Notes Ahead of the Vice-Presidential Debate

The vice-presidential debate tonight between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden starts at 9 p.m. Eastern Time and will run for 90 minutes.

It will be carried live by all major networks, and video streamed at a variety of internet sites.

The format is changed somewhat from the presidential debate last week. The candidates will have shorter time periods in which to speak. They will have 90 seconds each in which to answer questions (It was two minutes during the presidental debate) from the moderator and the moderator will guide a two-minute discussion on each topic.

Gwen Ifill will be the moderator. She is the managing editor and moderator for Washington Week (PBS) and a senior correspondant for The NewsHour (PBS). Sha also appears frequently on a number of Washington-based talk shows.

On October 5, 2004, she moderated the vice-presidential debate between Republican candidate Dick Cheney and Democratic candidate Senator John Edwards.

Ifill is writing a book with the title The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, which is scheduled to be released January 20, 2009, Inauguration Day.