US President Barack Obama on Sunday set the table for his first debate with Mitt Romney, billing the clash as about security for hard working Americans, not who could fire off the best "zingers."
Obama heaped pressure on his foe, who is angling for a dramatic turnaround for his
"Governor Romney, he's a good debater ... I'm just okay," Obama said tongue-in-cheek, as he upped the stakes in the classic game of expectations setting that rival campaigns wage before big debates.
Obama sought to frame the face-off, the first of a trio of Presidential debates, as a contrast between substance and style, and to paint himself as the champion of the hurting middle class.
"What I am most concerned about is having a serious discussion about what we need to do to keep the country going and restore security for hard working Americans," Obama said. "That is what people are going to be listening for, that is the debate you deserve," the president told a crowd amped up by the Mexican rock band Mana."
US President Barack Obama point to people on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Republican Romney and Democrat Obama will meet in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday night for the first of three debates crucial to shaping the remaining five weeks of the President's bid for a second White House term.
Obama currently leads the national race -- by five points in the latest Gallup daily tracking poll -- and in most key battlegrounds.
While the classic pre-debate spin requires campaigns to play down the chances of their man, gruff New Jersey Governor Chris Christie appeared not to get the memo from the Romney campaign.
"Wednesday night is the restart of this campaign and I think you're going to see those numbers start to move right back in the other direction," Christie said.
"This whole race is going to be turned upside down come Thursday morning."
The Obama campaign pounced on the comment, which will permit the president's camp to portray the former Massachusetts governor's performance on Wednesday as disappointing, whatever the outcome of the debate.
"What (Christie) said is what they've been saying for months, that they expect that after the debates will turn the race upside down," Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One. "We fully expect that that's what they're focused on."
Romney's Vice-Presidential pick Paul Ryan admitted to "some missteps" after Romney's nightmare month in the White House race, and sought to moderate expectations, saying no debate would "make or break" the campaign.
Obama is "a very gifted speaker," Ryan said. "The man's been on the national stage for many years. He's an experienced debater. He's done these kinds of debates before. This is Mitt's first time on this kind of a stage."
Ryan also hammered Obama over the White House's shifting account of the assault on the US consulate in Benghazi.
Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney walks to his campaign plane in Denver, Colorado. Reuters/Brian Snyder
"It's part of a bigger picture of the fact that the Obama foreign policy is unraveling literally before our eyes on our TV screens," Ryan said on "Fox News Sunday," revealing that Romney was planning a major foreign policy speech soon.
Initially, US officials said the September 11 assault in Benghazi was a spontaneous demonstration whipped by outrage over an anti-Muslim film made on US soil.
But they are now describing the incident as terrorism with possible links to Al-Qaeda, fueling Republican claims that the Obama administration mounted a cover-up to preserve the President's favorable ratings on national security.
Republican Senator John McCain said the administration's narrative did not pass the "smell test."
"It was either willful ignorance or abysmal intelligence to think that people come to spontaneous demonstrations with heavy weapons, mortars and the attack goes on for hours," he said.
Obama adviser David Plouffe said it was "preposterous and really offensive" to suggest the government withheld information on Libya for political reasons.
Obama, Romney deep in preparation for first debate
The US Presidential race started quietly on Monday, with both candidates studying for their first debate on Wednesday and the now-trailing Republican Mitt Romney hoping to change the trajectory of his campaign.
President Barack Obama was huddling with top advisers at a desert resort in Nevada. Romney was practicing in Massachusetts before heading to Colorado, the site of the first debate and one of the handful of states that will decide the Nov 6 election.
Polls show Romney trailing Obama in many of those nine states. The three debates this month give Romney one of his best, and last, opportunities to stop Obama's momentum and convince the public to support his vision for pulling the country out of its economic weakness.
"What I'm most concerned about is having a serious discussion about what we need to do to keep the country growing and restore security to hardworking Americans," Obama said during a rally in Las Vegas Sunday night. "That is what people are going to be listening for. That's the debate you deserve."
The first debate is focused on domestic issues like the economy, which remains voters' top concern. Republicans were keeping up the pressure on Obama on international issues, namely his administration's handling of the attack on a US consulate in Libya that led to the death of the U.S. ambassador and three others. The Obama administration has called it a terrorist attack. It came amid violent protests in the Muslim world over an amateur anti-Islam film made in the US. Romney, in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, repeated his criticism of Obama for having called the attack and other unrest in the Middle East "bumps in the road."
"Our country seems to be at the mercy of events rather than shaping them," Romney wrote. "We're not moving them in a direction that protects our people or our allies."
Both candidates were spending the days leading up to the debate in battleground states, with Romney in Colorado and Obama in Nevada.
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