Mixed Bag

With no clear winner or loser in the first presidential debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush, the pundits' take on the brawl in Boston is that Bush did what he needed to do, and that a slight edge may go to Gore for his more organized arguments and take-charge style.

An unscientific morning-after survey of uncommitted voters by CBSNews.com found confusion about where the candidates stand on Medicare, split opinions about noodling with Social Security and no enthusiastic debate night converts to either candidate.

Real People and Undecided Voters have achieved near-mythical status in this race, but we found some not in Brigadoon but in Florida, Missouri and Illinois.

Linda Bart, a 54-year-old grandmother from Orlando, Florida, found the candidates' exchanges on Medicare and Social Security confusing. Gore and Bush "bandied around so much you couldn't tell what they were saying."

Before the debate, Bart, a working woman who has an elderly mother and a 70-year-old husband, said that her vote may hinge on the candidates' Medicare plans. After the debate, she was leaning towards Gore, but wanted more information.

"I didn't see anything that was clear cut. One would say, 'He is going to force you into an HMO,' and the other would say, 'He's going to charge you $600.' If they keep contradicting each other you don't know who's telling the truth," she said.

Clara Simpson, a scientific illustrator in Chicago, got the impression that Gore and Bush are "not as far apart in what they're actually capable of doing [on Medicare] as they like to say."

Simpson, a 47-year-old Democrat who was inclined to vote for Gore before the debate, said the main thing she gleaned from the candidates' factoid-intensive volley on Medicare is "Gore's argument that he's going to make sure everyone has prescription policies sooner. The sooner part I got."

The clear differences Simpson heard from the candidates on taxes, judicial appointments and drilling for oil in the Alaska wilderness moved her more towards Gore.

But she was "pleasantly surprised" with Bush.

"As a person, I was more impressed with Bush than I expected to be. Gore does have this problem of appearing wooden. There is a stiffness in his manner, and a looseness in Bush's which could lead me toward looking more closely at Bush if I weren't so concerned with these issues," she said.

Gore's personality did not win him any points in the Schiwitz household in St. George, Missouri.

"I don't like the snicker that he did or sighing that he did," said Beth Schiwitz, a 76-year-old retiree. "Is he going to go in and talk to these foreign diplomats and when they say something he doesn't like, make a sigh?"

"I didn't appreciate when Mr. Gore would interrupt…rather than stand by for his turn," said husband Bus, 82, a retired tool and dye maker, who found Bush's low-key demeanor (Linda Bart also thought Gore interrupted too much, but she saw it as "controlling the debate.")

Tilting towards Bush before the debate, Schiwitz said, "I kind of sway now toward Gore" because of Bush's plan to change Social Security. "If I were a younger person, I would have to think about a choice. I don't like their playing around with Social Security."

Bart found Bush much stronger on Social Security, and would be more inclined to vote for Gore if he adopted Bush's plan to allow younger workers to invest some of their Social Security contribution in the stock market.

"Gore seemed to be against anything updating Social Security. I think it should be updated, not just put in a lockbox," she said.

From the candidates' exchange, Bart understood the Gore "lockbox" (an accounting device which keeps Social Security's revenues safe from congressional appropriators) to be the reason Social Security contributions make a "ridiculous" two percent interest in the government's hands.

"We've had enough of the do-nothing. I'd like to see somebody do something," said Bart, who thinks workers her age should be allowed to get into the Bush plan, too.

Overall, the still-undecided Bart said, "I see Gore as being more believable; maybe with Bush, a few better ideas."