90month exchange. The focus 90minute exchange, the focus Foreign Policy. There are six 15minute segments, the same format used for the first debate. Bob schieffer will open with a question, the candidate will have two minutes to respond and then an exchange between the two nominees. Heres a look at the topics for tonights debate as selectioned by Bob Schieffer. Beginning with americas role in the world, followed by what he is calling our longest war, afghanistan and pakistan. Then the socalled red lines, israel and iran, a changing middle east, followed by the new face of terrorism and concluding the 90minute debate with the rise of china and tomorrows world. The next hour and a half were going to preview what to expect from Lynn University. As always, we want to hear from you. Our phone lines are open. The question were asking what would you ask if you were posing questions to president obama and governor romney . 202 is the area code, 73700016789 our lines for those supporting the president and 2027370002 for those supporting governor mitt romney. Undecided voters, 2026280205. You can also weigh in on our face book at facebook. Com cspan and on our twitter page at twitser. Com cspan. Some of you already weighing in. Heres one comment daig, what are we doing in the middle east again . Dont even no anymore. And from our Facebook Page, jacob posing this question what will you do to keep america out of other countries conflicts . Jeff is joining us from inside the spin room at Lynn University. Thanks very much for beginning our program tonight. Steve, thank you. Lets set the stage. The polls are out tonight indicating ta this race is essentially a dead heat. The economy seems to be driving a lot of the electorate and yet for the next 90 minutes in the debate the focus will be Foreign Policy. Thats right. I mean, the economy is driving the race. But i think what tonight is about, its about leadership. Its about letting voters its more of a test for governor romney, i think, who is not really talked a lot about Foreign Policy. I think weve seen in the last two president ial debates and even the vicepresident ial debate, there is an audience for this, an intense interest especially among partisans, and this is just a third in a series here. The burden is on both gentlemen for a couple of Different Things. I think president obama, his advisors know he has to have basically an errorfree evening, continue his performance from the second debate. Certainly not repeat his quieter performance, his performance that lacked energy during the first debate. And governor roam fee has to show that he has romney has to show that he has command much the Foreign Policy issues. Hes spent time preparing over the weekend and thats what this is about. Theyre also going to try and weave in other things here. They have quite a bit of latitude with these questions and with these longer segments to talk about spending, the budget deficit, other kinds of leadership. I think well hear more than Foreign Policy tonight. I want to pick up something from the front page of the newspaper. Candidates facing tough choices, especially on afghanistan. But some other factors also coming up, terrorism, our role in the middle east. And my question is, will we hear specifics from these candidates tonight . Will Bob Schieffer press them on specific resolutions to some of these Foreign Policy matters . I think hell certainly try and press them on this. Particularly afghanistan. It is striking that really the lack of discussion that weve heard certainly to the republican primary debate and in this general Election Debate about afghanistan. Theres an active war going on. National security is discussed during this president ial campaign and the First Campaign in the wake of 9 11, that thats been the case. The recent events over the last several weeks, in libya and other things have moved Foreign Policy more to the center stage. On afghanistan, governor romney has not been very specific about what he would do. Hes been highly critical of the president on one hand, but he also has a lot of people in his party, some tea party members, etc. , who think that the spending is too much. I think actually on these fronts requesters going to hear governor romney and the president agreeing more than they have at any other point during this campaign. Obviously the two were joking at the dinner last week about their frequent appearances this month. What are the dynamics . These two now will be seated next to each other, very similar to the vicepresident ial debate. Its not the town hall meeting format, its not the podium. I think the dynamics of the two candidates sitting down and im told that the table is quite small. It really feels like theyre right next to each other. With bob receiver, theres the moderator as well. I do not think were going to see a repeat of the second debate at Hofstra University where there was quite an incredible amount of animation and intensity between the two candidates. They circled one another. Were not going to see that as much. Both candidates want to leave their supporters and the undecided voters with a better taste in their mouth and perhaps more of a president ial feel. The topics will be very serious. Its really an audition for commander in chief more. So i think that this will be a more cerebral discussion. It will get animated at times. Just because theyre sitting down does not mean things cant be animated, but it will be a more civil discussion than the debate last week. Certainly libya and the killing of the American Ambassador and three others in benghazi will come up. Lets go back to the moment from Hofstra University a week ago, and jeff, lets get your reaction on what you think the president and governor romney will say differently tonight than what we heard last week. The day after the attack, governor, i stood in the rose garden and i told the American People and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened, that this was an act of terror, and i also said that were going to hunt down those who committed this crime. And then a few days later i was there greeting the caskets coming into Andrews Air Force base and grieving with the families. And the suggestion that anybody in my team, whether secretary of state or u. N. Ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when weve lost four of our own, governor, is offensive. Thats not what we do. Thats not what i do as president , thats not what i do as commander in chief. Governor, if you want to reply quickly, please. I certainly do. I think its interesting, the president just said something which is on the day of the attack he went in the rose garden and said that this was an act of terror. You said in the rose garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror. It was not a spontaneous demonstration. Is that what youre saying . Please proceed, governor. I want to make sure we get that for the record, because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in benghazi an act of terror. Get the transcript. He did in fact, sir. So let me call it an act of terror. He did call it an act of terror. [applause] it did as well take it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea of there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. Youre correct about that. The administration [applause] the administration indicated that this was a reaction to a video and was a spontaneous reaction. It took them a long time to say this was a terrorist act by a terrorist group. Jeff, based on what we saw in the last debate a week ago, what, if anything, on that topic will be different tonight . I think governor romney is likely to pick up where he left off. And he was on to something there when he was sort of raising the suggestion that the administration had not called it or had not aggressively or only called it an act of terrorism initially. But he seemed unfamiliar with the president s speech in the rose garden that morning when he kind of generically said these acts of terror will not be tolerated. So i think it was probably the only example during the first two debates where we saw that governor romney did not have a complete handle on what the president had sid. He spends a lot of time sort of memorizing the president s remarks and certainly reading through them. It looked like that speech in the rose garden sort of fell through his Research Book or something, because he seemed unfamiliar with that. But be sure that he is going to be familiar with it tonight. And he is going to sort of, i think, still pick apart the argument of what led the administration to maintain for the better part of two weeks that this was a spontaneous act of demonstration rather than a concerted act of terror. So he was beginning to pick apart the argument. I think that we will hear governor romney sort of continue right to that point and go at it again and ask the president to directly answer about his handling of that, not just the speech in the rose garden, calling it an act of terror, but what the administration did point by point by point over the next two week. Jeff, as you pointed out in the story this morning in the New York Times and online, the president had 365 electric tral electrictoral votes. Tomorrow hell campaign in some of the key battleground states. So where are we in this race two weeks before voters go to the poll . Two weeks from tonight the before people cast their ballots. This race is example seal bely close. The Obama Campaign realizes this is a close race. They know they wont repeat their performance in 2008 both in the margin of victory, but also in the number of states won. So president obama is trying to do in the final two weeks is build a american firewall, if you will. Ohio is at the central part of that strategy. If the president is able to keep ohio in his column it makes it all that more difficult for governor romney to piece together the states he needs to win. It is possible, but he basically has to run the table across the country from west to east beginning with nevada all the way across. So the states of ohio and iowa and wisconsin are three that are key to president obamas strategy. At the same time theyre trying to keep a lot of different options alive. They believe that they are doing pretty well out in nevada. Colorado not quite as well as governor romney, perhaps. Florida is considered a jump ball, perhaps a slight edge to governor romney. Virginia is a jump ball, probably too close to call. Maybe a slight edge to governor romney. So theres a lot of Different Things happening. But what were seeing president obama do on saturday, he is going to travel to new hampshire. He is focusing on the smallest states of the battlegrounds. Four electoral vofmentse you might ask, why is he spending time going to a state with four electoral votes . Thats because some scenarios might reach a tie of 269269. If the boehm campaign if president obama wins new hampshire, that could really blow up the tie scenario. One advisor told me that we do not want to have an al gore problem. What he means by that is in 2000 al gore lost new hampshire. Had he campaigned there in the end and won new hampshire, the florida recount would not have been central to the presidency of george w. Bush and al gore would have won the election if Everything Else had been the same. So were seeing a fight of the big states, of course, but also the small states here are critical to this campaign as well. In the next few gays governor romney and president obama are basically going to be chasing each other through nevada, colorado and on to ohio. Were asking our viewers and listeners on this debate night what you would ask the candidates in this president ial debate. Jeff, if you were seated next to the president and to governor