denigrates an alliance to say we're going alone. you cannot leave. >> i don't understand how we ended up invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. >> announcer: this is cnn. happening now, last-minute preparations for debate night in america. will president barack obama show some fire and passion? and is governor mitt romney ready to be challenged? also, secretary of state hillary clinton talks to cnn about the deadly attack on benghazi saying and i'm quoting her now "i take responsibility." and in a rare interview about her family, the first lady talks about life in the white house and her husband's performance in the first debate. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." with only 21 days to go until the presidential election, we're counting down to debate night in america. both candidates are taking tonight very, very seriously. air force one arrived in new york just a few hours ago. president obama has spent the past few days in virginia. he's been concentrating on debate preparations. mitt romney flew in from massachusetts where he's been rehearsing. everything could hinge on the candidates' performance in tonight's debate town hall tile moderated by cnn's own candy crowley. our predebate coverage begins right now with cnn's national political correspondent jim acosta who's been following the romney campaign. jim. >> reporter: wolf, a top campaign advisor tells cnn mitt romney has been working on his town hall debate skills taking on not just a stand-in moderator but also mock questioners and practice session. but it's also worth noetding romney has done countless campaign events in this type of town hall setting, but sometimes with mixed results. looking to put another crucial night in the debate win column, mitt romney is heading into his next face-off with president obama after days of intense preparations to gear for the evening town hall format, a romney advisor says the gop nominee has rehearsed with a roomful. officials are giving president obama the edge but note the republican contender has held over 100 town hall meetings. they expect romney to talk about the economy and what they call his bipartisan record governing massachusetts. advisors say romney also hopes to take on secretary of state hillary clinton's comments on the attack on the u.s. consulate in libya when she told cnn the buck stops with her. >> i take responsibility. >> reporter: an obvious opening for romney to say the buck should stop with the president. after two runs for the white house, romney has grown more comfortable in town hall settings. here kidding around with new jersey governor chris christie last week in ohio. >> i'm going to turn to you for questions in just a few moments and let you ask any questions you'd like. and i'll answer some. and if they're real tough, i'll have chris answer them. >> reporter: but romney has also offered ammunition to his opponents. take this question on the president's health care law last january. >> what is your strategy to replace it with? how do we move forward to make health care once again affordable? >> reporter: when romney responded the consumer should have the ability to fire his insurance companies, his gop rivals pounced. >> it also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. >> reporter: democrats are still talking about this romney town hall answer on college financial aid last march. >> if elected, what you would do with regards to college tuition whether making it easier for me and my classmates. >> the best thing i can do for you is to tell you to shop around and to compare tuition in different places. >> reporter: sometimes it's body language that's memorable. like the first president bush looking at his watch in 1992. >> what's your position on issues. >> reporter: or the second ptd president bush's reaction in al gore coming too close. >> you know who voted for it? might never know that one. >> reporter: and too tough as when romney suggested the president was a traitor at this town hall in may. >> we have a president right now operating outside the structure of our constitution. and i want to know -- yeah, i do agree he should be tried for treason. >> i happen to believe the constitution was not just brilliant but probably inspired. >> reporter: now, as for that talk from the romney campaign that mitt romney would like to take on the issue of benghazi later on this evening, wolf, i do have a comment from an obama campaign official who said "romney's criticized the president, but given his track record of taking both sides on every major foreign policy issue including u.s. intervention in libya, the imptous is on him to say what he would do differen y ly," wolf, sparks will fly tonight. >> they certainly will. jim acosta, thank you. president obama's first detach shifted the presidential race, the nationwide and swing state polls tightened dramatical dramatically. some showing him sliding into second place. he knows his presidency could be riding on a strong performance tonight. cnn white house correspondent brianna keilar is joining us now. she has some inside news on his debate preparations. bri brianna, what are you learning? >> reporter: wolf, president obama has began today like he has the last few. he had a workout and then met with his debate team for a 45-minute brush-up before heading here to long island. he's got some down time with some of his friends. he's doing some last-minute debate prep and finish off the evening before the debate with a steak and potato dinner with the first lady. but the emphasis of his prep that's been underway intensely for the last few days has been working on his delivery. that's what campaign sources tell us because of that lackluster performance that we saw in denver. so tonight sources tell us we should be expecting to see a more assertive president obama but also an optimistic president obama. here's what robert gibbs, one of the campaign advisors, said this weekend. >> he also knew as he's watched the tape of that debate that he's got to be more energetic. >> reporter: