(Image source: Washington Times )



BY DANNY MATTESON AND LOWELL THOMAS

ANCHOR JOE CHIODO


With the first debate of the 2012 presidential election coming up, the candidates are already hard at work in preparation with President Barack Obama heading to Henderson, Nevada Sunday to meet with senior campaign aides and Republican challenger Mitt Romney planning to travel to Denver Monday to meet with his aides prior to Wednesday night’s 90-minute debate at the University of Denver.



So how are the teams prepping their debaters? According to the Daily Beast …

 

“Team Obama isn’t messing around. Seasoned ringmaster Ron Klain is running the proceedings. Sen. John Kerry will stand in for Romney during practice runs. Super-lawyer Robert Barnett—the dean of Democratic debate prep with eight such rodeos under his belt—is helping Kerry get into character.”

 

And according to the New York Times ...



“Mr. Romney’s team has concluded that debates are about creating moments and has equipped him with a series of zingers that he has memorized and has been practicing on aides since August. His strategy includes luring the president into appearing smug or evasive about his responsibility for the economy.”



But as the first general election debate of the season, and the first between Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney looms, each of the candidates face specific challenges. Obama, who hasn’t debated since he faced-off against John McCain in the last election, may be rusty — a condition GOP strategist Steve Schmidt says makes him vulnerable.

 

“This is the first time in four years where the president is standing toe-to-toe with a person on a stage who will have no reticence telling him directly to his face what a bad job he’s doing, and that’s always a dangerous moment for the president.“



And a campaign spokeswoman points out he hasn’t had a whole lot of time to get into debating shape because he’s been kind of busy.

 

“... he has had to balance the management of world events, governing, time out campaigning and will have less time than we anticipated to sharpen and cut down his tendency to give long, substantive answers.”

 

On the other side Mr. Romney faces a number of challenges as well — including living down some recent gaffes that have hurt him in the polls. A staff writer for the Boston Globe points out ...

 

“Romney has struggled to confront the self-inflicted wound from a video from a fund-raiser video in which he disparaged 47 percent of the electorate and played into all of the Democrats’ negative ads branding him as an uncaring tycoon …”



But as ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd points out — sometimes the biggest turning points in debates come from moments you can’t prepare for.

 

“If you take a look at the history of debates it’s not really about policy specifics, it’s not really about facts. Every change that’s happened in a debate, if you look at history, it’s changed because of somebody’s mannerisms or style …”



The debate, which will focus on the topic of domestic policy, will air Wednesday evening at 9 p.m. eastern. The next debate will be between Vice President Joe Biden and Republican running mate Paul Ryan on October 11th.