Barack Obama vows to put up a fight Tuesday inhis second debate with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, a promise thepresident will need to keep if he is to overcome his lackluster,momentum-stalling performance in the candidates' first debate two weeks ago.
Romney will likewise need to turn in a repeat of his strongshowing in the initial face-to-face-competition, a performance which propelledhim into a virtual tie in nationwide polling. Obama still hangs on to small leadsin many of the nine key swing states that likely will determine which manoccupies the White House on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.
The so-called battleground states — those that do notreliably vote either Republican or Democratic — take on outsized importance inthe U.S. system where the president is chosen not by the nationwide popularvote but in state-by-state contests.
The Tuesday debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NewYork, falls exactly three weeks before Election Day in what promises to be oneof the closest presidential contests in recent U.S. history. The Nov. 6 votetakes place against a backdrop of deep partisan divisions among Americans andnear political deadlock in Congress.
The president's first act in this critical campaign week wasto announce a new battleground state advertisement featuring voters discussingthe ways their economic conditions have improved during his term. The ad washitting the airwaves as Obama and Romney remained closeted with advisers indebate preparation.
The ad signaled Obama's intention to try to turn the tableson Romney by focusing in part on the economy during Tuesday's town hall-stylemeeting in which independent voters will pose questions to the candidates. Theeconomy is the No. 1 issue for voters in this election, and one the Romney camphas long considered a weak point for the incumbent.
But after a dismal stretch where the unemployment rate hasremained above 8 percent across Obama's term, the number fell to 7.8 percent inthe latest report for September. That is coupled with an improving housingmarket, increasing consumer confidence and growing numbers of Americans who tellpolling organizations that they believe the United States is headed in theright direction.
While the Obama campaign acknowledges there is a gooddistance still to travel in the recovery from the Great Recession and nearfinancial meltdown in the final months of the George W. Bush presidency, thepresident now has some positive economic news with which to counter Romney'sinsistence that he is the stronger candidate, given his long history in theworld of private equity.
With early voting already under way in dozens of states,including such battlegrounds as Ohio and Iowa, the candidates will have littletime to recover from any missteps. Through Monday, either absentee or in-personearly voting had begun in 43 of the 50 states.
Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan spoke forRomney on Monday, lambasting Obama's failure to deal with the growing federalbudget deficit during an appearance in his home state of Wisconsin. He pointedto a digital scoreboard that tracked the growth of the nation's debt inreal-time.
"Look at how fast those numbers are running," Ryansaid. "We know without a shred of doubt that we have consigned the nextgeneration to this path of debt."
He touted Romney's plan to cut federal income tax rates by20 percent across the board as the path back to economic growth. Obama contendssuch a deep reduction in the rate will benefit America's wealthy and harm themiddle class by shredding social safety net programs.
The president and a team of advisers were preparing for thesecond confrontation with an intense, three-day "debate camp" at agolf resort in Virginia. Romney, who places a huge priority on the debates, waspracticing Monday near his home in Massachusetts.
"The debate was huge and we've seen our numbers moveall across the country," Romney's wife, Ann, said in an interview onPhiladelphia radio station WPHT. She talked about the larger crowds her husbandhas been drawing in the aftermath of that first face-off. "That's what youcall momentum," she said.
In the first debate, Obama seemed caught unawares andunprepared to respond to Romney's sudden shift to more moderate positions fromthe hardline policies he had advocated during the fight for the Republicannomination. In the Oct. 3 debate, Romney was looking hard to bring on boardundecided voters by claiming his tax policy would not benefit the wealthy,promising to retain more popular provisions of Obama's health care reform thathe has vowed to repeal, and emphasizing his bipartisan work with Democrats asMassachusetts governor.
In a new Web video released Monday, the Obama campaign saidRomney had not undergone an October conversion to more middle-of-the-roadpositions but was trying "to pull the wool over voters' eyes beforeElection Day."
Romney likely will face stiff questioning from the town hallaudience on his plans to cut social programs and so-called entitlements. He andRyan have taken special aim at Medicare, the health insurance program forAmericans over age 65, and Medicaid, which provides poor and low incomeAmericans with health care and other benefits. They want to turn Medicare intoa voucher system for Americans now 10 or more years away from retirement ageand turn the Medicaid program over to the states, most of which already arestruggling to balance their budgets as a result of the recession.
The candidates will engage in a final debate next Mondaywhere the emphasis will be on U.S. foreign policy, an issue where polls showObama maintains a comfortable lead, especially after the raid that killed Osamabin Laden and devastating drone attacks on al-Qaida's leadership in Pakistan.Romney has countered by criticizing the Obama administration's response to theSept. 11 attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three otherAmericans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
