Okay, that's interesting

[gerisullivan]

I watched/listened the debate online, and only tuned into the CNN "Audience Reaction" meter for the last two questions. In the last question, when Obama started talking about his personal background, Independent reactions immediately went up and stayed there until he moved onto more general remarks. When McCain did the same thing in his response, Independent reactions immediately went down and stayed down, going back up only when he moved back to talking about the country rather than himself.

Now I wish I'd watched the reaction meter throughout the entire debate. Except that those 3 pages of layout would still be awaiting my attention if I had, and I could little afford that.

I'm interested in what people who watched the Audience Reaction meter noticed about what it showed -- comments and links welcome.

Comments

[kaffy_r]

I eschewed audience meters and stuck with CSpan. I'm noticing that the Obamas stuck around and are still, as I post, chatting with the studio audience. McCain and his wife took off immediately. I wonder if they realized what that looks like?

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

I was only watching CNN with the dial meter for the last 30 minutes or so. I found it very interesting that in the closing remarks, when Obama mentioned his life story, the dials were way up but they didn't go nearly as high up when McCain told his. Not sure what that means... I'm hoping that CNN might have a full video replay at some point with the dial meters shown.

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

It looks like McCain viewed the audience as little more than window dressing (which they probably were, but it's a bad idea to be seen acting like that). His non-verbals throughout the debate show marked disdain and lack of respect/courtesy for his opponent, Obama -- walking around while Obama was speaking, the "that one" which is rapidly moving into the stuff of legend. A number of the debate reactions I've seen from the general viewing public characterize his "my friends" as condescending, rather than warm.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

So far, looks like the "that one" comment is the headline and sound bite from the debate, as close to a gaffe as occurred.

[madtruk.livejournal.com]

I am addicted to the dial...

So, the most obvious Independent (the other two are predictable) dial moments:

McCain up: Russia, Drilling, Love of country
McCain way down: Misrepresenting Obama's record (I was genuinely surprised by this), nuclear power

Obama up: Dealing with Afhganistan, energy, bailout, personal story
Obama down: Russia, nuclear power, drilling as a stopgap

I am hopeful, watching those dials, that people are ignoring the fear mongering negative campaigning this year.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

On MSNBC after the debate they showed three snippets of their dialometer, and the one I found interesting was that when McCain was talking about his new renegotiate-the-mortgages plan, the Republican line tanked, and the Independent line stayed down with the Dem line.