Saddleback

I'm finally getting a chance to watch Obama/McCain at Saddleback. My impression is that Obama (facing a stricter crowd - but getting A LOT of applause) was a little verbose (where Warren seemed anxious to move on sometimes), thoughtful, and probably had a closer biblical understanding of the issues (even when talking around the GOP hot button issues). McCain, on the other hand, was pretty good - more intimate than usual - but didn't show a lot of depth. He mostly shot out short GOP talking points that were well recieved by the crowd.

Now, all the stories I've seen say that McCain won (and claim that's why the Obama camp claims he heard the questions beforehand) ... but all the stories are written by conservatives! Byron York in NRO (here and here), Gerson in the Post (here). It shoudn't be surprising that when a conservative is asked questions on GOP issues, and knows how he should respond - and does so ... and conservatives evaluate the perfomance, they think the conservative won! Duh! Essentially, that's what these articles do - they grade McCain high on GOP issues and ignore the others. I'd like to hear some liberals write on this.

UPDATE: E.J. has the liberal view.

As for me, I think Obama performed well. He's not going to gain many votes from that crowd (although judging by the applause, he had a bunch), but he is going to keep some from voting against him.

Politico has a more even look at what remarks will show up in later debates and commercials.

UPDATE: lets stop talking about the "sound cone" and talk about their answers.