president obama has watched tape of his denver performance multiple times to get an appreciation for what the audience saw and perhaps left wanting more from him. he has spent the last few days in intensive debate camp in williamsburg, virginia, on an inlet in the chesapeake bay kind of holed up in a resort there. very structured very long days starting in the morning with workout and breakfast, he started debate prep around 10:00 a.m. in the morning. he'd be working through possible questions that he might get from town hall audience members and from our own candy crowley, the moderator of this debate. he'd break for lunch. he'd be back to debate prep coming back after dinner, wolf, for that mock debate each night a 90-minute debate essentially dress rehearsal. so finishing up the evening at 10:00, 10:30 at night, these are long 12-hour days, his aides know there's so much riding on tonight however downplaying the effect his performance in denver had on the polls. >> brian na, thanks to you. tonight's debate could have a huge effect on the electoral map. john king is watching that for us. what are you seeing, john? >> wolf, brianna might say the obama campaign is downplaying that impact, but the impact is obvious and dramatic. that's why going into debate number two, the question is we know debate number one was a race changer. can the president make debate number two a race changer? why was it a race changer and why is the romney campaign optimistic? nevada, colorado, iowa, progress for romney since the first debate. new hampshire, progress for romney, virginia and north carolina, progress for romney. florida, progress for romney. look at all the states, wolf. they're all blue. these are all states the president carried back in 2008. but let's go back in time. that was a big democratic year. the argument inside the romney campaign is this is a more level playing field. neither party has a bigger advantage like the democrats had in 2008. so in a more normal year almost all of these states in 2004 except new hampshire, they voted republican. back to 2000 where al gore and george w. bush fought bitterly to the end iowa and new hampshire went republican, iowa went democratic. their argument, wolf, is if you take one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight stagt e states they now have momentum in with three weeks left in the campaign, they can afford to lose a few. so their take going into this is if they can keep the momentum at their back, they will dra mat click improve their standing. this is the map that mattersed most, the electoral college map. the president has advantage, but with governor romney increasingly in better ground in these gold states, there's talk the president will have to play defense and romney may have opportunity in michigan and virginia. after this second debate we'll have a much better take of the true electoral battlefield. president obama needs to change the dynamic tonight. a lot of democrats are nervous. >> he needs to change. he can't wait for the third debate next monday. after the conventions when president obama was doing great in the polls and riding haul in battleground states for all practical purposes, republicans were complaining that the polls weren't fair, that they were biased against the republicans. now that the republicans are doing great, relatively speaking in the polls, they've come back. are the democrats complaining about the methodology in these polls? >> no. they're not. the republicans i hope have learned their lessons. the pollsters 99 times out of 100 get it just about right. the democrats aren't complaining. they argue some states. saying our polls in ohio are better than your public polls in ohio. but they accept this dynamic. talk to smart democrats outside the campaign, stan greenberg, peter hart, they are issuing public warning signs for the president of the united states, wolf, because in that first debate he lost ground in the suburbs because people watched him and said i want someone to fight for my job. i want someone to fight for my community. he had no fight. that is the biggest advice from democrats outside the obama campaign that he better show up tonight and not just fight governor romney but prove to people he has a road map to get to a better economy in the next four years. >> good point. john will be with us throughout the night as well. even if the president is tougher tonight on mitt romney, there's another big challenge. will he draw a clear picture of where he intends to take the country if re-elected? 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[ male announcer ] fiber one. just begin with america's favorite soups. bring out chicken broccoli alfredo. or best-ever meatloaf. go to campbellskitchen.com for recipes, plus a valuable coupon. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. plus a valuable coupon. ♪ chirping beeping camera ahhhh drill sound chirping electric shaver shaking remote tapping sound shaking drill chirping tapping shaking remote wouldn't it be great to have one less battery to worry about? car honking irping the 2012 sonata hybrid. the only hybrid with a lifetime hybrid battery warranty. from hyundai. in just a few hours before tonight's debate both candidates are surely feeling the pressure. because with just three weeks to go before the election, the race in some key battleground states is dramatically tightening right now. ron brownstein is joining us, he's outside the debate hall over at hoffstra university. i'm going to put a couple polls up on the screen and let's discuss what's going on. this is in pennsylvania right now. likely voters, the quinnipiac university poll right now obama in pennsylvania 50%, romney 46%. clearly close within the margin of error, shall we say. and in new hampshire, look at this. new hampshire likely voters 47%, 47%, it's a tie in new hampshire. i put these two states up because a couple weeks ago the president was ahead in both of these states by double digits. so what's going on here? >> well, look, you're