Excerpts from Mark Halperin's Report Cards for the Nashville Presidential Debate
Obama:
Substance: "Crisply specific on his economic platform, and personal and expository on the importance of the financial bailout to regular Americans."
Grade: B+
Style: "Neither nervous nor tentative in speech or manner."
Grade: B+
Offense: "Seeded answers with mentions of 'George Bush' whenever he could, which his campaign considers an automatic, all-purpose trump card."
Grade: B+
Defense: "Unruffled when McCain went after him, smiling softly while he waited to respond."
Grade: B+
Overall: "Played it typically cautious and safe, and thus avoided major blunders, knowing if he commits no errors for the next thirty days, he will be the next President of the United States. The Illinois Senator used a coolly determined offense to keep McCain from building up a full head of steam when on the attack. Comfortably indicated a thorough grasp of his policies and agenda. It was not a dominating performance, but good enough. Two debates down and one to go for the prohibitive favorite."
Grade: B+
McCain
Substance: "Did little to close the gap with Obama on who voters trust to deal with the economy."
Grade: B-
Style: "Clearly more confident talking to voters in his cherished town hall format than standing behind a podium."
Grade: B
Offense: "Pulled off his primary task more deftly than even his aides could have hoped."
Grade: B+
Defense: "Mostly ignored Obama's swipes, maintained his composure, and rarely looked annoyed."
Grade: B
Overall: "As promised, he was comfortable in a town hall environment, directing his attention to the individual questioner and the crowd. The Republican nominee was by turns aggressive, sensitive, conservative and conversational. Successfully presented a negative case against Obama with an upbeat, optimistic smile - but was unable to paint a truly damning portrait of an Obama presidency, especially on the economy. He exhibited a few physical and verbal tics that made him look his age, including a heavy reliance on his 'my friends' crutch, and seemed nervously well aware of the high stakes. Without a solid win, he did not make up as much ground as he needed to, but lives to fight on."
Grade: B
Full report cards on Time.com: Obama's here and McCain's here.
