Denver debate likely to mark pivot point in campaign :http://wapo.st/QsUjoP
PostPolitics
8:55 PM - 3 Oct 12 · Details
Romney-Obama debate could be pivot point in campaign
By Jerry Markon and Nia Malika-Henderson, Updated: Wednesday, October 3, 8:11 PM
President Obama and Mitt Romney will square off Wednesday night in the first of three presidential debates, a critical moment in an often contentious presidential campaign that is focusing on a small slice of undecided voters in a few key battleground states.
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So to be more precise: Romney doesn't have a swing state problem so much as an Ohio problem.
- via Twitter about 12m ago
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For the first time, millions of television viewers will size up the candidates side by side — an incumbent president, weighed down by a sluggish economy, and his Republican challenger, battling to turn around a campaign that has struggled in recent weeks.
The 90-minute encounter at the University of Denver is especially critical for Romney, who vanquished all rivals in the Republican primaries but has run an uneven general election campaign. The race remains close in a number of national polls, including the latest Washington Post-ABC News survey, which showed Obama ahead 49 percent to 47 percent among likely voters. But surveys in the critical battleground states, expected to decide the election, show Obama with a larger lead.
Romney, trying to make the case that his business experience can turn around an economy that has struggled under Obama, will have his chance Wednesday night: economic issues are expected to play a key role. The debate will be divided into six blocks of 15 minutes each, and PBS NewsHour Executive Editor Jim Lehrer, who will moderate, chose these topics for the six blocks: economy, economy, economy, health care, the role of government and governing.
The session, perhaps the most important single event of the campaign, takes place amid a modern political culture that values social media and micro-targeting of voters. Yet the presidential debate moment of the campaign is a political tradition that harkens back five decades. Ever since the legendary 1960 encounter between a tense looking Richard Nixon and a relaxed John F. Kennedy, presidential debates — while they have rarely decided elections — have provided viewers with heated exchanges and memorable television moments.
The two current candidates are veterans on the debate stage: Romney took part in 19 debates during the Republican primaries this year, while Obama took on Hillary Clinton in a series of closely watched battles in the 2008 Democratic primaries. The president, however, has not debated since his last encounter with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), his 2008 Republican rival.
After a campaign that has featured bitter exchanges and a slew of negative ads, the candidates mostly focused Wednesday on preparing for their moment under the television lights. Rommey met with his strategy team at his Denver hotel Wednesday morning, then had a private tour of the debate hall before heading back to his hotel. His pre-debate meal was a barbecue sandwich and spaghetti from the Cheesecake Factory.
Romney is also planning to deliver a major foreign policy address Oct. 8 in Virginia, a senior campaign official said. The speech comes about a month after a wave of deadly protests swept the Middle East, killing Americans at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya.
