Barack Obama decisively won the second presidential debate, according to the Monthly’s readers, while less than half of Americans polled thought Obama won the latest round in the three-debate series.

CNN’s poll reported 46% of American voters thought Obama won. 39% had Romney as the victor, leaving a mere 7% separating the candidates. Roy Morgan Research’s Reactor survey of the Monthly ’s primarily Australian readers showed Barack Obama was consistently the favoured debater – with Liberal/National, Labor and Greens voters all delivering similar verdicts on the US contest.

Roy Morgan Research CEO Michele Levine found the same trend from a nation-wide Reactor poll: “We would have expected to see more divergence in the Reactor graph lines for Australians who usually vote ALP versus LNP, but the differences were marginal.”

Romney began with a neutral rating among all groups but started to drop into negative territory as soon as he answered the opening question, on employment for college graduates. In stark contrast, Obama recorded consistently positive reactions.

As Peter Hartcher wrote in August, “Australia is a much more left-leaning country than the US.” However, he believes our perceptions are “far removed from the realities in the US.”

Perhaps the most realistic conclusion to be drawn from yesterday’s debate is offered by American satirist Stephen Colbert.