… Presidential debates don’t often change the course of a campaign. … Still, with the 2012 election continuing to be a cliffhanger in many polls, the candidates are looking for every opportunity to win votes. …
Tad Devine, a senior adviser to Al Gore during the 2000 campaign, said “the trick is to talk to swing voters while not alienating your own base. That is the line they both have to walk.” …
“My sense of these numbers are that [the debate] comes at a helpful time for Romney to give him something else to talk about,” said Bill McInturff, the GOP pollster who conducted the [WSJ/NBC] survey with Democrat Peter Hart. But he added, “it would take an episode of some magnitude to disrupt the structural lock that is shaping up on these numbers.” [cont.]
Janet Hook, Wall Street Journal