“Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan went back to school on Saturday to rally college students in all corners of all-important Ohio and hammer at President Obama for going easy on China over unfair trade practices that they said are costing American jobs. Obama took precious time off the campaign trail to practice for the next debate against his GOP rival,” the AP writes. “It was an unspoken acknowledgment of the importance that Obama attaches to upping his game in Debate No. 2 that the president is largely dropping out of sight for five straight days in the final weeks of the race to prepare for Tuesday's encounter in Hempstead, N .Y.”
In the Washington Post/ABC poll: “Nearly two-thirds say they do not need any more information before Election Day, and barely one in eight is undecided or says there is a chance he could change his vote. Even as voters overwhelmingly perceive that Romney won the first debate, the vast majority say their opinion of the president did not shift as a result. But more people changed their views of Romney, largely in a positive direction.”
From Politico/GW: “President Barack Obama clings to a 1-percentage-point national lead in a head-to-head matchup with the GOP nominee, but the first presidential debate has significantly improved Romney’s personal image.”
“The father of Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya who was killed in the attack in Benghazi last month, said his son’s death shouldn’t be politicized in the presidential campaign,” Bloomberg writes. Stevens said, “The security matters are being adequately investigated. We don’t pretend to be experts in security. It has to be objectively examined. That’s where it belongs. It does not belong in the campaign arena.”
“Donald Trump will greet them for an opening gala. Comedian Dennis Miller will be the special guest for a debate watching party. In between, Mitt Romney campaign staffers will be on hand to brief them on campaign strategy,” the Boston Globe writes. “Romney’s top donors are descending on New York early next week for a ‘Romney Victory Fall Retreat,’ where they will be treated to the special access that their deep pockets have earned. The three-day retreat at the Waldorf Astoria hotel is centered around the debate on Tuesday night, when Romney will face off against President Obama at nearby Hofstra University. It is designed to be a smaller version of a similar retreat that took place earlier this year in Park City, Utah, where a wide range of speakers in the Republican political world came shortly after Romney secured the nomination.”
“Gun-rights groups perceive President Barack Obama as a threat to unfettered access to firearms. They once had qualms about Mitt Romney, too,” AP writes. “But times and circumstances have changed for Romney, the GOP presidential nominee now in tune with the National Rifle Association and similar organizations, whose members are motivated voters.”
