First Debate Tonight; Domestic Issues Covered in Tonight's Debate; Debate Prep 101; Economy to Dominate Debate
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for your comments. Facebook.com/CarolCNN, if you want to continue the conversation. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for being with me. NEWSROOM continues now with Ashleigh Banfield.</s>ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Carol. Hey, everybody, nice to have you. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. It's 11:00 on the East Coast, 8:00 on the West Coast and 9:00 in Denver. Most important for anticipation of the first-ever, Obama-Romney face- off is a -- dare I say it -- a mile high. In 10 short hours, the president and his Republican challenger are going to share this stage for 90 minutes of give-and-take on issue number one and a few other domestic policy flashpoints, as well. The economy is due to take up three of the six segments that are laid out for tonight, with one segment each devoted to healthcare, the role of government and leadership/governing style. And by a pretty wide margin going in right now, the voters expect that President Obama is going to outdebate his opponent, but both men have taken great pains to downplay their own chances, downplay the expectations. Our Dan Lothian is up very early at the University of Denver and, Dan, I understand this is really just the fourth time that these two men have really ever encountered one another in person. Is that expected to have any effect when they meet each other on stage?</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, this is not someone who the president spent time with in the Senate, has not spent a lot of time talking to him and, when they debate tonight, for 90 minutes, it will be the most time and the longest time that they have spent interacting at all. So, it is an unusual, I guess, setting, if you will, for the president and Governor Mitt Romney, but nonetheless, they're getting ready for this big event. The last couple of days they've been doing these mock debates, going through every possible question that will be asked, every possible scenario that will be thrown their way, so they're pretty ready for that. They'll be doing a walk-through later this afternoon to get comfortable with the actual setting, to take a look at all the various camera angles and then, as you pointed out, the clock winding down to the big event tonight.</s>BANFIELD: Dan, let me just ask you about what some are considering a distraction -- and I always love that word because it can also mean a challenging moment -- and that is the comments that were made yesterday by Vice President Biden and I'm referring specifically to the middle class. Have a listen.</s>VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: This is deadly earnest. How they can justify -- how they can justify raising taxes to the middle class that's been buried the last four years, how in the Lord's name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts?</s>BANFIELD: So, Dan, look, there is plenty of fodder for this debate without that, but since that is so 11th hour, is that expected to be played up heavily tonight?</s>LOTHIAN: Well, you know, I don't think -- the Obama campaign doesn't think that this will be a distraction, but perhaps this will be something that Governor Mitt Romney will jump on at some point during the debate. It is interesting. You know, the vice president made those comments yesterday while campaigning in North Carolina and, right after that, the Romney campaign jumped all over those remarks. In fact, they put together a conference call to draw attention to that. The Obama campaign fighting back, saying, look, that's just an act of desperation and that what the vice president was talking about is that there was this climate over the last four years that were created by decisions that were made in the previous administration. And so, again, they don't see it as a distraction, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't come up tonight.</s>BANFIELD: All right, Dan Lothian, live for us in Denver, who's got a long day ahead of him. Do appreciate that. Thank you, Dan. You know, those debates can be so incredibly grueling, but they are a veritable picnic compared to the actual preparation for the debate. The candidates cram for days, if not weeks, and they use friends as proxy opponents. John Kerry did the job and stood in for Mitt Romney in the president's camp and then, standing in for the president in Romney's debate preps, the silver-haired guy in the pink shirt is Ohio Senator Rob Portman. And, in fact, Portman has really become the go-to guy for Republican candidates who need a sparring partner. He is really good at this, but here's the thing. He's never really talked publicly about his role and the preparation and how his debate preps have gone until now because I have one of the best colleagues in the business and Dana Bash got the inside story. It's fascinating. Listen, one of the things that I can't believe you were able to unearth is this anecdote about the 2008 campaign preps between McCain and Obama. Did Rob Portman -- is this true? Did he really get Cindy McCain to cry?</s>DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He did. I don't think that was his intention. In fact, I know it wasn't, but he did and the reason is because they were in debate prep, he was playing Barack Obama, and he was apparently so believable in his role as Barack Obama and, more importantly, so tough, hard hitting against his sparring partner, John McCain, that Cindy McCain got very upset and ran crying out of the room. I talked to Rob Portman about that. He told me that story and listen to what he said about why it's so important to be so hard on his Republican opponents in debate prep.</s>SENATOR ROB PORTMAN (R), OHIO: Part of your responsibility in these debates is to be tougher than your opponent, so that the candidate you're helping is kind of ready for the worst of it. So, you know, you have to be a little mean sometimes and you've got to try to get under their skin and sometimes the candidate you're working with doesn't appreciate it and, even more ...</s>BASH: Now, in this case, Ashleigh, the candidate he's working with does seem to appreciate it. Mitt Romney has actually joked a few times on the campaign trail with Rob Portman behind him, sometimes on his plane, sometimes on the stump, that he just wants to sometimes kick him out of the room. But he knows how important it is to be as prepared as possible and to not be surprised by anything that President Obama will say going into tonight's debate and the way to do that is to have somebody really go after you and that's definitely what Rob Portman has been doing.</s>BANFIELD: OK, here's the other thing I couldn't get my head around until you unearthed it and that was this moment that we look at all the time. It always makes the highlight reels, the best of debate moments. It's the moment where Al Gore got up from his chair and it appeared almost he was menacing President Bush. He was sort of getting into his personal space, walking right up to President Bush as President Bush was in the middle of making his point. And then look at President Bush's reaction. It's, whoa, what? I always thought that that was so organic. It turns out it was not.</s>BASH: Well, what happened was Rob Portman said that he, in preparing to play the role of Al Gore back in 2000, he watched debate tapes of Gore in his primary against Bill Bradley and he said he noticed that he really got up in Bill Bradley's personal space. So, he tried that once with then Governor George Bush. He really got up in his face and he said that Bush looked at him and said, Portman what are you doing? This is never going to happen. He said, it might, so they actually did practice it a couple of times and then, when it happened -- you just played it -- in real life, he was ready for it and he just turned and has s little nod and turned back. He wasn't thrown or rattled by it.</s>BANFIELD: I'm wondering if that smile that President Bush gave was, Portman was right, or was it something ...</s>BASH: That's what Portman thinks.</s>BANFIELD: Great interview and what a great "get" because that's been one of those big secrets, what's going on with Rob Portman right now as he does the stand-in with debate prep, so we'll see how his work pays off tonight. Dana Bash, thank you.</s>BASH: Thank you. And President Obama and Mitt Romney, face-to-face tonight as American voters get to weigh their choices, the first presidential debate taking place, live. You can watch it right here, starts, our coverage, at 7:00 Eastern on CNN and, if you can't get to a TV, we got you covered, CNN.com.