Pundits and bloggers are criticizing Obama for openly agreeing with McCain during the debate. He wasn't "tough" enough, he was playing too nice. Moreover, pundits think McCain may have scored points by repeatedly belittling Obama for not understanding the issues or being too naive.
I disagree. This is another instance of Obama knowing what McCain was going to do and he set him up brilliantly. Obama clearly made a strategic choice to openly agree with McCain on many occasions knowing McCain would be nasty and contemptuous. Why? Fairly simple
After tonight, who came across as a president who would be truly bipartisan? The candidate who was respectful to the other, or the candidate who was dismissive? More below.
To understand Obama's strategy, what's crucial to realize is that he was directing his performance specifically to independents. You know, those people who by definition aren't partisans and therefore really value bipartisanship. By frequently agreeing with McCain, what Obama was doing was showing the American people that he is more qualified to work across the aisle because effective bipartisanship depends on a leader of one party to respectfully dialogue and work with members of the other party.
I predict that in his rallies this week, Obama will make this point explicitly - he'll talk about his ability to work across party lines, then lambast McCain for being a phony, someone who talks about bipartisanship but doesn't really believe in it. He's going to explicitly mention how McCain constantly criticized his judgment and never once said that Obama was right on anything. Obama is going to frame McCain as an example of what's wrong with Washington, and people will remember vividly just how nasty McCain was and just how respectful and presidential Obama was.
This is the 1960 debate all over again. John McCain came across as the really venal, grumpy old man, while Obama came off as smart, adept, gracious, and presidential.
Round one to Obama.
EDIT: CBS poll - Obama won debate among independents
As proof that Obama's strategy worked - a CBS poll shows that Obama destroyed McCain among undecided voters. 42% of undecideds thought Obama won, while only 22% thought that McCain won. The rest thought it was a tie.
Forty-six percent of uncommitted voters said their opinion of Obama got better tonight.
Sixty-eight percent of uncommitted voters think Obama would make the right decisions about the economy. Forty-one percent think McCain would.