BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Deploying the weapon of mockery, President Barack Obama used the third and final debate Monday night to try to portray his Republican challenger Mitt Romney as entirely out of his depth on foreign policy, a tactic Republicans portrayed as over-the-top and ineffective afterwards.

See related: Obama casts Romney as unseasoned on foreign affairs

“I know you haven't been in a position to actually execute foreign policy -- but every time you've offered an opinion, you've been wrong,” Obama dismissively told Romney who was sitting a few feet away from him on the debate stage. “You said we should have gone into Iraq, despite that fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction.”

Calling his opponent “wrong and reckless” Obama reminded viewers that he – not Romney -- has been the one responsible for making decisions of war and peace for the past three and a half years and that he has actually sent military personnel out on perilous missions. “When I’ve sent young men and women into harm’s way, I always understand that that is the last resort, not the first resort,” he said.

And Obama used sarcasm to ridicule Romney: “You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed.”

In the post-debate spin room, Republicans charged that Obama had cheapened himself by using sarcasm with his “horses and bayonets” comment.

“I think it was un-presidential and an attempt to say ‘You know I’ve been around longer than you have’ – and it didn’t come across right,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It was sort of a cheap shot by the president and quite frankly made him look petty --because I think the Navy is too small and the Air Force is too small.”

A Navy at 232 ships – the number that would be left if automatic spending cuts take effect starting at the end of this year -- is “unacceptable,” said Graham. “How do you engage China with a 232-ship Navy?”

"The president made the remarkable statement, I thought, that dismissed ships because he compared them to the horses and bayonets of an earlier time. That's a remarkable statement for our commander-in-chief to make to just simply dismiss one of our armed services like that," said Romney campaign spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom.

“The first thing I think that was noticeable to many voters was that President Obama was on the attack—that he was conducting himself like a challenger. That sends a signal to a lot of voters that he’s not very confident in his agenda, that instead he feels a need to attack Gov. Romney,” said another Romney campaign spokesman Kevin Madden in the spin room.

That’s the point Romney made himself during the debate telling Obama, “Attacking me is not an agenda. Attacking me is not talking about how we're going to deal with the challenges that exist in the Middle East.”

For their part, Obama surrogates in the spin room defended the president’s mockery of Romney.

“This debate was about strength and the American people were looking for somebody who can be commander in chief,” said Obama campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki.

With his horses and bayonets reference, “the president was making the point that clearly Mitt Romney was not familiar with how we equip our military these days and he was doing it in a light and humorous way,” Psaki said,

And Psaki reverted to the “Romney as potential warmonger” theme used by Vice President Joe Biden in his debate with GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.

When it comes to deterring Iran from building nuclear weapons, “Mitt Romney hasn’t been clear on how exactly he’d be different. Is he suggesting that we should go to war? Is he suggesting we should do more than the president is already doing on sanctions? He’s endorsed and embraced the sanctions that president has put in place and the steps he has taken to bring the world together. What we didn’t hear is exactly what he’d do differently.”

Aware that Obama and Biden were portraying him as trigger happy, Romney said during the debate, “We want a peaceful planet. We want people to be able to enjoy their lives and know they're going to have a bright and prosperous future, not be at war.”

Slideshow: Swing state voters sound off

Robert Wallis / Panos Pictures

In the key battleground state of Florida, divergent opinions separate voters with just over two weeks until the election.

Launch slideshow

Early in the debate, Romney tried fighting back by interrupting Obama and showing no deference to him, as he’d done in the first two debates.

Romney also tried to demonstrate his knowledge of foreign affairs with two references to the African nation of Mali, telling viewers that “Mali has been taken over, the northern part of Mali by al-Qaeda type individuals.”

But this raised the question: do many Americans know where Mali is and why it’s important?

Romney did effectively repeat the idea that “We're four years closer to a nuclear Iran” – implying that this was Obama’s fault.

In the spin room Sen. Dick Durbin, D- Ill., answered this by saying, “We all understand that they (the Iranians) have made some progress” toward building nuclear weapons.

