Updated 12:58 p.m. ET — President Barack Obama urged Americans to heed local officials' warnings about Hurricane Sandy on Monday as his re-election said it would determine the president's campaign schedule on a "day-to-day basis."

The president appeared at the White House and said he was "confident" states and local governments were prepared to weather the megastorm barreling toward the East Coast of the United States, though he cautioned that it could take time to restore transportation and electricity in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Obama said Sandy would be "a slow-moving storm through a wide swath of the country."

"We're confident that the assets are pre-positioned for an effective response in the aftermath of this storm," he added.

The hurricane forced Obama to cut short a trip to Florida and canceled events scheduled for Tuesday. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney followed suit, as he and running mate Paul Ryan canceled most of their events on Monday afternoon and Tuesday.

The storm reshuffled the race for the presidency, just eight days before voters head to the polls. Surrogates for Obama — like former President Bill Clinton — stepped forward in place of the president at campaign events as Obama remained in Washington to handle the storm. In addition to canceling stops in Colorado and Virginia, the White House said Monday that Obama would no longer travel to Wisconsin tomorrow, either. The next campaign events on Obama's schedule are on Wednesday, in Ohio.

Romney canceled an afternoon event in Wisconsin and Ryan would no longer appear in Florida. 

"Governor Romney believes this is a time for the nation and its leaders to come together to focus on those Americans who are in harms way," said Gail Gitcho, Romney's communications director. "We will provide additional details regarding Governor Romney's and Congressman Ryan's schedule when they are available." 

Obama met in the White House situation room in order to be “updated on the latest forecast for Hurricane Sandy and the extensive federal effort underway to support the state and local response to this historic storm," according to press secretary Jay Carney. Multiple cabinet secretaries, many members of the president’s White House staff and the heads of FEMA and the National Hurricane Center will participate in this meeting.

But the president's official duties put his campaign schedule in flux, just as the presidential campaign enters its final phase.

"The president's focus is on the storm and governing the country and making sure our people are safe," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said on a conference call with reporters. He said the president's campaign would take scheduling on a day-by-day basis. 

"We're obviously going to lose a bunch of campaign time, but that's obviously how it has to be, and we'll try to make it up on the back end," added David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the Obama campaign. 

Speaking Monday afternoon at the White House, the president said he wasn't concerned about the potential impact of the storm on voting. 

"I am not worried at this point on the impact on the election," he said. "I'm worried about the impact on families and our first responders."

Clinton took Obama's place at a rally this morning in Wisconsin and was set to join Vice President Joe Biden in Ohio later this afternoon. 

Romney pushed forward with his campaign schedule on Monday, which took him to Ohio early in the day and to Wisconsin later in the day. The Republican's campaign put a hold on its fundraising pitches to voters in states in Hurricane Sandy's path, and urged supporters to remove lawn signs for fear that they might become debris. 

Romney campaign offices also collected donations to the Red Cross, items which its bus was supposed to deliver to storm victims.

"Sandy is another devastating hurricane by all accounts, and a lot of people are going to be facing some real tough times as a result of Sandy's fury. And so if you have the capacity to make a donation to the American Red Cross, you can go online and do that," the former Massachusetts governor told an overflow crowd in Avon Lake, Ohio. "If there are other ways that you can help, please take advantage of them because there will be a lot of people that are going to be looking for help and the people in Ohio have big hearts, so we're expecting you to follow through and help out."

NBC's Shawna Thomas contributed reporting.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

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In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

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President Barack Obama steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Monday. Obama cancelled his appearance at a campaign rally in Orlando, Florida and returned early to Washington, DC to monitor response to Hurricane Sandy.

President Barack Obama canceled a campaign event in Florida on Monday to return to Washington ahead of Hurricane Sandy, a White House spokesman said.

"Due to deteriorating weather conditions in the Washington area, the president will not attend today's campaign event in Orlando. The president will return to the White House to monitor the preparations for and early response to Hurricane Sandy," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.

Sandy, a massive storm bearing down on the U.S. East Coast, has forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands residents.

Obama arrived in Florida on Sunday night, coming early to try to beat the storm. He was to have held a joint campaign event with former President Bill Clinton. 

