic picture that prevailed under her husband and cause the Social Security problem to disappear without hard choices. She suggested that popping the cap would hurt middle-class Americans and argued that in some parts of the nation (namely high-priced New York City which she represents) $97,500 isn't a lot of money. It would be interesting to hear her make that argument in Audubon County, Iowa, where the average home is worth half that much: $49,000.

Obama offered himself as a credible and -- more importantly -- safe alternative to Clinton in last night's debate...

Obama offered his "we can do more" vision succinctly and forcefully. "Don't keep on assuming we can't do something," Obama scolded Blitzer at one point. "I am running for president because I think we can do it."

Obama got the best word count of all the candidates:

• Obama: 3,316
• Clinton: 2,618
• Gov. Bill Richardson: 2,180
• Sen. Joseph Biden: 1,892
• Edwards: 1,776
• Sen. Christopher Dodd: 1,560
• Rep. Dennis Kucinich: 1,080