(CBS News) Of the 38 days remaining until Election Day, the most important of all may be this coming Wednesday when President Obama and Mitt Romney meet in Denver for the first of three debates. The stakes are sky-high, especially for Mr. Romney.
GOP running mate Paul Ryan made the case for a Mitt Romney presidency in the "toss up" state of New Hampshire.
"Look at what President Obama did on the budget -- nothing except borrow and spend," he said.
Video: Romney's path to White House narrows
Voter registration problems widening in Florida
Ann Romney: Mitt's challenge will be emotional
Vice President Joe Biden campaigned in battleground Florida, where he argued that the Obama administration inherited trillion dollar deficits from the bush administration.
"They put two wars on a credit card. Not paying a penny, not paying a penny," said Biden.
Meanwhile, President Obama and Mitt Romney were hunkered down Saturday, cramming for next week's debate showdown.
Both sides are working hard to lower expectations by praising their opponent. A Romney advisor says the president has the advantage as "one of the most talented political communicators in modern history." The Obama campaign says Romney has the edge -- having debated about two dozen times during the republican primary campaign.
"Both of these individuals have had ample experience debating, but Governor Romney has had more practice recently, and practice counts," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who runs the non-partisan Annenberg Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
"The challenger always has more riding on the debates but more to gain," she said. "The challenger has the opportunity to establish he is competent to stand up and hold his own against the president of the United States. A challenger who accomplishes that, in effect, wins the first debate."
Jamieson says both candidates are hoping for a big moment that voters will remember, like John McCain's invocation of an Ohio plumber who questioned Mr. Obama's tax plan four years ago.
"In the third debate, John McCain repeatedly alluded to Joe the Plumber and the allegation that Barack Obama would share the wealth," she said. "We know that effect in the debate was instrumental in re-shaping enough public perceptions of McCain to help him increase his standing in the surveying that we were doing."
But as McCain discovered, even a memorable debate moment only carries a candidate so far.
The live TV audience for the first Obama-Romney debate is expected to be about 60 million people. That's about half the number expected to vote on Election Day.
GOP running mate Paul Ryan made the case for a Mitt Romney presidency in the "toss up" state of New Hampshire.
"Look at what President Obama did on the budget -- nothing except borrow and spend," he said.
Video: Romney's path to White House narrows
Voter registration problems widening in Florida
Ann Romney: Mitt's challenge will be emotional
Vice President Joe Biden campaigned in battleground Florida, where he argued that the Obama administration inherited trillion dollar deficits from the bush administration.
"They put two wars on a credit card. Not paying a penny, not paying a penny," said Biden.
Meanwhile, President Obama and Mitt Romney were hunkered down Saturday, cramming for next week's debate showdown.
Both sides are working hard to lower expectations by praising their opponent. A Romney advisor says the president has the advantage as "one of the most talented political communicators in modern history." The Obama campaign says Romney has the edge -- having debated about two dozen times during the republican primary campaign.
"Both of these individuals have had ample experience debating, but Governor Romney has had more practice recently, and practice counts," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who runs the non-partisan Annenberg Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
"The challenger always has more riding on the debates but more to gain," she said. "The challenger has the opportunity to establish he is competent to stand up and hold his own against the president of the United States. A challenger who accomplishes that, in effect, wins the first debate."
Jamieson says both candidates are hoping for a big moment that voters will remember, like John McCain's invocation of an Ohio plumber who questioned Mr. Obama's tax plan four years ago.
"In the third debate, John McCain repeatedly alluded to Joe the Plumber and the allegation that Barack Obama would share the wealth," she said. "We know that effect in the debate was instrumental in re-shaping enough public perceptions of McCain to help him increase his standing in the surveying that we were doing."
But as McCain discovered, even a memorable debate moment only carries a candidate so far.
The live TV audience for the first Obama-Romney debate is expected to be about 60 million people. That's about half the number expected to vote on Election Day.