Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama focused on the economy in the shadow of the US financial crisis in a first presidential debate that also crackled with sharp disputes over Iraq and terrorism. While snap opinion polls made Obama an easy winner after their clash late Friday, daily newspapers were more cautious. Obama, 47, vying to make history as America's first black president, branded McCain as an inheritor of President George W. Bush's unpopular legacy of “failed” economic and foreign policies. McCain, 72, presented himself as a reformer and posed as a superior potential commander-in-chief, repeatedly saying Obama did not “understand” foreign policy threats or was “naive” in his outlook to the world. “I don't think I need any on-the-job training. I'm ready to go at it right now,” McCain said. Both candidates avoided major gaffes in a spirited debate, taking place at a time of deep national peril with the Wall Street crisis threatening to ruin the US economy and millions of working class jobs. Obama came across as polished and well briefed, and seemed to meet the threshold many analysts set for him as a credible future leader of the United States. A telephone poll by CNN and Opinion Research Corp. scored a decisive win for Obama among 524 debate watchers. Asked who did the better job, 51 percent said Obama and 38 percent felt it was John McCain. The Democrat had a yawning lead of 58-37 percent on handling the economy, and a narrower edge of 52-47 percent on the Iraq war, the pollsters said. Most leading US newspapers stopped short of declaring any of the candidates the outright winner.
