9 p.m. ET on C-SPAN, their first and only meeting of the campaign and a rare instance where a debate really might decide a race. Expectations are for the most explosive incident in Nevada since whenever the last nuclear test was. Early odds from the Hot Air election desk: 75 percent chance that Reid says something crazy, 20 percent chance that Angle says something crazy, five percent chance that a knife fight breaks out in the audience between their supporters.

They’re dead even in the RCP poll of polls, but if Angle performs well and convinces the few remaining undecideds that she’s not the krazy kook Reid’s been telling them she is, that tie won’t last long. From the Times, an amazing fact to mull while we wait:

The Angle campaign reported this week that it had raised $14.3 million in the third quarter of this year, bringing her fund-raising total to about $17.8 million. Mr. Reid has not yet reported his take, but his aides made clear that despite extensive efforts, he would fall well short of Ms. Angle’s haul. Going into the third quarter, he had raised about $19.2 million…

Underscoring just how much this race has become a proxy for both sides nationally, records analyzed by CQ Moneyline show that 80 percent of the money donated to both campaigns has come from outside of Nevada, a near mirror image of the other major Senate races.

So deeply loathed is Reid by the conservative base that not only are they donating from all over the country, they’re doing it at an eye-popping pace. I can think of three guys who find that fact even more worrisome than Reid does, given what it portends for the future of Republican contributions against widely despised Democrats. One of them’s named Barack, the other two are named David. See if you can guess who they are.

If you can’t get to a TV, watch live right here. And bear in mind, whenever you hear Reid call her “extreme” — which should be often — that likely voters apparently have already made up their minds about which party is dominated by extremists and it ain’t the GOP. To help get you in the right frame of mind, a choice clip from a classic below. The fight’s been brutal and it won’t end until the 15th round, but Angle will be left standing. I think.