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

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In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

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KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- The approach of Hurricane Sandy along the East Coast forced Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to scrap a planned campaign swing Sunday in Virginia, rerouting the GOP contender to the battleground state of Ohio instead.

"I was looking forward to being in Virginia tomorrow but you know the hurricane is headed up there, and I just spoke with the governor, Governor [Bob]  McDonnell, and the governor and I talked about that. He said, you know, the first responders really need to focus on preparation for the storm, so we’re not going to be able to be in Virginia tomorrow, we’re going to Ohio instead," Romney told some 4000 supporters at a rally here Saturday.

The Romney campaign had planned three stops in major markets on Sunday, with rallies in Sterling, Richmond and Virginia Beach, but after canceling the Virginia Beach rally on Friday, the campaign took what an aide said was a "precautionary measure" in cancelling the other two stops. Romney will join his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan for three stops in Ohio Sunday instead.

In Virginia, Romney-Ryan and Victory offices were accepting donations of bottled water and non-perishable food such as beef jerky, granola bars and peanut butter for distribution to relief centers.  

A Romney aide said the campaign planned to reschedule the Old Dominion swing.

Romney urged his Florida supporters, who know something about major storms, to keep thinking about those in the Sandy's path.

"I hope you'll keep the folks in Virginia and New Jersey and New York and all along the coast in your minds and in your hearts," Romney said. "You know how tough these hurricanes can be and our hearts go out to them."

Vice President Joe Biden also canceled a planned rally on Saturday in Virginia Beach, and President Barack Obama changed his travel plans ahead of the storm, leaving for planned campaign events in Florida on Sunday night instead of Monday morning. The Obama campaign has canceled a rally with Michelle Obama in New Hampshire on Tuesday as well, anticipating the effects of the storm may continue even then.

Traveling with Romney on Saturday, Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said he wasn't concerned about the electoral effect of the storm on Florida or elsewhere, but was focused on people.

"Our first concern is with the people that are in the path of the storm. Obviously, that is the No. 1 concern," Rubiotold reporters on the Romney campaign plane between stops in Florida. "Beyond that, I haven’t had time to think about what impact it's going to have on the campaign. I think that’s like a secondary concern at this point."

PENSACOLA, FL -- Campaigning in this famous Navy town on Florida's panhandle, Mitt Romney returned to a topic from last week's final presidential debate, slamming the president for proposed defense cuts and pushing his plan to expand the US naval fleet.

“In 2010, then-President Obama came to Pensacola. You probably weren’t there, but some folks were. And he took pride in saying, and I quote, that he had halted reductions in the Navy. That’s what he said. But today, he again has shrunk to a smaller version of the Navy and his view of the Navy’s role," Romney told a crowd of 10,000 supporters here Saturday, setting the scene.

Related: Romney turns Obama's attacks back against the president

"You may recall in our most recent debate I made the point that our Navy is now smaller than any time well, in almost a hundred years, and the president’s response was, well, you know, we don’t use bayonets and horses anymore. And, uh, in fact we do use bayonets, and a modern Navy is one of the critical elements that allows us to protect sea lanes and to keep the world more free and prosperous," Romney said.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

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In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

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The former Massachusetts governor has made increasing the size and role of the Navy a cornerstone of his military policy. Here in Pensacola, home to a major Naval installation where former GOP presidential candidate John McCain went to flight school, his plan for the Navy took on an outsize role in what was otherwise a largely boilerplate stump speech.

"I believe in a modern Navy. That’s why my plan is to increase the number of ships we’re building to maintain our strong commitment to our military," Romney said. "His vision is not greatness in America’s Navy or America’s military. His vision is to cut our military spending by a trillion dollars. And by the way, a trillion dollars in cuts would cost about 41,000 jobs here in Florida, and think of all the businesses that depend on all those jobs. It’s extraordinary, but the president’s agenda keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller.”

Saturday is the first day for early voting in Florida, a key battleground state that is pivotal to Romney's chances of taking the White House in 10 days. While Romney himself did not mention early voting in his remarks, both Sen. Marco Rubio and Senate hopeful Rep. Connie Mack urged supporters to cast their ballots right away.

"You know today is the first day of early voting, so when you're done here today, what are you going to do?" Mack asked, as the crowd shouted back "Vote!"

"You're gonna go out and vote and then you're gonna call your friends, you're gonna call your neighbors, you're gonna call your family. No matter where they are, tell them to get out to vote." 

