The president and his aides were clearly taking debate prep far more seriously this time around. Mr. Obama has scheduled more time, and his aides say that they will try to keep interruptions to a minimum. He is on a resort with not one, but three, golf courses, but he did not bring his clubs and had no plans to hit the links. There will not be any visits to historic sites (he was criticized for going to the Hoover Dam when he was supposed to be studying for the last debate, in Denver); his sole off-campus excursion on Sunday took only half an hour. It was to a campaign field office here where he made a few phone calls to volunteers, delivered pizza to staff members, and pronounced his debate prep as “going great” in answer to a shouted question from a reporter…
This time, instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of debate facts — no one thinks the president needs to bone up on American troop withdrawals from Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, for instance — Mr. Obama is practicing how to challenge Mr. Romney, something he inexplicably shied away from in Denver on Oct. 3.
“This isn’t a guy who needs be grilled on facts,” one Obama aide said of the president. “What he needs to work on is stylistic.” Translation: how to accuse Mr. Romney of twisting the facts without seeming rude…
During Mr. Obama’s prep sessions here, aides have played the part of Hofstra audience members, asking questions that range from the investigation into the attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya, to Iran’s nuclear program to the debate on how to rein in the deficit.
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