October 03, 2008 04:02am

 

REPUBLICAN vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin faces her toughest test when she goes head-to-head with Democratic rival Joe Biden before at least 50 million US viewers for their only televised debate.

The head-to-head encounter between Mrs Palin and Senator Biden is expected to be the most watched vice presidential debate in history.

 

The Alaskan Governor is under fire from some Republicans over shaky interview performances and stumbles and new opinion polls suggest her star is waning as her voter support declines.

Today's vice-presidential debate takes place during a critical phase of the White House race, as the US financial crisis has a tsunami-like effect on the campaign.

Voter concerns about the economy have given Democratic presidential challenger Barack Obama a widening lead over Republican John McCain in national polls.

Surveys yesterday from the Pew Research Centre, Associated Press and GfK and Time-CNN all had Senator Obama seven percentage points ahead of Senator McCain. The Washington Post/ABC poll put the Democrat in the lead by four percentage points.

The respected Quinnipiac University poll out yesterday also revealed that Senator Obama would now take the vote-rich swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida if the November 4 election was held today.

The White House race is made up of state-by-state elections and winning those three battlegrounds is crucial for an electoral victory. Quinnipiac's assistant director Peter Brown said: "It is difficult to find a modern competitive presidential race that has swung so dramatically, so quickly and so sharply this late in the campaign.

"Senator Obama clearly won last week's presidential debate, voters say. Their opinion of Governor Sarah Palin has gone south and the Wall Street meltdown has been a dagger to McCain's political heart."

Mrs Palin burst on to the national scene a month ago when she became the first woman selected on a Republican presidential ticket. She energised the Republican base, wowed crowds and won headlines.

But the moose-hunting former beauty queen has faced ridicule in recent days over a series of high-profile interviews and increasing questions about her experience to be a heartbeat away from the world's most powerful job.

A new AP-Gfk poll yesterday found only 25 per cent of voters believed Mrs Palin had the right experience to be president, down from the 41 per cent of voters who backed her after the Republican National Convention last month.

Meanwhile, Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill tried to lower expectations for Senator Biden's debate performance.

"My friend Joe Biden has a tendency to talk forever and sometimes say stuff that's kind of stupid," she said, explaining that her comments were meant affectionately.