Voters say Barack Obama beat John McCain in Tuesday night’s presidential debate 45% to 28%, but they also think McCain is better prepared to be president than Obama by an 11-point margin.

Over one-quarter of voters (28%) didn’t pick either man as the winner of the debate, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey taken Wednesday evening.

Sixty-one percent (61%) say McCain is prepared to be president, while 50% feel that way about Obama. While 28% say McCain isn’t ready to be the chief executive, 43% say that of the Democratic nominee.

After the first debate between the presidential hopefuls on September 26, 36% thought Obama won versus 33% who saw McCain as the winner.

Nationally, Obama has been gaining ground steadily in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll ever since the turmoil on Wall Street began dominating the news.

Only 10% of voters in the new survey say they did not watch any of the debate Tuesday night. Fifty-five percent (55%) say they watched all of it.

Among those who watched all of the debate, Obama won even more decisively 57% to 29%.

Both men and women declared Obama the winner of the second debate – male voters by 10 points, women by 22.

But, putting the debate performance in perspective, both men and women think McCain is better prepared to be president.

While men are evenly divided on whether Obama is prepared or not, 66% say the Republican is ready, but just 25% say he is not. Among women, 52% believe Obama is ready, while 56% believe McCain is. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of women voters do not believe the Democrat is prepared to be president, versus 31% who believe that of McCain.

Even 36% of likely Obama voters say McCain is prepared to be president, while just three percent (3%) of likely McCain voters believe Obama is ready.

In a survey in mid-September, 63% said McCain is prepared right now to be president, while 44% said the same of Obama. Forty-five percent (45%) said Obama wasn’t ready to be in the White House.

Republicans were less enthusiastic about their candidate’s debate performance Tuesday night than Democrats. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of GOP voters say McCain won, while 70% of Democrats say Obama won. Unaffiliated voters gave Obama the edge 47% to 17%.
Seventy-eight percent (78%) of African-American voters and 41% of whites said Obama was the winner. Thirty percent (30%) of white voters declared McCain the winner, with nearly as many undecided.
In a survey taken after the first debate, voters said they trusted Obama more on all 10 major issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports, including the handling of the war in Iraq.
Voters with family in the military and relatives or close friends serving in Iraq gave the edge in the latest debate to Obama by double digits but are evenly divided on whether or not he is prepared to be president. By more than 30 points, they believe McCain is ready.
Fifty-two percent gave moderator Tom Brokaw good or excellent marks for his performance, but 12% said the longtime NBC newsman did a poor job moderating the debate.
In a survey right before the debate, 62% expected Brokaw to be neutral as moderator, but 25% said he would try to help Obama.

The final McCain-Obama presidential debate, moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS News, is scheduled for October 15 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

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