ABSTRACT
While the term “historic” is frequently invoked to characterize the 2008 presidential election—used to describe Hillary Clinton’s primary candidacy as well as Barack Obama’s nomination and eventual election— another historic element of the ’08 presidential race involved the vice-presidential candidacy of Republican nominee Sarah Palin. Following Geraldine Ferraro’s vice-presidential candidacy in 1984, Palin is only the second female candidate to be included on a major-party national ticket. Adding to the historic nature of the 2008 campaign was the vice-presidential debate between Palin and her Democratic opponent Joe Biden. Indeed, approximately 70 million viewers tuned in to watch the Biden v. Palin debate, which is the only instance in presidential debate history that a vice-presidential debate encounter attracted more viewers than a debate series’ presidential exchanges. The Biden–Palin debate now holds the record as the second-highest-viewed debate in all of televised presidential debate history, surpassed only by the nearly 81 million viewers who tuned in just days before the 1980 election to watch Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in their single debate exchange. 1
