More good news from the LA Times poll just out:
Pre-Debate: Kerry 48, Bush 47.
Post-Debate: Kerry 49, Bush 47.
The poll, conducted Thursday night and Friday, surveyed 1,368 registered voters who participated in a Times survey last week and agreed to be contacted after the Sept. 30 debate. Among the group, 725 voters said they had, in fact, watched the debate; it is their attitudes the poll reports. The poll, supervised by polling director Susan Pinkus, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.
The voters who watched the debate were slightly more favorable to Kerry than the overall electorate even before the encounter began, the poll showed. For instance, in last week's Times Poll, Kerry trailed Bush among all registered voters by 49 percent to 45 percent.
But the voters who watched the matchup preferred Kerry by 48 percent to 47 percent for Bush even before the debate. After the debate, viewers divided almost exactly the same way, with 49 percent favoring Kerry, 47 percent Bush.