Presidential candidate Mitt Romney will debate against President Barack Obama Wednesday evening. (AP)
The nation will enter the final stretch of this year’s presidential race with the first of four debates tonight.
President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney will address domestic and foreign policies during the hour-and-a-half debates which will be aired live on television as well as on live online streams.
The debates will offer Romney, who has recently fallen in polls, to gain ground against Obama in key battleground states.
The next four weeks will be imperative for both candidates as they come out of a period during which many Americans had no first-choice candidate.
“There’s nobody right now lighting it up…but neither of them are so bad that there’s this swell of dissatisfaction,” Dennis Simon, a political science professor at SMU, said.
Calvin Jillson, also a professor in the department, said this kind of indifference toward candidates may not be reason for concern, but the candidates’ performances during the debates will be essential nonetheless.
“Compelling candidates like Kennedy in 1960, Reagan in 1980, and Obama in 2008 are uncommon.” Jillson said.
Both professors said that Romney in particular will need to use the debates to redeem his campaign after numerous set backs throughout the past months.
Junior Daniel Brock seconded that belief.
“Romney has one last chance to prove his credentials to the country and that will be during the debates,” he said.
Brock also said that “the Romney campaign has practiced and prepared more for these debates than any other campaign” and predicted that “if Romney out-performs President Obama in the debates, America will see a real quick chance to the right.”
Up unto this point in the election season, both candidates have focused on the economy and little else beyond that. Many are hoping the debates will push both Obama and Romney to address issues surrounding foreign policy, healthcare, education and other relevant topics that may have been avoided thus far for fear of losing a certain voting group.
Brock said that Romney’s campaign team is well-aware of the debates particular importance to the Republican party this year.
“The Romney campaign seems to be preparing all their resources for the final stretch of the battle,” he said.
Simon echoed the sentiment that Romney will be entering the debates with ground to make up.
“Sooner or later [Romney’s] got to shake [it off] and try to go forward,” he said, adding that the debates over the next month will serve this exact purpose.
There will be a free debate watch party Oct. 3 in O’Donnell Auditorium in the Owen Arts Center at 7 p.m. followed by a faculty-led discussion session. These live screenings will continue every Wednesday of October during the debates.
