OXFORD , Mississippi ( CNN ) -- A national poll of people who watched the first presidential debate suggests that Barack Obama came out on top , but there was overwhelming agreement that both Obama and John McCain would be able to handle the job of president if elected . The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey is not a measurement of the views of all Americans , since only people who watched the debate were questioned and the audience included more Democrats than Republicans . Fifty-one percent of those polled thought Obama did the better job in Friday night 's debate , while 38 percent said John McCain did better . Men were nearly evenly split between the two candidates , with 46 percent giving the win to McCain and 43 percent to Obama . But women voters tended to give Obama higher marks , with 59 percent calling him the night 's winner , while just 31 percent said McCain won . `` It can be reasonably concluded , especially after accounting for the slight Democratic bias in the survey , that we witnessed a tie in Mississippi tonight , '' CNN Senior Political Researcher Alan Silverleib said . `` But given the direction of the campaign over the last couple of weeks , a tie translates to a win for Obama . '' Watch entire debate : Part 1 » | Part 2 » | Part 3 » . McCain apparently failed to get the `` game changer '' he needed to reverse his deficit in the polls , Silverleib said . Grade the candidates ' performances in the debate . Both candidates appeared to exceed expectations . McCain did better than expected in the minds of 60 percent , while 57 percent said Obama did a better job in the debate than they expected . Twenty percent said both candidates did worse than expected . iReport.com : Who do you think won the debate ? More than two-thirds of debate watchers agreed that both McCain and Obama would be able to handle the job of president if elected . National security has been an issue where McCain has held an advantage , but his edge over Obama -- 49 percent to 45 percent -- on the question of which candidate would best handle terrorism is within the poll 's 4.5 percent margin of error . Watch candidates discuss likelihood of another 9/11 » . The economy , which has been Obama 's terrain this cycle , dominated the first half of the debate . Debate watchers gave him a 21 percentage point edge -- 58 to 37 percent -- on the question of which candidate would do a better job handling the economy . By a similar margin , those polled said Obama would be better able to deal with the current financial crisis facing the nation . Watch McCain , Obama discuss the economy » . The real impact of the debate may not be apparent right away . `` The real test will come in a few days when we see whether support for Obama or McCain changes in polls involving all voters , not just debate watchers , '' said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland . `` In post-debate polls after the first faceoff in 2004 , John Kerry got virtually the same numbers as Obama did tonight . Polls released a few days later showed Kerry gaining five points in the horse race . '' Good post-debate poll numbers do n't always spell success in the horse race , he said . `` Kerry also won the third debate in 2004 with the same numbers that Obama got in tonight 's poll , but his support dropped five points after that event , '' Holland said . Poll interviews were conducted with 524 adult Americans who watched the debate and were conducted by telephone on September 26 . All interviews were done after the end of the debate . The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points . The results may be favoring Obama simply because more Democrats than Republicans tuned in to the debate . Of the debate-watchers questioned in this poll , 41 percent of the respondents identified themselves as Democrats , 27 percent as Republicans and 30 percent as independents . The best estimate of the number of Democrats in the voting age population as a whole indicates that the sample is roughly 5 to 7 percentage points more Democratic than the population as a whole . CNN 's Rebecca Sinderbrand contributed to this story .
Post-debate CNN poll suggests Obama came out on top over McCain . Most debate watchers agreed McCain , Obama would be able to handle presidency . Male respondents split evenly among candidates ; Women liked Obama over McCain .