By nearly every indication, the 2012 presidential election is heading toward a photo-finish both in the national popular vote and in the state-by-state Electoral College battle that will ultimately decide the winner.

The tightening of the race has both campaigns in county-by-county, hand-to-hand combat to turn out their voters.  It’s also put some scenarios in play that could stir the kinds of passions that were on display during the 2000 Florida recount: 

• An electoral vote tie at 269 to 269, unlikely, but possible, especially with the current roster of competitive states on the electoral vote map.
• A split between the winner of the national popular vote and the Electoral College vote, which has happened four times in our nation’s history (although some political scientists have concluded that John F. Kennedy may have also lost the popular vote in 1960).
• Potential litigation over ballots that threatens to keep one state’s electoral votes from being counted, something that is conceivable in some key states. 

But the Constitution, as well as federal and state law, provide specific rules for handling these scenarios. And even in a clearly decided election, the most complex and potentially significant decisions to determine who takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2013, happen after voters cast their ballots. 

Here’s a guide to the legal and constitutional steps that must be taken after Election Day: 

What happens if the electoral vote ends up in a 269-269 tie?

From a total of 538 electoral votes, at least 270 are needed to win the White House. The current configuration of battleground states with places such as Iowa and Colorado being hotly contested means that in a number of outcomes, Republican candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama could tie at 269. In one tie scenario using the current battleground states, Romney carries Virginia, Florida, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada, but Obama wins Wisconsin, Ohio and New Hampshire. 

In this kind of scenario, the 12^th Amendment to the Constitution says that if no candidate gets a majority of the electors, then the House of Representatives chooses a president from among the top three vote-getters.  This would be done by the newly-elected House, not the current one. 

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

Voters use touch screen voting booths to participate in electronic voting during the first day of early voting October 22, 2012 in Washinton, DC. Citizens of the District of Columbia began early voting today for the November 6th elections which will include the 2012 US Presidential election. AFP PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKIBRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Each state’s delegation in the House would have one vote. So, for example, Ohio’s 16 members of the House would caucus and vote as a bloc. There are almost certain to be more Republican House members from Ohio than Democratic members in the new Congress, so Ohio’s one vote would go to Romney. 

In the new Congress which convenes on Jan. 3, it seems likely that there will be 28 or 29 Republican-majority delegations – more than enough to elect Romney. In this situation, the newly-elected Senate chooses the vice president with each senator having one vote. It is unclear which party is likely to control the Senate in the next Congress. 

Why doesn’t the nationwide popular vote total determine who the president is?

Because voters don’t vote directly for a presidential candidate; they vote for a party-chosen slate of electors in each state who, in turn, actually chose the president. 

Forty-eight states have laws that mandate a winner-take-all system: The candidate with the statewide plurality of the votes gets all the electoral votes from that state. 

But in Maine and Nebraska, one elector is awarded to the candidate receiving the most votes in each of the congressional districts, and the remaining two electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who gets the most votes statewide. Obama got one electoral vote from Nebraska in 2008. 

What are the significant post-Election Day deadlines which state officials must meet?

Dec. 11 is the “safe harbor” date which means that if a state has chosen its winning slate of electors by that date, the state has a greater assurance this slate will not be challenged when Congress meets to count the electoral votes. Dec. 17 is the date on which the winning slate of electors meets in each state capitol to cast their votes. Jan. 7, 2013 is the date Congress meets in joint session to count the electoral votes. 

In some states there may be recounts and ballot disputes that may threaten to bump up against the “safe harbor” deadline. 

In Ohio, for example, the counting of provisional ballots doesn’t begin until 11 days after Election Day and the county boards of elections must certify the vote from their county by Nov. 27. 

“When you see really close elections being recounted in Senate races – in Minnesota (in 2008) you saw the recount go on for nine months – (but) we have to finish the presidential election very quickly,” said John Fortier, director of the Democracy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center and editor of a guide called “After the People Vote.”

 “There’s a lot of pressure to get it done, but there’s also a lot of pressure from both sides legally to change the rules, change the deadlines.”

Who appoints the electors?

The political parties choose the electors, who are loyalists selected for their reliability. In Michigan in 2008 for example, the Democratic presidential electors included labor union leaders Ron Gettelfinger and James Hoffa. 

