Some early television ratings are coming in from last night's debate between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden.

The early numbers seem to indicate that the viewership for last night may have actually blown the ratings for the McCain-Obama debate right out of the water.

In the very preliminary ratings returns, Thursday's debate between Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Delaware senator Joe Biden is looking like strong performer.

The four broadcast networks airing last night's debate totaled a 28.1 overnight meter-market household rating.

That's 33% higher than last week's morning-after returns for Friday's presidential debate, which scored a collective 21.4 rating among the major networks.

Of course, consistently, Thursday night has the largest television viewership of the week, which could go to explaining some of the increased interest in the debate.  Certainly, a huge number of Americans could hardly contain their enthusiasm, awaiting the chance to view the very rare political debate that features the Senior Senator from Delaware, Joe Biden.  And, yeah, sure there was likely sooooooommme interest in that Governor from Alaska, Sarah Palin. 

In all seriousness, based on Governor Palin's stellar performance Thursday evening, the greater these numbers seem to be coming in, the BETTER for the Republican Ticket.

Tonight's debate in Oxford, Mississippi clearly showed John McCain's major advantages on experience, judgment, and knowledge of the issues.

Within minutes following the debate's conclusion, the McCain campaign already had a new political ad out, which did an excellent job of hammering the obvious home.

It was noted during Hannity and Colmes post-debate coverage that Barack Obama made statements at least 7 times with words similar to "Senator McCain is exactly right".  And at least 5 times John McCain made statements with the wording, "Senator Obama just does not understand", or similar.

The greatest aspect of this presidential debate that people are going to take away from it and remember well down the road is just how out of his league Obama appeared when the two senators finally had their first opportunity to express their beliefs and ideas on the national stage.

Not a good night for Barack Obama... not at all.

The McCain campaign has released the following statements regarding the work that's been done in Washington to help try to get the financial crisis resolved and his plans for the debate in Oxford, Mississippi.

Statement By McCain Campaign On Negotiations

John McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign was made in the hopes that politics could be set aside to address our economic crisis.

In response, Americans saw a familiar spectacle in Washington. At a moment of crisis that threatened the economic security of American families, Washington played the blame game rather than work together to find a solution that would avert a collapse of financial markets without squandering hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ money to bailout bankers and brokers who bet their fortunes on unsafe lending practices.

Both parties in both houses of Congress and the administration needed to come together to find a solution that would deserve the trust of the American people. And while there were attempts to do that, much of yesterday was spent fighting over who would get the credit for a deal and who would get the blame for failure. There was no deal or offer yesterday that had a majority of support in Congress. There was no deal yesterday that included adequate protections for the taxpayers. It is not enough to cut deals behind closed doors and then try to force it on the rest of Congress ? especially when it amounts to thousands of dollars for every American family.

The difference between Barack Obama and John McCain was apparent during the White House meeting yesterday where Barack Obama’s priority was political posturing in his opening monologue defending the package as it stands. John McCain listened to all sides so he could help focus the debate on finding a bipartisan resolution that is in the interest of taxpayers and homeowners. The Democratic interests stood together in opposition to an agreement that would accommodate additional taxpayer protections.

Senator McCain has spent the morning talking to members of the Administration, members of the Senate, and members of the House. He is optimistic that there has been significant progress toward a bipartisan agreement now that there is a framework for all parties to be represented in negotiations, including Representative Blunt as a designated negotiator for House Republicans. The McCain campaign is resuming all activities and the Senator will travel to the debate this afternoon. Following the debate, he will return to Washington to ensure that all voices and interests are represented in the final agreement, especially those of taxpayers and homeowners.

More: Politico - CNN