The day before Tuesday's presidential debate at Hofstra University both President Obama and Governor Romney are off the campaign trail to prep for tomorrow evening.
President Obama is holed up in Virginia and Romney in Massachusetts. Both candidates know it's crunch time as this match arrives just three weeks before the day that could decide each man's next four years. Could tomorrow night really decide the fate of this presidential election? The president has a lot to live up to after last week’s strong performance by Vice President Joe Biden in his debate against Rep. Paul Ryan where he attacked his Republican challenger every step of the way.
The format for tomorrow evening’s debate will be a town hall discussion where voters will submit questions ranging from domestic to foreign issues. Each candidate will have 2 minutes to respond and then an additional minute for the moderator, CNN's Candy Crowley, to facilitate a discussion.
Romney rode a boost in the polls after the first presidential debate. A Pew Research poll released October 8 showed that 49% of likely voters said they would vote for Romney as opposed to the 45% who said they would vote for Obama. This is compared to the the 51% who said they would vote for Obama back on September 16 and 43% who said they would vote for Romney. Also, according to a Washington Post/ABC poll, 35% of those surveyed say they have a better opinion of Romney compared with the 19% who have a worse opinion of the president since the debate. Furthermore, this poll showed that those who were already voting for Romney are more enthusiastic about their candidate then they were last month.
So will President Obama be able to make up for his lackluster performance from the first debate and sway the American people toward his side? Or can Mitt Romney build on his momentum and carry it to the election? We'll see what happens at Hofstra Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET.