Obama energised for the next presidential debate in New York

Notwithstanding his lacklustre performance in last week’s debate in Denver, US President Barack Obama is energised and taking lessons from the last debate as he will face Republican challenger Mitt Romney in New York next week, his close aide said.

“I think one of the biggest take-away perhaps from the first debate is what kind of a debater Mitt Romney is and ....

the shaky relationship Mitt Romney has with the facts. And that certainly is something that the President will take into account as he’s looking ahead to the next debate,” Jen Psaki, the Obama Campaign spokeswoman, told reporters yesterday while travelling with the President aboard Air Force One.

Obama will spend some time in advance of the debate preparing with his team for the second of the three presidential debates scheduled for October 16 at the Hofstra University Campus, Long Island in New York.

Obama has been pretty clear that he’s looked back at his debate performance and looked back at the debate performance of Mitt Romney, and he’ll take that into account moving forward, Psaki said.

“At the same time, our focus and the President’s focus has always been putting on blinders, implementing our ground game, implementing laying out for the American people the choice in this election. That’s exactly what he’s doing every single day,” she said.

Psaki said Obama is often energised by not just crowds, but people he meets on the ropeline, and people that he even sees at events like the past couple of days.

“The truth is, most of those people are saying to him, we’re with you; we want you to spend another four years; we’re not worried about the reviews of the debate; we know that you’re a better choice for us. And that’s what he hears, and that keeps him energised looking ahead not just to the debate but to the next 28 days,” she said.

The only vice presidential debate is scheduled to be held this week.

“The Vice President’s number-one priority going into the debate is communicating the choice to the American people.

He’ll have the opportunity, of course, to talk about the contrast he has with Paul Ryan,” Psaki said.

“We’re not going to delve into specifics on strategy or what lines the Vice President may go into. As Jay mentioned, there’s no more passionate advocate for the administration’s approach to the last four years to the challenges the middle class is facing. We expect he’ll make the case for sending the President and himself back for another four years,” she said.

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