Who got their message across on policy in presidential debate? | Eastern North Carolina Now

There is an old saying that "issues drive votes" and the long term impact of the ABC presidential debate for election day will be centered largely on who got their message across on issues.  A poll for the UK's Daily Mail of 800 independent American voters who watched the debate is telling in that regard.  Each of them was asked for two words to describe the strongest moment in each candidate's debate performance, and then the pollster created "word clouds" based on the frequentcy of responses.  Here are those word clouds:

Polling consistently shows that the most important issue to voters is the economy, closely followed by immigration.  Regardless of who a debate judge would have scored the highest on technical points, it is clear who did the best on getting their positions out on the issues that matter most to voters.

Another interesting observation came from a focus group which had Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who wore monitors throughout the debate to register their reactions to statements by both candidates as the statements were made.  Those monitors showed that Independents were having almost the identical reactions as Republicans.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/09/12/independent-voters-surprise-n2179219