Sarah Palin, Joe Biden Debate: Thursday night TV fight card

By April MacIntyre Oct 2, 2008, 4:25 GMT

Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin sits in the audience during the second day of the third annual Clinton Global Initiative in New York, New York, USA, on 25 September 2008. EPA/RAMIN TALAIE

Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin is prepping in Sedona, Arizona for her debate with Joe Biden, easily the most-anticipated vice presidential faceoff ever.

The debate comes when voters are talking about her past interviews that present evidence that she has a lack of readiness for the job.

A new poll released Wednesday found that just 25 percent of likely voters believe Palin has the right experience to be president.

That's down 41 percent just after the GOP convention, when the Alaska governor made her big debut to a rapt crowd.

Thursday night's debate in St. Louis gives her a chance to overcome the doubts in a 90-minute showcase, the first time most Americans outside Alaska will see her in a lengthy give-and-take session.

Delaware senator, former presidential candidate and longtime foreign policy expert, Joe Biden is called an "attack dog" for the Democrats.

Palin is a self-described pit-bull with lipstick, so the canine metaphors just seems to keep rolling here.

Pundits agree that Palin needs to show her grasp on the issues and she's got to talk about Obama.

In the new poll, the declining sentiment for Palin was noticeable even among Republican voters: Just 47 percent now believe she has the right experience to be president, down from 75 percent in the previous survey. Initially, Palin's selection was widely praised by Republicans and especially conservative voters who have been wary of McCain.

In a segment that aired Tuesday with CBS anchor Katie Couric, Palin declined to cite a newspaper or magazine when asked what she had read regularly before McCain picked her as his running mate, saying only that she had read "most of them."

Pressed for an example, Palin told Couric: "I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn't a foreign country, where it's kind of suggested, 'Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?' Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America."

The 90-minute televised debate will take place Washington University in St. Louis, with PBS anchor Gwen Ifill serving as moderator.

Ifill is writing a book with a chapter on Obama.