Debate was 10th-most watched in US history

About 63 million people watched Tuesday night's presidential debate on the major broadcast and cable networks, nearly 11 million more than the audience for the first debate Sept. 26 between John McCain and Barack Obama, Nielsen Media Research reported yesterday.

That makes it the 10th-most-watched presidential debate in history, and the most-watched since 1992, Nielsen said.

The audience, however, did not reach that for the vice presidential debate last week, which ended up tying for the second-largest debate audience ever with nearly 70 million viewers.

"Clearly this second debate benefited from being on a Tuesday instead of a Friday," Nielsen said. "Other possible factors could be a spillover effect from the VP debate or growing interest in public affairs because of the deepening financial crisis."

PBS, which issues its audience counts separately, said an estimated 2.8 million watched its coverage of Tuesday night's debate, compared with 2.6 million for the first presidential debate and 3.5 million for the vice presidential face-off.

FOON RHEE

It was the most remarked-upon moment during Tuesday night's presidential debate - John McCain was talking about his proposals for energy and pointing out a difference with Barack Obama.

"It was an energy bill on the floor of the Senate loaded down with goodies, billions for the oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney," McCain said.

"You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one," he said, pointing to Obama. "You know who voted against it? Me."

Obama's campaign immediately alerted the media to the "That one" remark.

Was it dismissive? Was it racially tinged? Was it McCain just using a turn of phrase that he has used before to refer to allies on the campaign trail?

It's only one unscientific measure. But the editors at BlackVoices.com, which bills itself as the top online destination for African-American news, culture, and community, took a quick survey of the site's users.

Of 2,163 respondents, 66 percent said the remark was "childish and disrespectful," 20 percent said they were outraged, 8 percent said they missed it, and 6 percent agreed with the statement, "It's a good sound bite, nothing more."

Asked on CNN's "Larry King Live" last night whether she found McCain's remark offensive, Michelle Obama replied simply, "No."

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The latest look at the TV advertising wars shows that spending doubled last week from a week earlier, and that Republican John McCain's spots are nearly all attacks on Democrat Barack Obama.

The Wisconsin Advertising Project reported yesterday that from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4, Obama spent nearly $17.5 million, while McCain and the Republican National Committee spent a total of nearly $11 million. The two sides spent the most in the Midwest battleground states of Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The Obama campaign is outspending McCain's in nearly all the swing states and also spent more than $2 million each in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the report found.

"Ten of the 15 states where both candidates are advertising were won by Bush in the 2004 election," Ken Goldstein, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, said in a statement. "The campaign is being played on the Republican side of the field this year."

While nearly 100 percent of the McCain ads were negative during the week, 34 percent of Obama's were. And compared with 2004, the Republican and Democratic campaigns have aired more negative advertisements.

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Well, once Sarah Palin described herself as just an average hockey mom, you could see this coming.

The Philadelphia Flyers announced yesterday that the Republican vice presidential nominee will drop the puck at their NHL game against the New York Rangers Saturday night. It's part of a promotion to find the "ultimate hockey mom," and Palin will share the ice with the regional winner.

"Because of the tremendous amount of publicity she has brought to our sport, we invited the most popular hockey mom in North America to our home-opener to help us get our season started," Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider said in a statement.

"We are very excited she has accepted our offer, and we are very proud of the publicity she is generating for hockey moms and the sport of hockey."

FOON RHEE