President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney arrived at the campus of Hofstra University on Tuesday afternoon, and began final preparations for a second presidential debate that could once again shake up the race with three weeks to go before Election Day.
The stakes, as well as the level of uncertainty, surrounding their second encounter remained unusually high after a puzzling first debate performance by the president, a gifted speech maker who appeared flat-footed and defensive on stage with Romney nearly two weeks ago.
Since that evening in Denver, a race that had appeared to be Obama’s to lose has shifted in measurable ways toward Romney, as polls tighten nationally and in more than a half dozen states that will decide the election. Each candidate arrived in Hempstead, N.Y., about 25 miles east of New York City, with a different mission.
Obama, who has been preparing for several days in the relative seclusion of Williamsburg, Va., is looking to reassure an agitated Democratic base that he intends to defend his record and critique Romney’s policy proposals in a far more pointed way than he attempted to do in Denver.
Vice President Biden’s spirited, if at times theatrical, performance against Rep. Paul Ryan in their debate last week helped calm the president’s restless supporters.
But Obama must put in his own strong performance Tuesday night before a primetime television audience to convince solid Democrats and the still-persuadable women, Latinos, and other undecided voters that he is up to the task of challenging Romney and guiding the country through a second term.
“I feel fabulous,” Obama told reporters Tuesday morning before his departure from Williamsburg, a colonial-era town along the James River. “Look at this beautiful day.”
For Romney, another offensive-minded effort similar to his performance in Denver would help convince many of the voters who have given him a second look since then that his appeal is more than just the result of a bad night from the president.
Romney, who picked up deficit-hawk H. Ross Perot’s endorsement Tuesday, was sharp in the first debate. He unsettled the president, not least when he appeared to disavow his proposals for a broad tax cut should he win.
Obama said the former Massachusetts governor presented a false picture of his plans, but many swing voters in Ohio, Colorado, Florida and other key states have since moved Romney’s way.
The Obama campaign released a video Tuesday of former President Bill Clinton, Obama’s most effective proxy this campaign season, to explain the potential implications for the middle class and for the federal deficit of a $5 trillion tax cut.
The impression of the first debate left with many voters was one of an energetic Republican challenger, who presented a different set of ideas for reviving the economy, and of a tired, mostly passive president who stumbled at times describing even some of his signature achievements to shore up the economy and remake health care.
“We know without a shred of doubt that this country’s on the wrong path,” Ryan told a campaign rally Tuesday in Lynchburg, Va. “This is not even refutable. We know that for the first time in the history of this nation, this generation of adults is consigning the next generation to a diminished future. We have a moral obligation to preserve the American dream not only for ourselves but for our children and our grandchildren.”
The stakes, as well as the level of uncertainty, surrounding their second encounter remained unusually high after a puzzling first debate performance by the president, a gifted speech maker who appeared flat-footed and defensive on stage with Romney nearly two weeks ago.
Since that evening in Denver, a race that had appeared to be Obama’s to lose has shifted in measurable ways toward Romney, as polls tighten nationally and in more than a half dozen states that will decide the election. Each candidate arrived in Hempstead, N.Y., about 25 miles east of New York City, with a different mission.
Obama, who has been preparing for several days in the relative seclusion of Williamsburg, Va., is looking to reassure an agitated Democratic base that he intends to defend his record and critique Romney’s policy proposals in a far more pointed way than he attempted to do in Denver.
Vice President Biden’s spirited, if at times theatrical, performance against Rep. Paul Ryan in their debate last week helped calm the president’s restless supporters.
But Obama must put in his own strong performance Tuesday night before a primetime television audience to convince solid Democrats and the still-persuadable women, Latinos, and other undecided voters that he is up to the task of challenging Romney and guiding the country through a second term.
“I feel fabulous,” Obama told reporters Tuesday morning before his departure from Williamsburg, a colonial-era town along the James River. “Look at this beautiful day.”
For Romney, another offensive-minded effort similar to his performance in Denver would help convince many of the voters who have given him a second look since then that his appeal is more than just the result of a bad night from the president.
Romney, who picked up deficit-hawk H. Ross Perot’s endorsement Tuesday, was sharp in the first debate. He unsettled the president, not least when he appeared to disavow his proposals for a broad tax cut should he win.
Obama said the former Massachusetts governor presented a false picture of his plans, but many swing voters in Ohio, Colorado, Florida and other key states have since moved Romney’s way.
The Obama campaign released a video Tuesday of former President Bill Clinton, Obama’s most effective proxy this campaign season, to explain the potential implications for the middle class and for the federal deficit of a $5 trillion tax cut.
The impression of the first debate left with many voters was one of an energetic Republican challenger, who presented a different set of ideas for reviving the economy, and of a tired, mostly passive president who stumbled at times describing even some of his signature achievements to shore up the economy and remake health care.
“We know without a shred of doubt that this country’s on the wrong path,” Ryan told a campaign rally Tuesday in Lynchburg, Va. “This is not even refutable. We know that for the first time in the history of this nation, this generation of adults is consigning the next generation to a diminished future. We have a moral obligation to preserve the American dream not only for ourselves but for our children and our grandchildren.”