Palin says she's ready for debate with Biden

Amid growing doubts about her readiness, Sarah Palin said yesterday she is looking forward to the one and only vice presidential debate on Thursday night with Democratic rival Joe Biden.

"I have to admit, though, he's a great debater, and he looks pretty doggone confident, like he's sure he's going to win," she told voters in Columbus, Ohio. "But then again, this is the same Senator Biden who said the other day that University of Delaware would trounce the Ohio State Buckeyes. Wrong!"

The joint rally with John McCain yesterday will apparently be her last public appearance this week before the debate. She was headed to McCain's Arizona ranch for intensive debate preparation.

Given her already-mocked interview with Katie Couric of CBS News last week, some Republicans fear how she will fare in the unscripted forum of a debate.

Palin answered her critics, saying on CBS last night that "not only am I ready, I'm willing and able."

During their first major joint TV interview, McCain defended his running mate, saying that governors are often underestimated, mentioning criticism of Ronald Reagan as a "cowboy" and Bill Clinton as a small-state governor when they were running. "She's done an incredible job," he said.

Barack Obama's campaign is already doing its best to raise expectations for Palin. David Wade, a spokesman for Biden, told reporters, "He's going in here to debate a leviathan of forensics, who has debated five times and she's undefeated."

"She's very skilled and she'll be well-prepared," Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod told reporters Sunday night, CNN reported.

GLOBE STAFF

Bill Clinton will hold his first major events for Barack Obama this week in the battleground state of Florida.

Clinton will hold rallies in Orlando and Fort Pierce tomorrow to urge Floridians to register to vote before the Oct. 6 deadline, Obama's campaign announced last night. Clinton, who strongly advocated for his wife, Hillary, and had a perceived strained relationship with Obama during the Democratic primaries, has vowed to campaign strongly for the Illinois senator.

FOON RHEE

About 55 million people watched the first presidential debate, but that audience does not crack the top 10 of all-time.

Nielsen Media Research said yesterday that about 52.4 million people watched Barack Obama and John McCain debate Friday night on the major broadcast and cable networks. PBS reported separately that about 2.6 million watched its coverage.

The audience was not as large as some predicted given the record viewership for the party conventions. "This may be because Friday is the traditionally the second-lowest night of the week for watching television," Nielsen said.

The record is the nearly 81 million people who watched the Jimmy Carter-Ronald Reagan debate in October 1980.

FOON RHEE

Barack Obama's campaign yesterday answered criticism that he didn't have permission to mention a bracelet given to him by the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq.

The mother acknowledged e-mailing the Obama campaign in February asking that he not mention her son in speeches or debates, but said she was ecstatic when he did just that during Friday night's first presidential debate.

Tracy Jopek of Merrill, Wis., said she was honored that Obama remembered Sergeant Ryan David Jopek, who was killed in 2006 by a roadside bomb. It was appropriate, she said, because Obama was responding after John McCain repeated his story of a New Hampshire mother giving him a similar bracelet and telling him to make sure the mission in Iraq is completed.

Jopek said Obama rightfully suggested there's more than one viewpoint on the war, and criticized Internet reports suggesting that Obama exploited her son for political purposes.

Robert Gibbs, an Obama spokesman, got into a heated exchange with the hosts of a show on Fox News Channel over the issue. While Gibbs acknowledged the family did not want the death politicized, he accused the Fox hosts of "making stuff up."

ASSOCIATED PRESS