I'm publishing this a half hour early tonight because I want to avoid conflicting with the debate.
My first story is about the debate:
BOCA RATON, Fla. – With two debates behind them and two weeks until Election Day, President Obama and Mitt Romney prepared for their final face-to-face debate Monday night in a race where neither man has been able to break away.
The focus at Lynn University will be foreign policy, which will give the candidates an unfiltered chance to tell the American public how they would handle crises and problems around the globe, including the brutal civil war in Syria, the Iranian nuclear program, and trade grievances with China.
snip
The Obama campaign also released an ad Monday that contrasts the president’s record on Iraq and Afghanistan with Romney’s.
“President Obama ended the Iraq war. Mitt Romney would have left 30,000 troops there and called bringing them home ‘tragic,’” the television ad says. “It’s time to stop fighting over there and start rebuilding over here.”
boston.com
Second, polls, polls, polls. Here are a few:
Forty-eight percent of likely voters say they'll vote for Mr. Obama, while 46 percent support Romney, virtually unchanged from our last poll taken in September. The poll was conducted between Oct. 17-20, after the presidential candidates' second debate on Oct. 16.
cbsnews
Mr. Obama holds a 50 to 45 percent lead over Romney among likely voters in the Buckeye State, down from a 53 to 43 percent advantage on Sept. 26. Three percent of likely voters there are undecided.
cbsnews
Third, Nate explains the polls:
The bad news for President Obama: it’s been almost a week since the second presidential debate, in Hempstead, N.Y., one that instant-reaction polls said was a narrow victory for him. But there is little sign that this has translated into a bounce for Mr. Obama in his head-to-head polls against Mitt Romney. Instead, the presidential race may have settled into a period of relative stability.
There is bad news for Mr. Romney as well, however. The “new normal” of the presidential campaign is considerably more favorable for him than the environment before the first debate, in Denver. However, it is one in which he still seems to be trailing, by perhaps 2 percentage points, in the states that are most vital in the Electoral College.
The FiveThirtyEight forecast was essentially unchanged again on Sunday, with Mr. Obama retaining a 67.6 percent chance of winning the Electoral College, little different from his 67.9 percent odds on Friday and Saturday.
snip
And the central premise behind why we see Mr. Obama as the modest favorite is very simple: he seems to hold a slight advantage right now in enough states to carry 270 electoral votes.
Nate Silver, New York Times
Fourth, President Obama is going to on the tonight Show with Jay Leno on Webnesday night.
President Barack Obama is working the late-night circuit hard with just two weeks to go before the election. Last week, he appeared on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and on Wednesday, he'll be chatting it up with Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show."
The Oct. 24 appearance will be Obama's third visit to "The Tonight Show" since becoming president and his fifth appearance overall. His last visit with Leno was last October.
LA Times
Finally, GoBama!!!! And Go Cards. I'll be switching back and forth between the ballgame and debate.
Link to Transcripts and Documents.