Candidates brace for final debate_美文_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Candidates brace for final debate

The Times story broke just as the two US candidates were hunkered down for debate prep.

Obama was gathering his team at Camp David, the remote presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains, while Romney opted for a bit of sun, heading to a beach-side resort in Florida, where he is huddling with top strategists.

The challenger also took the opportunity to hit up wealthy donors one last time. Romney attended his final fundraising event of the campaign on Saturday in Palm Beach, an aide said.

With the candidates off the trail, it was up to their deputies to sway voters.

Vice-President Joe Biden was in Orlando, Florida, where he ducked into a campaign field office to energize volunteers before heading to an event in St. Augustine.

"We wanted to come to the epicenter of the epicenter," Biden said, mindful that the Orlando-Tampa corridor is the most vital region of the largest swing state of all.

The Republican ticket is placing a similar premium on the Sunshine State. Romney and running mate Paul Ryan shared the stage on Friday at a rally in Daytona Beach.

Then Ryan went on a multi-state tour on Saturday, from key battleground Florida to Pennsylvania - a state that had been seen as a sure bet for Obama but where Romney has made recent inroads - then Ohio and finally on to Nebraska.

Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee and creator of a controversial budget plan that envisions dramatic cuts to federal spending, told a crowd in Pennsylvania's Moon Township that the US could no longer endure an outsized government.