FOXNews.com: Obama, Romney jockey for edge ahead of first debate

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Obama, Romney jockey for edge ahead of first debate Oct 3rd 2012, 12:18 After months of hammering each other's records from afar, President Obama and Mitt Romney will meet in Denver Wednesday night for their first face-to-face debate -- a 90-minute chance for either candidate to shake up the race with five weeks left on the clock.  Each campaign has been carefully managing expectations for the showdown. Obama's advisers claim Romney arrives with practice from the primary season under his belt. Romney's advisers note Obama is the only one stage tonight with any general election debate experience.  But Romney's campaign has gotten aggressive in the hours leading up to the face-off. Republicans seized on a comment by Vice President Biden in North Carolina Tuesday in which he said the middle class has been "buried" over the last four years.  Romney and running mate Paul Ryan pointed to the admission as proof of what they've been arguing all along. The comment played into their central claim ahead of a debate on domestic policy that Obama's policies have hurt the middle class.  "We agree," Ryan said in Iowa. "That means we need to stop digging by electing Mitt Romney the next president of the United States."  The Obama campaign, though, called it a "desperate and out-of-context attack."  The debate, one of three this month in addition to a vice presidential forum, is both high-risk and high-reward. A well-phrased retort from either candidate could redound to their benefit in the polls, while an awkward moment could have the opposite effect.  Romney arguably has the most to gain. Though competitive with Obama in national polls, he's been slipping in key battlegrounds. The debate is a chance for him to close that gap, and potentially benefit simply from being on the same stage as the president.  Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter tried to preempt several possible arguments by Romney with a lengthy memo Wednesday morning.    "For the next four years, President Obama has laid out real and achievable goals, and a specific path to get there, restoring middle-class security and creating jobs and long-term economic growth," she wrote. "Mitt Romney comes to this debate in a different position. He doesn't have any specific plans to move us forward - only tired repeats that will take us back. ... So, Romney can use tonight's debate to fill in those details and finally, for the first time, explain his proposals or readjust his positions. Or he can spend 90 minutes doing what he does best: attacking the president, distorting his own record, and avoiding any and all details on his plans for this country."  The debate is a rare moment when millions of Americans fix their attention on one political event. Fifty-two million people tuned in to the first debate four years ago, and 80 percent of the nation's adults reported watching at least a bit of the 2008 debates between Obama and Republican John McCain.  Just 7 percent of likely voters have yet to pick a candidate, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll last month.  Romney's campaign fell further behind in the wake of a secretly recorded video released last month showing him telling campaign donors that 47 percent of Americans pay no federal income tax and believe they are victims who are entitled to government assistance. As a candidate, he said, "my job is not to worry" about them.  While Romney may draw attention to Biden's "buried" comment on Wednesday, it's likely Romney will face questions about the hidden-video remarks.  Voting has already started and is picking up momentum. All but two of the battleground states, which do not reliably vote Democrat or Republican, have early voting, meaning more people are already locking in their votes every day. The most important of those states, Ohio, started early voting Tuesday.  But Republicans with access to Romney's polling data said Tuesday that he has begun regaining some support among independent voters, enabling him to cut into the president's advantage.  Wednesday's 9 p.m. EDT debate on domestic issues is sure to offer a blend of choreography and spontaneity. Both men have spent hours rehearsing with proxy opponents yet know to expect the unexpected.  Half of the six, 15-minute debate segments have been allotted to topics related to the economy. The last three segments will focus on health care, the role of government and governing.  Romney and Obama debate again Oct. 16 and Oct. 22. The lone debate for the vice presidential candidates is Oct. 11.  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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