To be blunt, my immediate reaction was that the debate last night was a draw. I was surprised by the CNN and CBS polls showing Obama winning it by such a large margin.
Like many other lefties, I wanted to see blood on the floor. "Obama agreed with McCain too much." "Obama let McCain attack him too much." "Obama should have gone on the offensive."
However, then reason set in. I teach college English for a living, and one of the things I teach my students is counterargument. Many people think counterargument is simply saying "He's wrong! He's wrong! He's wrong!" over and over, louder and louder. Talk radio and Crossfire have done us a serious disservice in that respect.
There are three basic methods of counterargument:
1) Refutation. This is the mode we're all used to, where you refute the opposition's position and state your reasons why. (Unfortunately, most people never take it to the necessary next step, which is supporting those reasons. As I tell my students, if it is important to back up affirmative claims, it is doubly important to back up negative claims because you know someone is ready to attempt to disprove them.)
2) Acknowledgment. This mode merely acknowledges the other side's position without taking a stand on it or incorporating it into any kind of argument. My students usually gape at me with puzzled expressions on their face when I bring this up. "We can... we can do that?" I nod, and then ask them why it might work. They usually get it pretty quickly: "It makes me look like I know what I'm talking about", or "It makes me look smarter."
3) Accommodation. This mode not only acknowledges the other side exists, but it says the other side is right, but it's not important to your own overall argument. This is what Obama was doing last night. Again, my students typically look at me dumbfounded when I bring this up, and I usually ask them "Why might this work?" Typically, someone raises his or her hand and says, "Because it makes me look smarter and it makes me look like I'm being reasonable."
This is why Obama won with independents in the CBS and CNN polls. His accommodations weren't seen as weakness, but instead made him look both knowledgeable and reasonable.
This is how persuasion works, and even though I myself, a "true believer" in the power of genuine argument, had begun to lose faith, apparently the "old school" (read: Aristotelean) methods of rhetoric still commands some respect in America.
This is a good thing.