Monday night's debate
could provide a final chance for the candidates to land a few blows in
front of tens of million voters. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty
Images
For the second Saturday running, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney
went to ground to prep for a televised debate that could prove crucial
in a tight White House race now entering its home straight.
President Obama hunkered down in Camp David ahead of the third head-to-head with his Republican rival. He is due to remain their until Monday night's encounter, leaving the donkey work of the campaign to his deputy Joe Biden, who hit the stump in Florida on Saturday.
Likewise, Romney was leaving nothing to chance ahead of the foreign policy debate, having slipped up on the topic in the last match-up between the pair – an occurrence that seemingly arrested his momentum ahead of the November 6 vote.
Romney is due to spend the weekend in Florida boning up on the issues. Meanwhile his vice-presidential pick, Paul Ryan, is due to campaign in the Democratic-leaning battleground of Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Political pundits have by-and-large scored the two presidential debates in this race 1-1, with Obama winning the second after a poor performance in the first initially handed the electoral running to Romney.
Monday's debate, due to be held in Boca Raton, Florida, and moderated Bob Schieffer of CBS News, is dedicated solely to foreign affairs.
It should be a strong area for the president, as he consistently tops polls as to which of the candidates is more trusted on international affair. During his tenure at the White House, Obama has pulled American troops out of Iraq and presided over drawdown in Afghanistan – both popular measures in a country grown weary by more than a decade of war.
Additionally, terror chief Osama bin Laden was assassinated by a US crack team under the president's watch, providing a further boost to his claims of competence in pushing forward US objectives overseas.
But the timing of the debate isn't great for the White House incumbent, coming just weeks after a confused response from the administration over a deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The assault resulted in the death of four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens. It also, so the Republicans claim, raised questions over Obama's foreign policy and leadership after conflicting messages over who was responsible for the assault were initially released.
On Friday, Ryan continued to needle the president over claims that he should have known earlier that militants were responsible for the consulate siege, and not, as some in the administration appeared to initially think, that it was the work of protesters angered by an anti-Islam film produced in the US.
Ryan told Wisconsin radio station WTAQ that the Benghazi attack and its handling by the president represented the "absolute unravelling of the Obama administration's foreign policy".
But some believe that the Republican ticket has already overplayed the attack for political advantage.
An attempt to press the president over the semantic point of whether he actually called it an "act of terror" the day after the siege, backfired on Romney in the second debate.
Meanwhile, the White House has been trying to put some distance between Obama and the initial confusion over who was behind the Benghazi killings, seemingly shifting the blame for the response on the State Department.
On Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she took responsibility over the response.
"In the wake of an attack like this, in fog of war, there's always going to be confusion," she explained.
It is likely that any exchange over the Benghazi incident at Monday's debate will be closely watched for inconsistencies. But whether or not the Republicans can make enough of it to overturn a perceived advantage for Obama on foreign policy remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, Obama and Biden have been focusing their attack on Romney's apparent policy shifts on issues such as women's health, dismissively referring to moves by the Republican hopeful to appeal to the centre as "Romnesia".
With the race now bending into the home straight, Monday night's debate could provide a final chance for both White House contenders to land a few blows in front of an audience of tens of million voters.
Perhaps of equal importance, both will be eager to avoid any verbal missteps or gaffes that could provide the 24-news networks with the equivalent of a water-cooler moment to play relentlessly in the days leading up to 6 November.
President Obama hunkered down in Camp David ahead of the third head-to-head with his Republican rival. He is due to remain their until Monday night's encounter, leaving the donkey work of the campaign to his deputy Joe Biden, who hit the stump in Florida on Saturday.
Likewise, Romney was leaving nothing to chance ahead of the foreign policy debate, having slipped up on the topic in the last match-up between the pair – an occurrence that seemingly arrested his momentum ahead of the November 6 vote.
Romney is due to spend the weekend in Florida boning up on the issues. Meanwhile his vice-presidential pick, Paul Ryan, is due to campaign in the Democratic-leaning battleground of Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Political pundits have by-and-large scored the two presidential debates in this race 1-1, with Obama winning the second after a poor performance in the first initially handed the electoral running to Romney.
Monday's debate, due to be held in Boca Raton, Florida, and moderated Bob Schieffer of CBS News, is dedicated solely to foreign affairs.
It should be a strong area for the president, as he consistently tops polls as to which of the candidates is more trusted on international affair. During his tenure at the White House, Obama has pulled American troops out of Iraq and presided over drawdown in Afghanistan – both popular measures in a country grown weary by more than a decade of war.
Additionally, terror chief Osama bin Laden was assassinated by a US crack team under the president's watch, providing a further boost to his claims of competence in pushing forward US objectives overseas.
But the timing of the debate isn't great for the White House incumbent, coming just weeks after a confused response from the administration over a deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The assault resulted in the death of four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens. It also, so the Republicans claim, raised questions over Obama's foreign policy and leadership after conflicting messages over who was responsible for the assault were initially released.
On Friday, Ryan continued to needle the president over claims that he should have known earlier that militants were responsible for the consulate siege, and not, as some in the administration appeared to initially think, that it was the work of protesters angered by an anti-Islam film produced in the US.
Ryan told Wisconsin radio station WTAQ that the Benghazi attack and its handling by the president represented the "absolute unravelling of the Obama administration's foreign policy".
But some believe that the Republican ticket has already overplayed the attack for political advantage.
An attempt to press the president over the semantic point of whether he actually called it an "act of terror" the day after the siege, backfired on Romney in the second debate.
Meanwhile, the White House has been trying to put some distance between Obama and the initial confusion over who was behind the Benghazi killings, seemingly shifting the blame for the response on the State Department.
On Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she took responsibility over the response.
"In the wake of an attack like this, in fog of war, there's always going to be confusion," she explained.
It is likely that any exchange over the Benghazi incident at Monday's debate will be closely watched for inconsistencies. But whether or not the Republicans can make enough of it to overturn a perceived advantage for Obama on foreign policy remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, Obama and Biden have been focusing their attack on Romney's apparent policy shifts on issues such as women's health, dismissively referring to moves by the Republican hopeful to appeal to the centre as "Romnesia".
With the race now bending into the home straight, Monday night's debate could provide a final chance for both White House contenders to land a few blows in front of an audience of tens of million voters.
Perhaps of equal importance, both will be eager to avoid any verbal missteps or gaffes that could provide the 24-news networks with the equivalent of a water-cooler moment to play relentlessly in the days leading up to 6 November.
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