The results are in and the winner is . . . Barack Obama.
The Post invited 10 undecided New Yorkers to watch the final presidential debate, and after it was over, asked them to cast ballots as if the election were being held last night.
Six voted for Obama and four selected McCain.
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“Obama was a Zen master tonight,” said public-relations exec Jerry Griffin, 36, of Brooklyn. “He didn’t make any egregious mistakes.”
While voting for Obama, Griffin also said McCain scored points with his real-life “Joe the Plumber” story, which portrayed Obama as a tax hiker and himself as a tax cutter.
“There were a lot of independent voters out there who were ‘Joe the Plumber,’ ” Griffin said, referring to Ohio worker Joe Wurzelberger, who complained over the weekend to Obama about his tax plan.
Saideh Browne voted for Obama after she complained that McCain gave an incoherent answer about balancing the budget with tax cuts and a spending freeze.
McCain’s decision to attack Obama for his associations with 1960s Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers and the group ACORN backfired with The Post’s panel of voters.
Upper West resident Anne Maxfield said, “Ayers was a terrorist 40 years ago. We have serious economic problems in this country.”
But McCain had his supporters.
East Side resident Miriam Silverberg said she didn’t like Obama because he came across as too slick and smooth, and she worries that he will be soft on terrorism.
“I don’t trust charismatic speakers. McCain is telling us what we need to hear. Obama is telling us when we want to hear,” she said.
Tanya Bishai of Washington Heights came in leaning toward Obama, but switched to McCain after hearing the rivals’ positions on abortion.
“I felt sick listening to Obama’s support for partial-birth abortion. If Obama can’t get the issue of life right, I can’t vote for him,” Bishai said.