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Summary Obama and Romney are preparing for televised debate upon which their political futures depend.
With the days public schedules wiped clean and the protagonists behind closed -- Obama at a resort in the Nevada desert and the Republican nominee in Denver, Colorado -- their running mates filled the campaign void.ith barely five weeks to go before the November 6 vote, both Obama and Romney were preparing intensely for perhaps the most high-profile moment of the 2012 campaign: a prime-time, face-to-face debate watched by tens of millions.Each made only brief appearances on Monday night. Romney addressed a rally shortly after arriving in Colorado, while the president delivered freshly baked pizzas to one of his Nevada campaign offices.Nevadas going to be close. Its going to be close all across the country, said Obama, who hugged volunteers and called others on the phone to talk about honing his debate technique.Its very nice. Although basically theyre keeping me indoors all the time. Its a drag. Theyre making me do my homework, Obama said. This is my last campaign so we want to leave it all on the table and work as hard as we can.A day earlier, Obama set the stage for the debate, saying the clash would be about looking after hard-working Americans, not who could fire off the best zingers.Romney, a multimillionaire investor and former governor of Massachusetts, on Monday mocked the punditry surrounding the debates and how people want to know whos going to score the punches.In my view its not so much winning and losing (but) an opportunity for each of us to describe the pathway forward for America that we would choose.Former New Hampshire governor John Sununu, a Romney supporter who often plays the role of attack dog on the campaign trail, also dismissed the point-scoring that tends to bubble up during the debates.With Obama and Romney laying low, their running mates seized the spotlight.Vice President Joe Biden hit the trail in the battleground of North Carolina, where he was to deliver remarks in Charlotte and then Asheville.Romneys running mate Paul Ryan kicked off day two of a bus tour through Iowa, where he outlined the importance of the election.He said a victory would give him and Romney the mandate and the moral authority to make things right, to run at our countrys problems and fix them instead of running away from the problems and blaming other people.Obama currently leads the national race by five points in the latest Gallup daily tracking poll and in most key battlegrounds.A Washington Post-ABC News poll out Monday gave Obama a slimmer 49 to 47 percent lead, but, tellingly, likely voters in swing states sided with the president by 52 to 41 percent.The stakes are high for both candidates, but the debates may be the last chance for Romney to make a dramatic impression on undecided voters and perhaps melt the narrative that has built up around him as a multimillionaire plutocrat who is out of touch with everyday Americans.Romney has been practicing for the debates for weeks.He has plenty of experience under his belt, having taken the debate stage about 20 times with Republican rivals during the primaries, but a one-on-one face-off with the president is a more intense affair.Ohio Senator Rob Portman, who is playing Obama in practice sessions, is in Colorado with the Republican nominee, while Romney stand-in Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat, is in Nevada with Obama.