The question is whether Iran has reached the critical point of building one and Durbin said the Tehran regime hasn’t.

“The important thing to understand is that sanctions are working” which has created a situation “where the Iranians I believe now feel that they’ve got to sit down and talk.”

“I think this was a great debate for us. I think the Romney people probably feel the same way I felt after the Denver debate,” said Durbin

By NBC News
The stakes were high as President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney met in their second debate tonight in Hempstead, N.Y. NBC Politics monitored the debate in real time with Storify.

So what story lines emerged across the Twittersphere? There were fights over the game clock and contentious claims about energy policy, but the talk of cybertown was binders -- Romney's Binders Full Of Women, that is. When asked about what he'd do to improve income equality for women, Romney said as governor of Massachusetts he'd reviewed "binders full of women" when trying to diversify his Cabinet. And with that, a meme was born.

Scroll below for a spell-binding social recap of the debate: 

President Barack Obama enters his second debate Tuesday against Mitt Romney looking to regain his footing and determined to prevent the Republican challenger from scoring another strong debate performance that could further revitalize the GOP presidential nominee's campaign.

And, by all indications, both candidates are braced for a spirited encounter.

The rhetorical fireworks that had been absent in the first debate on Oct. 3 in Denver between Romney and Obama are almost certain to appear at the second of three presidential debates this fall, this outing set for 9 p.m. ET on the campus of Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

The Obama campaign has sent signals that the president has every intention of actively challenging Romney onstage this evening, frustrating the GOP candidate's efforts to appeal to independents and moderates the way the president hadn't been able to in their first debate.

Romney, meanwhile, has hopes that a second straight positive debate showing would add further momentum to his campaign. The former Massachusetts governor trailed Obama before the Denver debate, but Romney's strong outing has breathed new life into his campaign. A slew of national and state-level polls that have shown a tighter race for the White House in the 13 days since that first debate, with Romney pulling even — or even ahead — of Obama in some polling.

"I know no debate is ever the same and it's going to be fun to watch — maybe more fun for you than for me," Ann Romney said Monday in Pennsylvania about her husband's preparations for the second debate, "but one thing I know for sure: Mitt's prepared, Mitt's confident, Mitt's got a good presence about him, and Mitt's running because he believes in America."

First Thoughts: Why tonight's debate could be so crucial

The Romney resurgence and Democratic handwringing about the president's low-wattage performance in the first debate have prompted a shift in Obama's tack. Democrats almost universally hope for and expect a feistier performance by the president on Tuesday, a shift in strategy that has been telegraphed by the Obama campaign.

A campaign source, for instance, told NBC News on Monday that the president planned to bring up Romney's disparaging comments about the "47 percent" of Americans he said wouldn't vote for him because they depend on government. Obama declined to use this and other potent cudgels against Romney in the first debate.

"I think he's going to be aggressive in making the case for his view of where we should go as a country," Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday on Fox in anticipation of the debate. "I mean, we saw Governor Romney sort of serially walk away from his own proposals and certainly the president is going to be willing to challenge him, on it, as we saw the vice president challenge Paul Ryan."

The potential for a contentious showdown on national television could transform the second debate into another turning point in the 2012 campaign.

Romney and Obama each holed up for much of the weekend and through Monday to practice for the second debate, which is moderated by Candy Crowley of CNN. She'll serve as the mediator between the candidates and also the audience in this town hall format, where audience members will pose questions of the candidates.

FEATURED: Questions from readers for the second debate 

Obama prepared for the debate at a resort in Williamsburg, Va., retreating from the White House much as he had before the first debate, when he studied for the occasion in Nevada.

For his part, Romney has squeezed in debate preparations around his campaign schedule, as Ohio Sen. Rob Portman — who plays Obama in mock debates — appears to have assumed a broader strategic role.

What is clear about the second presidential debate is that several factors that allowed Romney to be successful at the first debate will have changed in tonight's contest.

