From a stage in Colorado, the President and
his Republican
challenger will each tell tens of millions of viewers that he is the man who
can revive the stagnant American economy.
For Mr Romney,
a former Massachusetts governor who trails in polls with just 34 days remaining
until election day,
the debate may mark the last opportunity to dramatically alter his prospects.
For Mr Obama, amid a relentless jobs crisis and a
Washington in gridlock, it offers a late chance to promise struggling voters
that he still embodies hope and can deliver change.
As the first public meeting of two men who are known to
personally dislike one another, and who have each spent hundreds of millions of
dollars to destroy the other's career, the debate is the most
tensely-anticipated moment of the campaign for the White House so far.
Arriving in Denver, Mr Romney said that at stake was the
future of a country still reeling from the effects of a financial crisis that
struck amid the last presidential campaign in 2008.