seeing across the board movement toward governor romney after that first debate that is sustaining itself. wolf, this looks like a genuine major kind of departure point in the campaign that president obama has to reverse. you can quibble about the results of any individual poll, you can quibble about the sample, we can talk about some of those issues in a minute, but the general trajectory is unmistakable. you're seeing erosion for the president pretty much across the board among wliets holding nonwhite support about the 80% level he had in 2008. but you see him losing ground not only among the blue collar whites but also the white collar whites, college-educated whites where he did much bet ner 2008. >> a senior romney advisor told politico to move three points in pennsylvania is different than moving three points in new hampshire. what does that mean? >> well, pennsylvania's a state that president obama won by ten points. the democrats have an enormous registration advantage in and really personified the realignment of the white upper middle class that's made the northeast and west coast so much more favorable for democrats. those four suburban counties outside philadelphia in 2008 president obama won them by a come pined 2,000 votes. the state is essentially unwinnable for republicans. so i think for romney to be getting that close in pennsylvania, as i said, is a signal that the erosion the president's been seeing and see it in the national polls also is not only among those working class whites always skeptical of him but really across the board including those socially liberal upper middle class wliets more reliable democratic voters in the last several elections. >> how important for both of these candidates tonight will it be to lay out specifics? not just goals, broad generalities, but specific proposals what they would do over the next four years? >> well, i think for the president job one overwhelmingly is to convey the sense that he has a plan that makes people's lives better over the next four years and that he's passionate about that plan. look at the focus groups as john king noted a few minutes ago that they've written about in the last few days, you saw the sense among voters that the president almost had run out of gas in that first debate. and that's what he was projecting that romney and the words of greenberg and carville identified himself as the voice of change. that's above all what the president has to alter tonight. he has to re-establish himself as an agent of change, someone who has an agenda he wants to pursue even while contrasting wh governor romney's agenda. >> given the nature of this debate tonight, town hall format, who has the advantage? >> well, look, i think in a town hall historically it's harder to do kind of negative mezageing. but it's very possible to do the kind of, i'm on your side understanding regular people kind of messaging. and that has been something that has been critical to holding president obama's lead in the polls and even in september when he was as apex much of it was because he was way ahead of governor romney in both national and swing state polling on who cares about people like me, who would pursue an agenda that would be good for all americans. and i think, you know, the debate offers an opportunity to reclaim some of that ground. he allowed romney in that first debate to change his image with many of his swing voters. it's not clear you can put the genie back in the bottle. the opportunity for the president in the remaining debates may be more to improve his own image than undo the good romney did for himself in debate number one. >> ron is already there at the university out on long island getting ready for tonight's huge, huge debate. ron, we'll talk to you later. when the president takes stage in tonight's debate, what's michelle obama going to be focusing on? 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[ male announcer ] the chevy cruze, with a five-star overall vehicle score for safety. inspired by anna, david, and tonito. from what matters to you to what's important to us, chevy runs deep. a court has made a major decision about early voting in a key swing state. kate bolduan is monitoring that and some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. kate, what's going on? >> we're talking about ohio, wolf. the key swing state of ohio chl the court there says early voting open has to be open to all voters. that's the supreme court today saying that. that blocks a law in ohio that would have allowed only military families to vote in the three days before election day. ohio democrats and the obama campaign challenged the law while the state's republican leaders asked the justices to allow the restrictions to take effect. polls show obama and mitt romney in pretty much a dead heat in ohio right now. also, cuba is making it easier for residents to travel outside the country. today cuba's official news site is reporting that the castro government is dropping two travel requirements, a travel permit and a letter of invitation. that could save travelers hundreds of dollars. but residents will need a valid passport, something not everyone is allowed. and social security benefits for nearly 62 million americans will be going up next year. the 1.7% cost of living increase means the average retiree will take in about $40 more each month. but for some that money will go to higher medicare premiums. for workers, the adjustment also means more wages will be subject to social security tax. and it could be the sequel to the thomas crown affair, seven paintings were stolen from exhibition in the netherlands early this morning. police are blaming a burglar who they say was well prepared. the art is of considerable value by picasso, monet and others. they're part of a private collection being shown in public for the very first time. guess you've learned your lesson -- no, i'm just kidding. >> good movie. >> which one? 68 steve mcqueen? >> i saw all of them. how many were there? two, three. >> two. i'm not a movie magic