Vice President Joe Biden's aggressive posture in last week's debate versus GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan suggested that the Obama team won't shrink from a fight in the remaining debates.

While the format is different, Crowley might not be inclined to allow Romney talk past her instructions as the Republican frequently did to moderator Jim Lehrer in the first debate.

RELATED: Obama will try to bend town hall format to his advantage

And, the candidates will have to interact directly with the voters who will be asking the questions.  While the queries will be selected by the moderator, the voters will directly deliver them to the candidates, creating a less formal atmosphere.

The issue profile is sure to be more expansive, too. While Libya and other topics of foreign policy didn't make an appearance in the first Obama-Romney event, they're almost sure to in this second outing. Other topics — from housing to education to immigration — could also threaten to trip up either candidate.

The most important difference might arguably be in Obama, who if nothing else has vowed to cast off the lethargy that plagued his first outing.

Obama himself told a radio host on Oct. 10 that he was "too polite" toward Romney in their first meeting.

"I think it's fair to say that we will see a little more activity at the next one," he said.

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Signs hang in the media filing center before Tuesday's presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Monday, Oct. 15, 2012, at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

WILLIAMSBURG, VA -- Looking to redeem himself after a bland first debate, President Barack Obama will face off against Mitt Romney Tuesday in a town hall-style debate, in which audience members are able to engage the candidates directly.

Pre-screened, undecided voters will pose questions to Obama and Romney, and while the president has only held two town halls since he kicked off his re-election campaign, his stylistic approach to those events may indicate how he’ll approach Tuesday’s high-stakes debate.

In both town halls -- one with Cleveland voters in July, the other hosted by Univision in September -- the president strongly criticized Romney even as he answered audience questions about his own policies, a balance campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday that he’s trying to strike in this debate.

“He’s going to be firm, but respectful in correcting the record in the times we expect Mitt Romney will hide from and distort his own policies,” she told reporters at the president’s hotel, adding, “the audience is the people in the room, but also the people at home, and certainly he takes that into account.”

Related: First Thoughts: Why tonight's debate could be so crucial, Part 2

At the Univision forum, in fact, the president had a rejoinder for Mitt Romney’s secretly recorded comments about the “47 percent,” which he was panned for not bringing up at the first debate in Denver, Colo.

“When you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims, that somehow they want to be dependent on government, my thinking is maybe you haven't gotten around a lot,” he told Univision’s Jorge Ramos in response to a question about the remarks.

And at the town hall in Cleveland, Obama easily steered responses back to criticism of his opponent, even if the question was not about Romney -- a tactic that might serve him well come Tuesday, given the prevailing view that he needs to be more aggressive against the former Massachusetts governor than in their first meeting.

When asked by an Ohio voter how he would try to “unite everyone” in a second term, the president decried partisan rancor in Washington before launching into a point-by-point policy comparison with his opponent.

“On things like ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell,’ Mr. Romney wants to reverse my position," Obama said. "On issues like immigration -- I believe in comprehensive immigration reform; he does not.  On issues related to women, I believe that Planned Parenthood does a lot of good, and that women's health -- women should be able to control their own health care decisions. He does not.”

After laying out a few more of their differences, the president concluded his response to how he would unite the country by warning that the audience could count on a President Romney “implementing the plan that he and the Republicans in Congress have put forward. “

Even when he’s not seeking to criticize Romney, Obama has had no trouble steering a conversation to the question he wants to answer while relating it to the question that was asked.

And he also has a specific verbal tell when he’s about to change the subject -- or at least, broaden it: “first of all.”

When Univision moderator Jorge Ramos grilled Obama over why he hadn’t accomplished immigration reform in his first term, the president began his response by taking a rhetorical step back, framing his answer against a large contextual backdrop.

“Let me first of all, Jorge, make a point that when we talked about immigration reform in the first year, that's before the economy was on the verge of collapse, Lehman Brothers had collapsed, the stock market was collapsing, and so my first priority was making sure that we prevented us from going into a Great Depression,” he said.