What would happen if a state, due to litigation and ballot disputes, can’t finish its vote count and therefore can’t choose its electors by the Dec. 11’safe harbor’ date?

It is likely that the legislature of that state would appoint a slate of electors, rather than allowing the state to lose the opportunity to have some voice in the election. Article Two of the Constitution gives the state the power to appoint electors “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct … .” But if the state legislature is divided between a house controlled by one party, and a state Senate controlled by the opposing party, then the state might not be able to cast any electoral votes. 

Can an elector pledged to vote for a candidate cast his or her vote for someone else?

Yes. But since the first election in 1789, only 11 electors have voted for a presidential candidate other than the one to whom they were pledged. In 2004, for example, in what was an apparent error, a Minnesota elector who was pledged to vote for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, instead voted for Kerry’s running mate, John Edwards. 

When Congress meets to tally the electoral votes, can a member of Congress try to dispute the election if he or she thinks some fraud was committed?

If at least one member of the House and one member of the Senate object to any electoral votes from a state, then the House and Senate each go into separate sessions to debate and vote on the contested electoral votes. Both the House and the Senate must vote to reject the challenged electoral votes in order for them to be rejected.

 How might a disputed election this year be different from the 2000 Bush-Gore disputed election – what’s changed since then?

University of California, Irvine, law professor Richard Hasen, author of the new book “The Voting Wars,” said the most important factors that have changed are “The emergence of election law as a political strategy: a doubling of the amount of election litigation since the pre-2000 period, the rise of partisan election laws (such as voter ID laws), the lack of public confidence in the fairness of the process, and the rise of social media.” As Hasen said in his book, “Twitter and other social media make the heat of the moment even hotter.”

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. -- A day after the two presidential candidates sparred in their final, foreign policy-focused debate, President Barack Obama criticized Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s rhetoric on the topic as "wrong and reckless."

The president renewed his ridicule of Romney from throughout the candidates' final meeting Monday evening in Boca Raton, Fla. before a crowd of 11,000.

Related: Obama high command projects strength heading into home stretch

"In a world of new threats and profound challenges, America needs leadership that is strong and is steady. Gov. Romney’s foreign policy has been wrong and reckless. Last night, he was all over the map," said a grinning Obama. "Did you notice that?"

The president tried to paint Romney as inconsistent start-to-finish at the debate, on issues from pursuing Osama bin Laden to rescuing the auto industry. To drive the point home, Obama revived his mocking term, "Romnesia."

"We’ve come up with a name for this condition. It’s called Romnesia," Obama said. The president joked a "severe case" had broken out on Monday -- "maybe stage three."

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Even as he highlighted what he said were Romney’s shortcomings in Tuesdays’ debate, Obama shifted to tout his own plans for a second term, brandishing a 20-page pamphlet passed out by his campaign to reporters and supporters earlier in the day. The pamphlet -- which Republicans argued was just a rehash of Obama's old policies -- summarizes the positions Obama talks about on the campaign trail and that are found on his campaign website.

"I've laid out a plan for jobs and middle class security. And unlike Mitt Romney I’m actually proud to talk about what's in it," Obama said as he held up the booklet, entitled "A New Economic Patriotism."

Even while he spent considerable time talking about his new booklet, which covers mostly domestic issues like manufacturing jobs, small businesses and entitlements, Obama did return to foreign policy by the end of his speech, pillorying Romney for not mentioning American veterans during the debate.

“In the same way that Gov. Romney didn’t mention the Afghan war or our troops in his convention speech Gov. Romney didn’t mention our veterans last night. He didn’t say a word about them,” he said.

“He may written off half the country as victims behind closed doors, but the men and women and their families who have served this country so bravely, they deserve better from someone who is applying to be commander in chief,” he said.

Obama also reprised a line he used last night to criticize Romney’s proposals, on foreign policy and other issues, as outdated.

“His foreign policy is from the 1980s, his social policy is from the 1950s and his economic policies are from the 1920s," he said.

Obama will travel next to Ohio, where he'll hold a rare joint rally with Vice President Joe Biden this afternoon.

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President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally at the Delray Beach Tennis Center on Oct. 23, 2012 in Delray Beach, Fla.

