Snap polling the debates

To the chagrin of the punditry, the guy on the left won. In 2008, the pundits watched the debate between John McCain and Barack Obama and immediately after, declared that the old guy had triumphed! Then, a few minutes later, snap polls from CNN and CBS came back and doused them with cold water, Obama had won handily.

The pundits declared Sarah Palin the big victor in the veep debate, but the snap polls confirmed that the American people disagreed. By the last debate, the pundits sat around sheepishly waiting for the results, stewing that they had been rendered obsolete by the American people.

I went back to see what I wrote about it at the time, and it's just as I remember it:

If it wasn't for the snap polls, the pundits would be proclaiming this night a glorious victory for McCain. John King, who gave McCain an 18-15 victory in his debate scorecard, was just on ranting against the snap polls, saying they were bunk because people are answering just after watching the dabate, while being too "emotional" ... unlike the pundits who are all about reason and logic.

Whatever.

I love how the American people don't give a shit what John King thinks. They can decide for themselves who won.

And that's why John King hates them.

Laura added in an update:

Andrea Mitchell articulated it directly -- and sniffily -- saying that McCain had won on points, whether the polls would reflect that or not.

In another post, I wrote:

[T]he snap polls completely short circuit the ability of the right-wing noise machine to ramp up the "our guy won because the Democrat sighed" b.s. It's hard for the right-wing pundits on the air to make the case that McCain won when the numbers are so starkly in opposition.

This was particularly in display during the vice-presidential debate, when the enraptured Right wanted to proclaim her the Second Coming, while a secondary effort attempted to create outrage over a supposed Biden "sigh". Yet all of that hit a brick wall after the snap polls emerged.

There's no way to spin that stuff. When the American people say "Obama won" or "Biden won", it sort of settles the debate conclusively.

A CNN guy confirmed to me on Twitter that they'll be doing snap polling tonight. So don't fret about what the pundits say. We already know they'll declare Mitt Romney the victor. The snap polling will tell us what America says, and whether those results are good or bad for us, at least they'll come from people who matter this election -- the voters.