He answered other questions similarly, using the phrase “first of all” seven times during the Univision town hall, in which there were 18 questions.

And at the Cincinnati event, he used it five times out of eight questions, including in a response to the mother of a gay son who asked what the president’s “next steps” were for the LGBT community.

Slideshow: The life of Barack Obama

Polaris

The path of the president-elect, from childhood to party leader

Launch slideshow

“First of all, I think what the American people have seen and made such progress on is recognizing the idea of equal rights, equal dignity, equal respect for everybody. That applies to everybody,” he said.

But those preambles eat up precious minutes that the famously loquacious president needs given Tuesday’s two-minutes-per-response format, lest he risk moderator Candy Crowley calling “time!” just as he is getting around to his point.

In addition to the length of his answers, Obama will also have to be mindful of his reactions to attacks Romney will level while standing just a few feet away. Obama was able to keep his emotions in check when the Univision moderators accused him of breaking his promises on immigration reform.

In fact, he joked about it at one point.

"Jorge, as you remind me, my biggest failure so far is we haven't gotten comprehensive immigration reform done,” he told the co-host.

While the president’s two previous campaign-season town halls may shed a bit of light on his stylistic performance, there are perhaps too few examples of them to make too definitive an assessment.

But if Mitt Romney, who has done seven town halls since clinching the nomination, has been reviewing his past performances as preparation for this debate, he’ll have just those two events to anticipate what sort of opponent he’ll meet at Hofstra University.

With only 20 days until Election Day, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney debate for the second time Tuesday in a town hall setting live from Hempstead, N.Y.  We’ll carry the debate live on NBC News along with post-debate analysis and The Truth Squad, but you can also get the full debate experience away from the television.

As we’ve seen throughout the first two debates of the 2012 season, voters are turning online to social media platforms in record numbers to provide feedback in real-time as the candidates’ debate the issues on-air.

Consider this your viewers guide to follow, like, fan and participate in the second presidential debate.

NBCPolitics.com and the NBC Politics App

NBCPolitics.com and the NBC Politics app (available on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) will livestream the debate and provide full analysis before, during and after the candidates speak in New York.

NBC Politics app for iPad and iPhone.

Social TV

NBC News will again optimize an experience with new second-screen platform Zeebox. Within the app, users will have a curated view of real-time social media reaction along with the ability to share images, quotes and more from the debate as it happens. For more information, visit zeebox.com.

Zeebox social TV app

Additionally, check-in to NBC News Presidential Debate coverage on GetGlue and get rewarded with an exclusive sticker. For those checking into a second debate this season with NBC News, you’ll gain an extra limited edition sticker to reward your participation.

On-Air Social Integration

NBC News will again utilize Mass Relevance technology to integrate social media on-air during the analysis portion of our broadcast (not during the debate portion). Want to be a part of the conversation and potentially see your tweets on-air? Be sure to tweet along using the hashtag #NBCPolitics.

Truth Squad

Across all platforms, NBC News has formed an editorial team called “The Truth Squad.” Through real-time social media updates during the debates and further reporting and analysis afterwards, the team will be focused on fact-checking all statements from the candidates.

Twitter

Viewers can be a part of the experience on Twitter by following and joining the conversation using the hashtag #NBCPolitics and by following @NBCPolitics and @NBCNews.

Facebook

Turn to NBC News and NBC Politics on Facebook for a livestream of the debate in its entirety. In addition, check back for highlights, polls, analysis and more commentary both during and after the event.

XBox

The NBC News Xbox application will also be live streaming the presidential and vice-presidential debates for the 2012 election season. Users with an Xbox Live Gold membership can watch the uninterrupted debates stream inside the application.

NBC News app for Xbox 360

 Crimson Hexagon Social Analysis

We're tracking social media commentary on the presidential candidates using a natural-language tool called ForSight, developed by Crimson-Hexagon Inc. Results are culled from all Twitter messages and a sampling of Facebook posts each day, and reflect not national opinion but a broader look at what's being said by Americans who follow politics and are active on Facebook, Twitter or both, and why they're saying it. Read more about what people said during last week’s vice presidential debate here.

