Presidential Debate Time: At 9 PM ET Obama and Romney Will Debate Foreign Policy

Impact

Tonight, at 9:00 p.m. (ET), all eyes will be on Boca Raton, Florida, where President Obama and Mitt Romney will debate for a third and last time before voters head to the polls to decide between reelecting the Democratic incumbent president or start fresh with the Republican Romney/Ryan ticket in the White House. 

The candidates will seat at a table with moderator Bob Schieffer, the host of CBS's Face the Nation, to debate foreign policy and national security. The stakes are high as both candidates remain locked or each holding razor-thin leads in a plurality of national and swing states polls. 

Romney was able to erode the president's comfortable lead after a first presidential debate in which Obama seemed aloof and the Republican nominee acted assertively challenging the president's economic record and casting himself as better equipped to accelerate the country's economic recovery.

However, tonight the focus will be on Iran and Libya, as opposed to taxes and jobs. The president still holds a lead in the question of which voters trust the most when it comes to foreign policy. However, just like many other measurements, Romney has made some inroads in this category. 

That's why the Republican candidate will pound the president on Libya, where an American ambassador and three other diplomats were killed on September 11, 2012, in an attack the administration initially described as a spontaneous outbreak of violence supposedly generated by the anti-Islam YouTube video The Innocence of Muslims (the administration then went on to define the episode as a planned act of terror).    

But if the Sunday political shows are any indication, Obama will push hard by accusing Romney of playing politics with the death of four Americans. The president will also defend what he says is his "steady leadership" contrasting it with what Democrats say is Romney's "erratic" and "cowboy style" foreign policy.