romney focusing on fonch policy, what would you question him about . We would question governor romney on afghanistan. But i think president obama, you would question him exactly on what happened with the situation in benghazi and libya. He has not held a fullblown press conference to talk about that. Hes not given many interviews to talk about that. It is sort of one piece of unraveling information here that we still dont have all the answers to. So i think you would ask him about that. I think the challenge here and Bob Schieffer is a skilled moderator. The challenge here is sort of getting president obama off of the his statements, his pledge to end the iraq war, the fact that he captured and killed bin laden under his in his first term. All those are important pieces of his record, but we know that. So i think the challenge here is sort of probing down and getting some new information from both of them. Finally, can you give us a sense of what its like inside the room, who youre talking to, and what their expectations are tonight . Well, both sides have had a lot of their advisors coming in. Senator mccain has been doing a lot of interviews. John kerry has been here as well. And, of course, senator kerry has spent a lot of time with president obama. Hes been helping him prepare for this debate, playing the role of mitt romney. At this point, in the hours leading up to the debate, you have a lot of expectations setting in. Senator kerry said an interest thing. He has a rare perspective on this because he was in a president ial debate of his own. He said that governor romney has to pass the commander in chief test with specifics. So he was trying to raise the bar a little bit. In the hours leading up to the debate, its like marking time. I think it may be just as useful if people were sort of sequestered in their own areas, not trying to spin reporters before this. Because what really matters are those 90 minutes on the debate stage. What happens in the spinning before and after is not nearly as important as voters who are seeing this happening at home. Its what happens in those 90 minutes that are most critical. Jeff zeleny, National Reporter for the New York Times and a contributor to the caucus blog Available Online at nytimes. Com. Thank you for being with us. Steve, thanks for having me. Well continue with more of your calls. This is a look inside the Media Filing Center on the campus of Lynn University. Several hundred reporters credentialed. A select few inside the debate hall. This is a Small University for the first time hosting a National Debate and were asking you on our twitter page and facebook to weigh in your questions for the candidates. Bill king has this president obama has to make it clear to the nation that military interessential is not just another option. It is the final option. On to your phone calls. Eric is joining us. Supporter of the president from rome, georgia. Good evening, what would you ask in this Foreign Policy debate . Caller thank you. What i would like to ask mitt romney this is a twopronged question. First of all, if you become president , the only difference could be as far as eye ran is concerned, would iran is concerned, would you start a war, and would you put troops on the ground in syria . Those are the two questions id like to ask. Host thanks for the call. Next caller is mike from st. Louis, missouri. Go ahead, mike. Caller thanks for taking my call. I would ask both of them, maybe more pointed towards the president what are you going to do to ensure al qaeda doesnt gain more ground in places like yemen, syria, for example, and, you know, how are you going to ensure in the long term to keep them on their heels, so they dont gain a stronghold . Thats what id like to ask the president. Host thanks for the call. Next is raveling joining us from chic, dn ralph, joining us from chicago, an undecided voter. Caller yes, thank you. In the inner circle, 30 million to create pair noah within the palace walls. Why not release the 40 billion of gaddafi money to the people of libya who are willing to step forward and become decent citizens . Why not arm every man, woman and child in afghanistan to defend themselves against the taliban . Havent we lost ground in a dozen wars since vietnam on insisting on fighting the war on drugs against our very allies who have been growing herbal medicines for thousands of years, and one cspan be covering this tomorrow in the Third Party Party debates between the libertarians . Where did the money the feds took from us go . Host thanks for the call. Yes, in fact we will be covering the thirdparty president ial debate and you can get the information on our website at cspan. Org. Well also have it live on the cspan networks. Were asking you, if you could ask a question to the candidates, what would it be . From our twitter page, there is this i want to know what is the plan of protecting troops while preparing to assist afghan troops to take over . Next is wesley from sacramento, california, good evening. Caller hello. This is wesley. Host yes, youre on the air. Please go ahead. Thank you very much. Well, my question would be to mr. Romney. Since he is so much on top of Foreign Policy, why would he question president obama about what happened in ben zazi when in fact the president has access to all of the intelligence information and a lot of which cannot be divulged to the public at large, and particularly to a person like mr. Romney . And my last comment would be is that we, the American People, are not really voting for a debator in chief, we are voting for a commander in chief. And i think president obama follows the criteria. Host Bob Schieffer is the moderator for the debate tonight. Hes been at cbs news since the late 1960s. He is the chief washington correspondent. Hes also the host and moderator of face the nation on sunday mornings, which we air on