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

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

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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

UPDATED 11:30 p.m. ET -- President Barack Obama repeatedly ridiculed GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s foreign policy views as dated and haphazard in his third and final debate with his Republican challenger, who in turn accused the president of diminishing American leadership during his first term.

Vote in our poll: Did the last debate influence your 2012 decision?

 Obama took advantage of incumbency to remind voters throughout the 90-minute debate of his experience as commander-in-chief, and Romney’s lack thereof. The former Massachusetts governor, meanwhile, sought to project a deep familiarity with vexing global issues. 

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

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In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

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The debate, held just 15 days before the election in the battleground state of Florida, veered at times from its stated emphasis on foreign policy and into issues of the economy and the budget – topics on which Romney holds an advantage over the president in most polls. 

Rick Wilking / Reuters

President Barack Obama (R) listens as Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney (L) speaks during the final U.S. presidential debate in Boca Raton, Florida October 22, 2012.

But Obama sought to do to Romney with foreign policy – disqualify him in the eyes of voters – what his re-election campaign had tried to do on Romney’s economic proposals. The president openly mocked Romney’s suggestion, for instance, that Russia is the top geopolitical foe of the United States. 

"You seem to want to import the foreign policy of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s," he said. 

Obama also derided Romney’s vow to grow the size of the Navy as indicative of the GOP nominee’s dated views toward national security. 

"Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed," Obama said. "We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. And so the question is not a game of Battleship." 

Romney used his time at the debate to more broadly accuse Obama of presiding over a period of diminishing American leadership abroad. 

“In nowhere in the world is America's influence greater than it was four years ago,” he said. 

The former Massachusetts governor also voiced directly to the president an accusation – that Obama had apologized for American values – he has made throughout the campaign. 

“You said that on occasion America had dictated to other nations,” Romney said. “Mr. President, America has not dictated to other nations. We have freed other nations from dictators.” 

That attack prompted Obama to respond with a blistering characterization of Romney’s own trip to the United Kingdom, Israel and Poland this past summer. 

“When I was a candidate for office, the first trip I took was to visit our troops. And when I went to Israel as a candidate, I didn't take donors. I didn't attend fundraisers,” Obama said in reference to a fundraiser Romney held while in Jerusalem this summer. “I went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum there, to remind myself the nature of evil and why our bond with Israel will be unbreakable.” 

Obama’s tough rhetoric, though, betrayed his campaign’s outward confidence amid a series of national and battleground state polls suggesting the election had tightened to a dead heat over the past month, since Romney’s strong performance in their first debate on Oct. 3. Republicans argued that the president’s posture was that of a candidate who has fallen behind Romney over the past few weeks. 

Romney used a number of opportunities to steer the debate back toward domestic issues, on which the former Massachusetts governor has mostly staked his campaign. Romney got an opportunity to recount his five-point economic plan, and his direct-to-camera closing statement emphasized the economy as much as foreign policy.

The Republican nominee also largely declined to make as sharp of a case about Obama’s handling of the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Romney has used the administration’s response to that incident to make up ground versus Obama, but scarcely dwelled on Libya – the opening topic of Monday evening’s debate. 

Romney also tried to dissociate himself with Republican hawkishness, refusing to engage a hypothetical question about Iran’s nuclear program, ruling out a military strike against Libya and stating the U.S. “can't kill our way out of this mess” as it relates to al Qaeda. 

The debate’s tangents offered Obama other opportunities to go after Romney. The upcoming “sequester” – the automatic spending cuts, particularly to the defense budget, set to take effect at the beginning next year – prompted the two candidates to renew their squabbling over Romney’s tax plan. 

And Obama – whose decision to extend federal aid to Detroit’s troubled automakers in 2009 has become a pillar of his pitch to voters in Midwestern battleground states – eagerly pounced on a tangent involving the auto industry to criticize Romney. 

The Republican nominee also largely shrugged off Obama’s attacks as obfuscatory. 

"Attacking me is not an agenda," Romney said early at the debate, at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. 

Whether Monday’s debate would provoke a thinning sliver of undecided voters to make a decision was another question, to which the answer wasn’t immediately clear following the debate. 

Both Obama and Romney had arranged major rallies with their running mates on Tuesday so as to project momentum in the closing two weeks of the campaign. Both campaigns left Boca Raton with a self-professed sense of confidence, validation or dismissal of which will come on Nov. 6. 

