Obama and Romney prepare for final debate

Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney confront each other on foreign policy early tomorrow morning UK time in a third and final presidential debate, a must-win televised face-off heading into the final two weeks of the deadlocked campaign for the White House.

Polls show Mr Obama with an advantage in voter perceptions about which candidate would do best in foreign affairs, but Mr Romney is expected to use the head-to-head meeting in Boca Raton, Florida, to whittle away the president’s edge.

He has been hitting Mr Obama hard on the administration’s uncertain explanations about what happened in last month’s attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Militants killed four Americans, including US Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Iran-Israel tensions, China, terrorism and the war in Afghanistan were all subjects expected to come up in the 90-minute debate moderated by CBS News’ Bob Schieffer.

Against the background of the debate, 41 of the 50 US states are essentially already decided, and the candidates now are fighting to win in the remaining nine battleground states, including critical Ohio and Florida.

The battleground states assume outsized importance because the presidency is decided in state-by-state contests, not by a national popular vote.

The system can, as it did in former Vice President Al Gore’s defeat in 2000, lead to a candidate winning the popular vote but losing the presidency. George W. Bush eked out a victory in the electoral college after the US Supreme Court stopped the recount in Florida.

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released showed Mr Obama and Mr Romney tied, with both candidates backed by 47% of likely voters nationwide.

The poll was conducted entirely in the aftermath of the second presidential debate that Mr Obama was perceived as winning following a poor performance in the first debate on October 3.

In the last such poll before the presidential debates began, the president held a narrow, three-point lead over Mr Romney, 49% to 46%.

But among the wider pool of all registered voters in the latest survey, Mr Obama is ahead of Mr Romney by five points, 49% to 44%.

Looking at some of the most important demographic groups, Mr Romney leads among men (53% to 43%), Mr Obama is up with women (51% to 43%) and they are essentially tied among voters in the Midwest.

With early and absentee voting already under way in many swing states, including Ohio, North Carolina and Iowa, the tight poll results indicate that the race could be decided by which campaign is better able to lock in supporters and get them to the polls.

The debate represents the candidates’ last chance to directly confront one another before an audience of millions of Americans watching the televised face-off.

Mr Obama spent the weekend with top aides preparing for the debate at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin mountains. Mr Romney did his pre-debate work in Florida, continuing intensive preparations that have consumed large amounts of his time in recent weeks.