Early voter reaction: Obama wins first debate

CBS poll of uncommitted voters:

Thirty-nine percent of uncommitted voters who watched the debate tonight thought Barack Obama was the winner. Twenty-four percent thought John McCain won. Thirty-seven percent saw it as a draw.

Forty-six percent of uncommitted voters said their opinion of Obama got better tonight. Thirty-two percent said their opinion of McCain got better.

Insider Advantage / Poll Position

Opinions on who won the debate split almost evenly: 42 percent said they thought Barack Obama won the debate, 41 percent thought John McCain prevailed, and 17 percent were undecided.

The poll of 411 registered voters has a margin of error of plus or minus five percent. The results were weighted by age, race, gender and political affiliation.

CNN/Opinion Research Corp.

found that 51 percent thought that Obama won, while 38 percent thought McCain did. Respondents were generally impressed: 57 percent said Obama did better than expected and 20 percent said worse, while 60 percent said McCain did better than expected and 20 percent said worse.

One caveat for the poll: the party makeup was skewed toward Obama: 41 percent of the respondents identified themselves as Democrats, 27 percent as Republicans, and 30 percent identified themselves as Independents.