A look at the candidates as viewed through social media with the help of Crimson Hexagon.

Eric Gay / AP

A sign promoting the debate is held up at a rally on the Centre College campus, on Oct. 11, 2012, in Danville, Ky.

Vice President Joe Biden enters Thursday night's vice presidential debate with a mandate to aggressively defend President Barack Obama's record following the presidential debate last week, which saw Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney score a prime-time victory over the president.

The political spotlight turns this evening to Danville, Ky., where Paul Ryan — the Wisconsin congressman who, two months ago, agreed to serve as Romney's running mate — hopes to build upon the momentum earned by Romney last week in Denver.

Biden and Ryan will meet tonight at Centre College for their first and only debate, but one that is a high-stakes affair.  In contrast to the presidential debates, the running mates often serve as the unofficial "attack dog" for the top of the ticket, raising the prospect for fireworks in the 90-minute affair, moderated by ABC's Martha Raddatz.

The Biden-Ryan matchup will help further set the stage for the two more debates between Obama and Romney scheduled for later this month.

Romney's previous debate performance, which saw the GOP hopeful deliver crisp attacks and adopt a more centrist tone, has helped him make up ground against Obama in several national and state-level polls. Obama's advantage narrowed to a point among likely voters in Florida (48 percent to 47 percent), according to NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls released Thursday, and Romney led Obama by a point (48 percent to 47 percent) among likely voters in Virginia. Obama maintained a 51 percent to 45 percent advantage over Romney in the key battleground state of Ohio, as well.

Republicans hope a second strong outing, this time by their ticket's No. 2, will help propel Romney to a better position to overtake the Democratic incumbent in the final weeks of the campaign.

Ryan wound down his preparations Wednesday in Florida, where former solicitor general Ted Olson played the role of Biden in practice sessions. Speaking to reporters while making a stop for ice cream, Ryan said his debate prep "went well."

"What I am excited about is we get to offer the American people a very clear choice," Ryan said. "Look, Joe Biden has been on this stage before. He has been on these big stages. This is my first time. But what he can’t run from is President Obama’s indefensible record. They are just offering more of the same. I am excited because we have a chance yet again to offer this country a very clear."

Biden, meanwhile, has been squared away back at his personal residence in Delaware to prepare for tonight's contest.

"You can expect the vice president to do what he does best: talk about what's at stake for the middle class in this election," Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who is playing Ryan in debate preparations with Biden, said in an online video Wednesday. "The vice president is taking this moment seriously, speaking directly to the American about their hopes, and this ticket's plan to keep fighting for the middle class and moving the country forward in a second term, is what he's great at and what he loves to do."

The vice president's practice debates were attended by Obama campaign staff and longtime aides to the former Delaware senator. Biden has also reportedly been reading the "Young Guns" manifesto by Ryan, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as part of his prep work.

Despite the preparations, both campaigns have sought to downplay expectations for their respective candidates' performances this evening, a time-honored tradition that extends to vice presidential debates.

And Biden and Ryan both bring a series of strengths and weaknesses to the table.

The vice president, for instance, has become an effective advocate for Obama in white, working-class towns where the president typically struggles. Biden's folksiness and readily apparent comfort before blue collar crowds has made him able to make inroads in communities where the president might not otherwise tread.

"I would tell Joseph Biden, be yourself, you're very good at this," Democratic New York Sen. Charles Schumer said Tuesday on MSNBC.

But that's also a sentiment shared by Republicans, given how Biden's off-the-cuff demeanor has sometimes led to gaffes that snowball into a headache for the Obama campaign. Republicans turned the vice president's recent comment that the middle class had been "buried" by the economy in the last four years into a self-referential attack on the administration (though Biden had been alluding to the lingering effects of the Bush economy).

Likewise, Ryan offers Republicans opportunity and vulnerability.