Republicans said momentum is on Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's side as a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed Romney drawing even with President Barack Obama.

As the 2012 election enters its home stretch — 16 days and one final presidential debate remain before Election Day — Obama and Romney were tied at 47 percent among likely voters nationwide.

"I like what I see, because the trend is in our direction," said Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, a top surrogate for the Romney campaign. "The enthusiasm and energy are on our side."

NBC/WSJ poll: Presidential contest now tied

Romney has closed the gap versus Obama in a series of national and battleground state polls released since the first presidential debate earlier this month, when the Republican presidential nominee was generally acknowledged to have bested the president. The momentum for Romney has spurred Republican optimism that they may be able to defeat Obama, who's led his Republican challenger in most polls throughout the year. 

"We feel good about where we are. We feel we're even or ahead in these battleground states," said senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod about the new poll numbers. 

RELATED: Obama and Romney each emphasize early voting

The Romney resurgence must play out in a series of crucial battleground states — Florida, Ohio and Virginia, in particular — if the Republican challenger is to subsume Obama on Nov. 6. 

"We like the way Florida's going," said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) of the movement in Romney's direction. "We've always predicted it would go this way."

Both Obama and Romney have barnstormed these battleground states in recent weeks, encouraging supporters to vote early and trying to persuade a winnowing sliver of undecided voters. 

Each campaign had evidence for optimism as of Sunday. Republicans circulated an editorial from the Columbus Dispatch of Ohio, which called the president "unsuited to a second term." Axelrod pointed to state-level polls — including the NBC/WSJ/Marist polls this Thursday, which showed Obama leading by eight points in Iowa and six in Wisconsin — as evidence of the president's Electoral College firewall. 

NBC/WSJ/Marist polls: Obama holds lead in Iowa and Wisconsin

The candidates will get their next opportunity to shake up those poll numbers on Monday evening, when they meet for their third and final debate of the election. That debate, which will be hosted at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., is supposed to focus primarily on issues of foreign policy. 

Obama and Romney have sparred most intensely on the topic of how the president and his administration have managed the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. 

Axelrod unleashed a harsh attack on Romney, accusing the GOP nominee of "disgraceful" behavior for releasing a statement shortly after the events in Benghazi, which essentially accused the administration of sympathizing with the attackers, and apologizing for American values. 

"There's only one candidate here who's tried to exploit it from the beginning," Axelrod said. "Even while the flames were burning in Benghazi, Mitt Romney was sending out political press releases."

The Republican nominee has latched onto the administration's shifting explanations for the attack to make the case that Obama was essentially caught off-guard by the attacks. The administration at first said the attacks were the spontaneous outgrowth of protests related to a controversial video, but has shifted to acknowledge the attack in Libya was coordinated by terrorists.

Romney has also argued the administration has been insufficiently tough toward Iran's nuclear program, an assertion that might be colored by a new New York Times report that the administration and the Iranian government had agreed to one-on-one negotiations after the election. The administration called the report untrue, and both Portman and Rubio declined to hit Obama on that basis. 

But, in anticipation of tomorrow's debate, Portman said: "I think what you're going to see is Gov. Romney lay out a clear agenda for how to get Iran to do the right thing."

"They're feeling the heat, and that's what the sanctions were meant to do," Axelrod said in defense of the administration's handling of Iran. The Obama campaign adviser also ridiculed Romney's foreign trip this past summer as a "Dukes of Hazzard  tour of international destinations."

The Obama campaign has also sought to reignite a battle over women's issues in the last week to bolster the president's advantage among women voters. Obama led Romney, 51 to 43 percent, among women in the new NBC/WSJ data, but that was a narrower advantage for Obama than in past editions of the poll. 

The president's campaign has sought to remind voters of Romney's promises to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, or his promises during primary season to sign legislation to curb access to abortion, should it cross his desk. The Obama campaign also seized on Romney's remarks during last Tuesday's debate that he had "binders full of women" prepared for him as governor to help increase gender diversity in his office.

Rubio argued those attacks masked a bereft second-term agenda from Obama, and that Romney had begun to close the gender gap by focusing on issues of jobs and the economy.

