Vice President, Vice Presidential Debate | featured news

Paul Ryan debating Joe Biden wasn't quite the same television draw as Sarah Palin versus Biden was four years ago. An estimated 51.4 million people watched Ryan, the Republican challenger, debate Vice President Biden, a Democrat, on Thursday night, said Nielsen, the company that measures television audiences.

No surprise here: Joe Biden versus Paul Ryan isn't as popular as Joe Biden versus Sarah Palin. Preliminary ratings for Thursday's vice presidential debate showed that about 43 million people tuned in to watch the coverage across six networks -- ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN. (The numbers will be updated later to include viewing figures from other networks such as PBS and Fox Business Network.)

Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's 90-plus minute debate Thursday reflected the job they seek -- important but not critical, more like a first-round playoff game than the Super Bowl.

At odds in an instant, Republican Paul Ryan cited the death of the U.S. ambassador in Libya as evidence Thursday night that the administration's foreign policy is unraveling. Vice President Joe Biden shot back in campaign debate, “That is a bunch of malarkey.”

While vice-presidential debates typically don't have much bearing on the presidential contest, tomorrow night's Joe Biden-vs.-Paul Ryan showdown has put pressure on both sides. Team Obama NEEDS a strong performance from Biden to make up for last week and change the subject; another bad outing by a member of the ticket and the Democratic handwringing could turn into a full-fledged panic. Meanwhile, Team Romney needs a solid outing from Ryan to keep up the momentum. As we wrote last week, consider tomorrow night Game 2 of a baseball playoff series. After ace Romney beat ace Obama in Game 1, Democrats are looking for their No. 2 starter, Biden, to even the score. And Republicans are looking to go 2-0. That's what at stake Thursday, and that's why there's more pressure on Biden than on Ryan.

With a little more than a month to go before the vice presidential debate, Congressman Paul Ryan will endure his first full day of debate preparations Sunday.