RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And the Governor is one of many politicians from both parties who we're hearing from in this election season. Was it the town hall or a town brawl? That's what some pundits are asking a day after the very heated second presidential debate, between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
The face-off at Hofstra University on Long Island provided a new look at both men as they made their cases to a group of undecided voters, and argued, at times, in a way that got really up close and personal.
MONTAGNE: Both men used the wider, more informal physical arrangement of the second debate to move about. Freed from a podium, they sometimes stepped into each other's spaces.
GREENE: And so, how does this play out for voters still undecided? So-called polls instant taken just after the debate show President Obama impressed more viewers than did his opponent. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found 48 percent of registered voters thought the president won the debate. Thirty-three percent named Governor Romney the victor.
MONTAGNE: A CNN poll of voters who watched the debates found nearly identical numbers with Obama chosen by 46 percent of the respondents to 39 percent for Governor Romney. But those same folks also told pollsters they preferred Mr. Romney's responses on economic matters by 18 percent.
GREENE: OK, over at CBS, a CBS Knowledge Network poll of undecided voters found some in decisions: 37 percent for Mr. Obama, 30 percent Romney, 33 percent said that debate was a tie.
MONTAGNE: OK, so got all those numbers. Finally, we checked the betting crowd. Intrade, which bills itself as the world's relieving prediction market, runs an online betting service whose participants put the odds of Barack Obama winning the election at 65 percent over Mitt Romney at 35 percent.
GREENE: But, Renee, odds only mean so much. That same service said there was a 75 percent chance the U.S. Supreme Court would strike down a national healthcare law. And the court beat those odds.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.