The team of Joe Biden and Sarah Palin cleaned their runningmates’ clocks last night, according to preliminary results from Nielsen. The debate—fueled by tremendous curiosity about Palin and held on the most watched night of TV of the week—drew an overall 45.0 rating, compared with 31.6 for the McCain-Obama debate Friday. (The rating number is based on the percentage of households with TVs that tuned in.)
If the number holds, it would be the highest debate rating since 1992—which had three candidates, including a whacked-out billionaire—and will beat 1984’s veep debate between Bush the Elder and Geraldine Ferraro.