The purpose of the presidential debate

"The debate featured a few good moments but no knock-out blows. McCain attacked Obama’s experience and Obama challenged McCain’s judgment. But both candidates left a lot out."
- Frank Sesno CNN special correspondent.
That being said, it is important to understand that the purpose of the presidential debates is not to determine a specific winner, but to instead clearly differentiate the stances of the two candidates on the issues.
According to political pundits on CNN, historically, people have not changed their minds on who they are going to vote for based on who wins or supposedly is said to have won the debate. This is obviously true after several of the expert reactions to the Bush - Kerry debates. In addition, the public reaction poll at the bottom of the screen during the live debate showed that democrats generally showed positive reaction when Obama was speaking and republicans generally showed positive reaction when McCain was speaking.
This debate specifically about foreign policy and the economy crisis simply confirmed voters reasons for supporting each candidates policies. Although McCain should have been stronger within this topic by clearly pointing out Obama's lack of experience, neither candidate seemed to stand out in this region. In terms of the economic crisis, neither of the candidates explained exactly what they are going to do because the fact remains that no one can call the solvency of the situation at the moment.
Through this and the future debates the American public can be assured however that, as was done yesterday, both the presidential and vice presidential candidates will prove there calm, structured, and consistent manner towards pre - discussed policy. This will only confirm voters ideas on why and for whom they are voting no matter what statistics or political pundits say.