"You just read a poll that the gender gap is narrowing," Rubio said. "The reason why is because Barack Obama is not offering anything."

The economy remains the top issue for voters, and a new set of data released Friday paints a picture of an uneven economic recovery in a series of battleground states.

Of the nine states categorized as "battleground states" by NBC News, five had state unemployment rates below the national unemployment rate of 7.8 percent in September, according to preliminary estimates released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The other four states suffered from a higher-than-average jobless rates, the highest of which was in Nevada; the BLS said that 11.8 percent of Nevadans were unemployed through September, the highest unemployment rate of all 50 states. (One U.S. territory, Puerto Rico, had a higher jobless rate.)

Friday's news is the last series of state-level unemployement data voters will receive before Election Day. One last national jobs report is due Nov. 2, the Friday before voters head to the polls.

President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney have each made jobs the centerpiece of their respective campaigns. The president got a boost earlier this month when the BLS report showed the unemployment rate dropping below 8 percent for the first time in years, disarming Romney of one of his most potent cudgels versus the president.

But as each Obama and Romney travel the country over the next 18 days looking to secure the 270 electoral votes they need to win the White House, economic optimism might be brighter in some states and still dim in others.

The five states with unemployment rates below 7.8 percent included Iowa (5.2 percent), New Hampshire (5.7 percent), Ohio (7.0 percent), Virginia (5.9 percent) and Wisconsin (7.3 percent).

The four battleground states with unemployment rates above the national average are Colorado (8.0 percent), Florida (8.7 percent), Nevada and North Carolina (9.6 percent).

If, for purposes of speculation, Obama were to win the battleground states with jobless rates beneath 7.8 percent along with all of the other states considered more safely in his column, he would win the Electoral College, 288-250.

But politics, of course, are not that simple. For instance, the number of employees on nonfarm payrolls in Ohio actually decreased between August and September, though the unemployment rate dropped from 7.2 percent to 7 percent over the same period.

But as Obama argues that the economy is moving forward and Romney asserts that the recovery has not been sufficiently robust, it's helpful to remember how those arguments might sound different to voters in differing states.

A week after President Barack Obama’s lackluster debate performance, Republican challenger Mitt Romney has made some gains in three key swing states among those most likely to vote, according to the latest round of NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls.

Romney and Obama remain in a virtual tie in Virginia and Florida, and the Democratic incumbent maintains a slight advantage in Ohio.

Romney saw his largest gain in Virginia, where he now edges the president 48 percent to 47 percent, a 3-point reversal from last week’s poll, released the day of the first presidential debate. The spread is within the poll’s margin of error.

NBC News/WSJ/Marist Fl. Poll

NBC News/WSJ/Marist Ohio Poll

NBC News/WSJ/Marist Va. Poll

In Florida, before the debate, it was a 1-point race with Obama leading 47 percent to 46 percent. Now, it is still a 1-point race with Obama leading 48 percent to 47 percent.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Reuters, Getty Images

In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

Launch slideshow

In Ohio, where there has been a renewed focus by the Romney campaign after the former Massachusetts governor’s strong debate performance, Obama leads 51 percent to 45 percent. That’s a 2-point uptick for Romney.

But the Ohio poll also included an 11-point advantage for self-described Democrats --- 40 percent to 29 percent for Republicans. Last week’s poll had a narrower 5-point advantage for Democrats.  . (In 2008, the party identification split was 39 percent Democrat and 31 percent Republican, according to exit polls.)

One factor that may have pulled the party ID more heavily toward Democrats in this poll was early voting. One-in-five respondents (18 percent) said they have already voted, and, of those, almost two-thirds (63 percent) said they voted for Obama.

The ideological makeup in this poll was 22 percent liberal, 32 percent moderate, 46 percent conservative, which is actually less moderate and more conservative than four years ago when it was 20 percent liberal, 45 percent moderate, and just 35 percent conservative, according to the exit poll.

When early voters are taken out of the equation, Obama’s lead shrinks to 48 percent vs. Romney's 46 percent.

"Perhaps the poll is picking up the Obama absentee push,” said Barbara Carvalho, director of the Marist poll.

“By way of methodology, last week there was no question about absentee voting in the Ohio survey. It had not yet started. … Those who said they voted absentee in the past week, since absentee voting started in Ohio, are overwhelmingly Democratic and they voted for the president by a wide margin. This can account for a difference in party identification among likely voters because last week they would have been ‘likely voters’ and this week because absentee voting had started, they are ‘definite voters.’”