The Wisconsin congressman is regarded as one of the GOP's more articulate voices when it comes to fiscal issues; Republicans often argue that if they were to pick one person to explain the party's plans to reform entitlements and the tax code, it would be Ryan.

But the House Budget Committee chairman will also be held to account for some of the more controversial elements of the two budgets he's authored, especially for their proposed changes to Medicare. Democrats have accused his first budget of eliminating Medicare as it's commonly known and turning it into a voucher system. (A second iteration allowed seniors to maintain traditional Medicare or chose a reformed "premium support" plan.)

Ryan also pales in foreign policy experience compared to Biden, a key adviser to Obama on global and diplomatic issues and a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But Ryan has shown more ease in recent week echoing Romney's own criticism of the Obama administration's foreign policy, which focuses on its handling of a recent attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, and the deterioration in the U.S. relationship with Israel.

DANVILLE, Ky.—At least one spectator will not have trouble obeying moderator Martha Raddatz’s admonition to remain silent during tonight’s vice presidential debate here at Centre College: former Supreme Court chief justice Fred Vinson.

He died in 1953.

But Vinson, Centre College Class of ’09 (that’s 1909), lives on in a portrait that hangs in his fraternity on campus, Phi Delta Theta. Since his death, frat brothers have taken the painting—affectionately called “Dead Fred”—to every home football game and other big events on campus. Earlier this week, chanting “Dead Fred,” they marched it to the debate hall for tonight’s face-off between Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan.

“It’s just like he’s another one of the guys in the fraternity,” says senior Oakley Watkins. “He’s another fraternity brother of ours.”

“Getting him to witness different events on Centre College’s campus has been something of a tradition for us,” says sophomore  Steven Sims. “It’s just one of the quirky little things that makes us different.”

Says frat president Beau Sauley: “ ‘Dead Fred’s’ pretty cool.”

When Centre College hosted the 2000 vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, “Dead Fred” was given a wing chair in the audience. This time, he’s perched on a ledge high above the hall.

Frat brothers say he’s not pleased.

“I didn’t hear him say anything,” says Sims, “but he just had a look on his face. You could tell.”

Vinson, a member of a prominent family of Democrats, has the distinction of having served in all three branches of the federal government: elected to three terms in the House, Treasury secretary in President Harry Truman’s administration and nominated to the Supreme Court by Truman, the last chief justice named by a Democrat.

So you think he’d be backing President Obama and Vice President Biden for re-election, right?

He’s not talking.

Headline from our new NBC/WSJ/Marist polls: A marginal -- but not substantial -- improvement for Romney since last week’s debate… In Ohio, Obama leads among those who have already voted by 2-to-1 margin… Tonight’s main event: Biden vs. Ryan… And College Man: Obama hits his fifth-straight college campus when he visits the University of Miami (FL) at 3:25 pm ET, while Romney campaigns in North Carolina at 6:00 pm ET.

DANVILLE, Ky. -- So how much did the political environment change after last week's presidential debate as we head into tonight's VP showdown here in Kentucky? According to our new NBC/WSJ/Marist polls of three of the most important battleground states, it changed at the margins -- but not substantially. A week ago, right before the debate, our NBC/WSJ/Marist poll of Florida had President Obama with a one-point lead among likely voters, 47%-46%; now it is still one point, 48%-47%. In Ohio, Obama was ahead by eight points; now it is by six, 51%-45%. And in Virginia, Obama had a two-point edge last week, 48%-46%; now it is Romney by one, 48%-47%. So our poll shows some improvement for the GOP presidential nominee, but we seem to be back to where we were before the conventions: It's a very close race with Obama still enjoying a structural edge in the battleground states. And why was there only a little change in these surveys -- conducted Oct. 7-9 -- since last week’s debate? These numbers probably tell the story: More than 90% of the likely voters in these three states say they made up their minds BEFORE the debate. Here is a question to be asked: Is Romney over-performing in national polls and under-performing in the battlegrounds? Sure seems like it.

