Presidential Debate Schedule: Obama and Romney Will Clash Tonight at 9 ET in Final Debate

Impact

Tonight at 9:00 p.m. (ET), President Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney will clash for third and last time during the foreign policy presidential debate from Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. 

The event will be broadcast live by C-SPAN, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, as well as by cable channels CNN, MSNBC and Fox News among others. The host will be Bob Schieffer, from CBS's Face the Nation, who will be seated at a table with the two candidates who — despite the intimate setting — will forcefully clash on Libya, Iran, China and Russia among other foreign policy topics. 

Obama and Romney remain locked in a plurality of polls that show the president's previous lead over his Republican challenger has evaporated thanks to the GOP candidate's debate performances, and his actual (re) introduction to the larger American electorate as a pragmatic and business-oriented leader with the experience and expertise necessary to accelerate the economic recovery. 

This time, however, the focus will be on the September 11, 2012, attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans — including Ambassador Chris Stevens — were killed in a controversial strike the administration initially blamed on the anti-Islam YouTube video The Innocence of Muslims

Expect Romney to highlight what Republicans think is the administration's inconsistent response to the attacks as well as the "deceitful" way it was revealed to the American people, with the Republican candidate demanding answers from Obama as to why it took the administration almost two weeks to fully recognize the strike as a full blown terrorist attack. 

And the president won't back down, as he will likely accuse his Republican challenger of trying to exploit the deaths of four Americans to "score cheap political points," as Vice President Joe Biden said during the one and only vice presidential debate against Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.