There are signs that Romney’s debate performance had an impact with the narrow slice of persuadable voters.

In all three states, the overwhelming majority of voters said they made up their minds before the debate -- 92 percent in Florida and Ohio, and 91 percent in Virginia. Just 7 percent in Virginia, 6 percent in Florida, and 5 percent in Ohio said they decided after the debate. But in all three states, Romney won them.

“The debate helped Romney but most voters had already picked sides,” Carvalho added.

Slideshow: Twin sons of different parties

From tramping through cornfields to munching ice cream cones to holding babies – the time-honored traditions of the campaign trail leave President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney looking surprisingly alike.

Launch slideshow

Romney also made significant gains with independents in Virginia and Ohio. In Virginia, Romney jumped 7 points with the group -- from a 45 percent to 44 percent statistical tie to a 50 percent to 42 percent lead.

In Ohio, he got an even wider 12-point boost. He was down 47 percent to 43 percent with them. But now, Romney is up 49 percent to 41 percent. In Florida, there was little change.

Romney also improved his image post-debate in all three states, but he’s still viewed more negatively than positively in Ohio.

Romney’s favorable score has jumped to 49 percent in Florida and Virginia, up from 46 percent in Florida and 45 percent in Virginia. In fact, before the debate in Virginia, Romney was viewed more negatively than positively. Now, that’s reversed.

Neither score is as good as the president’s, who continues to enjoy favorable ratings above 50 percent in all three states.

Obama’s approval rating also held steady -- 48 percent in both Florida and Virginia and 47 percent in Ohio.

Obama continues to be bolstered by women. There’s a 13-point gender gap in Florida, and 12-point gaps in Ohio and Virginia.

In the key Senate races, Democrats lead, but the race in Virginia has narrowed back to a tie.

Many observers believe as goes the presidential race in Virginia, so goes the competitive Senate race. And that very well may be the case, as Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican George Allen are once again deadlocked.

Kaine holds the narrowest of advantages, 47 percent to 46 percent. Last week, Kaine led by 5 points, 49 percent to 44 percent.

In Florida, incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson continues to hold a sizable lead over Republican Rep. Connie Mack, 52 percent to 39 percent, about where it was last week.

In Ohio, incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown continues to hold a significant advantage, 52 percent to 41 percent, over Republican challenger Josh Mandel. Last week, Brown led 50 percent to 41 percent.

The polls were conducted from Oct. 7-9 and have a margin of error with likely voters of +/- 3.1 percent.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan says he feels “good” and is “looking forward” to the only VP debate of election, taking place in Kentucky in fewer than 36 hours.

“I am looking forward to giving people a very clear choice,” Ryan told reporters during a quick stop to Old Farmer’s Creamery. “Look, Joe Biden has been on this stage many times, this is my first time so sure it is a nervous situation because Joe Biden is one of the most experienced debaters we’ve had in modern politics. But the Achilles Heel he has is President Obama’s record and I am really looking forward to giving the American people a very clear choice. “

Ryan and Biden are set to square off in Danville, Ky. on Thursday night for a 90-minute debate on issues of both domestic and foreign policy.

While Ryan has debated at least eight times in congressional settings, tomorrow night’s debate will be his first on a national stage.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail with Ryan

The stop Wednesday on the way to the airport to fly to the site of the debate wrapped up Ryan’s two-day stay in Florida where he held more debate prep sessions and meetings with staff. The warm weather was a welcome change for Ryan.

“Its great…I finally got some sun, went outside,” the Wisconsin Congressman told reporters about his trip to the Sunshine State after he ordered two scoops of moose tracks ice cream.

Ryan said he was not upset about what his running mate said Tuesday to the Des Moines Register editorial board. Romney told the newspaper “there’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.”

“Look, no positions have changed, our position is very consistent,” Ryan responded.

As polls continue to show the race nationally and in key battleground state’s tightening after Romney’s debate performance last week against President Barack Obama, the VP nominee said he doesn’t know how much the his lone debate versus Biden will matter.

“I don’t know but I am sure you guys will debate that one endlessly,” Ryan joked.