DENVER: President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney at last were to stand face-to-face late yesterdayto duel for the White House in the first of a trio of debates just 33 days before American voters decide their fates.
Obama heads into the showdown in Denver with a narrow lead in his bid to defy historic omens sown by a stubbornly sluggish economic recovery, and to become only the second Democrat since the Second World War to win a second term.
Republican nominee Romney, down in almost all the key battleground states that will decide who wins the 270 electoral votes needed to win on November 6, seeks a sharp change of momentum in a race that seems to be slipping away from him.
The rivals were to step up to podiums at the University of Denver in the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado, at 7pm local time (0100 GMT) to clash over the economy and other domestic issues.
But veteran anchor Jim Lehrer, who will steer the debate for tens of millions of viewers at home, has leeway to bring up other burning issues.
That means Obama, 51, could face a grilling on his administration’s shifting account of the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11.
Romney, 65, a multi-millionaire former venture capitalist, could come under scrutiny over his complex offshore tax arrangements, which Democrats have highlighted to press the case that he is indifferent to middle class struggles.
Romney badly needs to reset the election narrative, after a secretly filmed video emerged of him branding 47 percent of Americans as people who pay no taxes, depending on government for handouts and see themselves as “victims.”
Obama and Romney, who have rarely met or spoken, have spent days in seclusion honing debate techniques, offensive parries and comebacks.
After indulging in the usual game of expectations setting, both campaigns engaged in last-minute spin early yesterday.
“President Obama is a gifted speaker and won every debate in 2008. He will surely offer an impressively polished performance once again, but as we’ve learned the last four years eloquence alone will not solve our nation’s problems,” Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus wrote in the Denver Post. With a record of high unemployment and massive debt, “President Obama will make excuses (and) spend the debate dishonestly attacking governor Romney—exactly what he’s been doing at campaign rallies and on the airwaves for months now.”
The Obama camp countered with accusations that Romney has no specific plans to create jobs or move the country forward, “only tired repeats that will take us back,” deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter wrote in a broadside against Romney’s platform.
AFP