Slideshow: Biden on the campaign trail

Slideshow: Ryan on the campaign trail

*** Other examples: Here are more examples of marginal change since the first debate, per our NBC/WSJ/Marist polls: Obama's favorable ratings remain above 50% in all three states among likely voters (51% in Ohio and Virginia and 52% in Florida), and his overall job-approval numbers among registered voters are near 50% (48% in Florida and Virginia and 47% in Ohio). Meanwhile, Romney saw his fav/unfav rating tick up in Florida and Virginia (to 49%-44%), but it still remains under water in Ohio (44%-50%). And brand-new New York Times/CBS/Quinnipiac polls also show a marginal improvement for Romney. In Colorado, it’s Romney 48% Obama 47% vs. Obama 48% Romney 47% from a month ago. But in Virginia, they have Obama ahead, 51-46% vs. what they had before, Obama 50% Romney 46%. And in Wisconsin, it’s Obama 50% Romney 47% vs. Obama 51% Romney 45%. Bottom line: There has been some battleground-state improvement for Romney, but not a significant amount. Essentially, we’re back to where things were before the conventions -- which is a close race that slightly favors the president. 

Charles Dharapak / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney takes a picture for well-wishers after an unscheduled stop at a Chipotle restaurant in Denver, Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012.

*** A deep dive into Ohio: Our new NBC/WSJ/Marist poll also provides two explanations why Obama maintains his lead in the Buckeye State. One is early voting. According to the survey, nearly 1 in 5 respondents have already voted in Ohio, and Obama is winning them by a 63%-37% margin; among those who plan to vote on Election Day, Romney is leading, 52%-42%. What also helps to explain the president’s advantage is party ID. Last week, it was D+5 among likely voters; this week it’s D+11. But here is something else to chew on: 46% of likely voters in the survey describe themselves as conservative (when it was 35% in 2008, per the exit poll). So while the poll’s party ID in Ohio was more Democratic than last week, it was also much more conservative. Meantime, the NBC/WSJ/Marist poll of Virginia was more Republican. 

*** Biden vs. Ryan: Today’s main event, of course, is the Joe Biden-vs.-Paul Ryan debate here in Danville, KY. According to Pew, 40% expect Ryan to perform better in the debate, while 34% expect Biden to do better. Ryan also enjoys a stronger fav/unfav rating (44%-40%) than Biden does (39%-51%) in the survey. Our most recent national NBC/WSJ poll shows similar fav/unfav numbers: 37%-33% for Ryan and 37%-38% for Biden. As we wrote yesterday, Biden has more pressure on him going into the debate, but Ryan has the higher expectations, especially among base conservatives. And a question: Just how many will tune in to the debate? We’re putting the over-under at 40 million. Remember, there are two MLB playoff games tonight, as well as Steelers-Titans NFL football game.

Slideshow: On the Trail 

*** The skinny on tonight’s debate: Both Biden and Ryan will be seated. And moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC will ask questions built around nine topics (at 10 minutes per topic), and the questions will alternate between domestic and foreign policy. And that means Libya will come up. Here’s how Bloomberg describes yesterday’s congressional hearing on the topic: “Requests for additional security at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, before the Sept. 11 attack were rejected by the State Department because of a desire to convey ‘normalization,’ the Republican chairman of a House panel [Darrell Issa] said.” Yesterday was not a good day for the Obama administration, nor the Clinton State Department. We still don’t know the basic answer to this question: Why, five days after the attack, did Susan Rice get briefed incorrectly? Obviously, some critics of the administration want to be believe the worst -- that it was on purpose. But do we really think the administration thought that story would hold? More troubling, it seems, was the intelligence failure, both on the front end (no warning) and on the backend (too long to figure out what happened). And it appears a lot of good old fashioned CYA – a legacy the intelligence community has been trying to shake for a decade.

*** College man: Before tonight’s debate, President Obama holds a rally at the University of Miami (FL) at 3:25 pm ET. By our count, this is the president’s FIFTH-straight event at a college campus in the past week -- the others were at the University of Wisconsin (WI), George Mason University (VA), Cleveland State (OH), and Ohio State (OH). Meanwhile, Romney campaigns in Asheville, NC at 6:00 pm ET.

