I watched the debate at a bar with some friends, projected on a giant screen, sharing the room with a guy in a superheroic Obama shirt and a few other tables of locals. We laughed a lot when Joe the Plumber came up. Dan occasionally turned his iPhone to the table to show us the results of his quick fact checking. We had fried pickles and beer. By the end of the night, none of our opinions about the candidates had changed, but I think I learned a little bit about what this debate meant for audiences.

For already committed voters, like me and Dan, this debate is entertainment. People like seeing their own guy outperform the other guy. If we’re doing any information-seeking, it’s just to be more knowledgeable about politics and the state of the country in general because we like knowing stuff, or, perhaps more likely, it’s just to bolster our own talking points. And from that perspective, there are some things that might’ve made it a more entertaining debate, while still being informative. It might not bring integrity to think of the debate as some kind of game show, but my group of friends really did wish that the moderator had his own buddy with an iPhone on hand to point out that when two people give wildly divergent numbers about the average family’s health insurance premium, only one of those numbers can actually be true. Also, spending a significant portion of a debate talking about nasty commercials eventually devolves for the audience into something like watching nasty commercials, which just makes for bad television. I wonder what the committed voters on the other side think would’ve made the debate more entertaining for them, though.

What about those crucial “undecideds” we hear so much about? People often joke that to be undecided still, one would have to be stupid, but it’s not clear to me why you’d think that someone making a carefully considered decision is dumber than someone you actively disagree with. After this debate, though, and after seeing a segment on CBS with some undecided folk they lured out of the streets, I think I have a better idea of who are still making up their minds. In the CBS studio, at least, that meant a few people somehow found the nudge they needed to finally say maybe McCain would do after all, at least one person (who admitted she usually votes Republican) decided Obama would have to do, and one very cautious woman still wants to hear more about health care reform.

So who are the undecided? My guess: on the one hand, disappointed conservatives facing the worst “lesser of two evils” scenario they can imagine, and on the other hand, one-issue-voters who really haven’t been given enough information about either candidate’s policies to decide who best addresses the respective issue of most interest. I guess the debate gave that first group what they needed. I don’t think that those actually interested in specific issues and facts, however, will get what they’re looking for until debate organizers get better about keeping politicians mindful of the information they’re putting out there for us.