*** The Senate numbers: Lastly, here are the Senate numbers from our new NBC/WSJ/Marist polls: In Florida, it’s Bill Nelson 52%, Connie Mack 39%; in Ohio, it’s Sherrod Brown 52%, Josh Mandel 41%; and in Virginia, it’s Tim Kaine 47%, George Allen 46%. 

Countdown to 2^nd presidential debate: 5 days
Countdown to 3^rd presidential debate: 11 days
Countdown to Election Day: 26 days

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President Barack Obama engaged in some post-debate self-analysis Wednesday morning, saying on a radio show that he thought he was “too polite” during last week’s debate with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

“I think it’s fair to say I was just too polite," the president said when asked about his first debate performance during an interview on the Tom Joyner radio show. "The good news is, is that’s just the first one."

Obama assured Joyner: “I think it’s fair to say that we will see a little more activity at the next [debate],” without getting any more specific about what kind of activity he meant.

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Consistent with the expectations game his campaign played in the days leading up to the debate, Obama said that despite Romney’s frequent “mistakes” on the trail, the president and his team understood that the campaign would never “end up being a cakewalk.”

But he maintained that “we’ve got a lead,” despite polls showing Romney gaining on Obama with a post-debate bounce. He likened his position in the race to a basketball team that just lost the third game in a best-of-seven series.

“You know, you have a seven game series, we’re up two zero and we lose one,” Obama said.

But Joyner didn’t seem to buy that analogy.

“Yeah, but you had the open shot and you didn’t take it,” he interjected.

“Yeah, I understand, but you know, what happens though is that when people lose one game, you know, this is a long haul,” Obama responded.

Obama also emphasized his hopes for Thursday’s vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Republican nominee Paul Ryan. While VP debates aren’t usually as highly-anticipated as presidential ones, Biden has faced increased pressure to make up for Obama’s less-than-stellar performance, while Ryan’s appearance will be his first foray on a national debate stage.

“Biden I think will be terrific in the debate,” Obama said, not trying to manage expectations as his campaign did with his first debate performance. 

Towards the end of the interview, Obama sought to assure listeners that he was still confident, alluding to an internet meme that features him: “As some of these emails that go around with my picture on them say, I can’t quote the entire thing, but ‘I got this.'"

A new national poll released Monday prompted wagging tongues in Washington for its result, which showed Mitt Romney leading President Barack Obama on the heels of last week's presidential debate. 

A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found Romney leading Obama, 49 to 45 percent, among likely voters. That sort of result would mark a remarkable reversal in fortunes for Romney, who's trailed Obama in most national polls to date. 

The Pew poll, if nothing else, offers confirmation of Romney's strong debate performance last week against Obama. Sixty-six percent of registered voters said in the poll that they thought Romney had done a better job in the debates, compared with 20 percent who said the same of the president. 

The shift in Pew's poll — which showed an eight point advantage for Obama in mid-September — seems attributable mostly to a heavy Republican sample. Surging party identification can be an indicator of enthusiasm, which certainly spiked among Republicans in the aftermath of last week's debate. 

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(Incidentally, many conservatives had previously expressed open skepticism of previous polls showing Obama ahead of Romney, because those polls had a slightly more Democratic sample. Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary to George W. Bush, tweeted that while the poll shows obvious movement toward Romney, the results expressed Monday by Pew are "tempting" but unlikely.)

The Pew poll was conducted Oct. 4-7, which includes both the aftermath of the debate, and also includes the announcement last Friday that the jobless rate had fallen to 7.8 percent, news which is seen as helpful to Obama. 

Additional national and state-level polls set for release later this week could end up painting a better picture, though, of the state of the Obama-Romney horserace. Those polls might provide a better indication of whether Romney's post-debate bump is strong enough to be sustained. 

The Pew poll has a margin of error of 3.4 percent for its sample of likely voters, and a 3.3 percent margin of error for its sample of registered voters.