Final presidential debate face-off crucial for McCain

    
NEW YORK: Already trailing in opinion polls, the third and final presidential debate could be a make-or-break appearance for Republican John McCain against his Democrat rival, Barack Obama.
    
The debate is likely to be crucial for McCain, the self-described underdog in the race, a "last chance to reach tens of millions of people with his vision for America," CNN political editor Mark Preston said.
    
"He needs a game-changer," Preston said on the 71-year-old Arizona senator's sagging performance.
    
The key for Obama is to avoid any gaffes. If he comes out of the debate unscathed, political analysts have said, he will be in a good position to hold his lead over McCain.
    
Obama was largely seen as the winner in the past two debates, according to CNN polls taken immediately afterward.
    
The 90-minute debate will take place at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York tomorrow and the face-off will undoubtedly focus on the domestic issues, mainly the economic crisis plaguing the US, media reports said.
    
During the previous two debates, Pakistan's failure to combat al-Qaeda and Taliban had figured prominently.
    
As the clock ticks down to the debate, both candidates are in full preparation mode.
    
Obama, 47, Senator from Illinois, according to spokeswoman Linda Douglass, is preparing for the debate at a resort in Toledo, Ohio, and staying in touch with his team of economic advisers.
    
Advisers say that as the debate nears, Obama, who aspires to be the first black-American president, gets a sense of calm, turns off his cell phone three hours ahead of time and just focuses.

McCain, according to his campaign, is making final debate preparations in New York. For the Vietnam war veteran, the last debate could be a decisive moment in the final stretch of the campaign season.
    
Former Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who has been a strong supporter of McCain, said that the veteran senator simply needs to "be himself" in the debate.
    
Recent polls show that McCain is trailing his Democratic counterpart in several Republican-leaning states, including Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia, all states that Bush easily won in the 2004 race.
    
Obama is entering the third and final presidential debate with a wide lead over Republican rival John McCain nationally, a new CBS News/New York Times poll shows.
    
The Obama-Biden ticket now leads the McCain-Palin ticket 53 per cent to 39 per cent among likely voters, a 14-point margin. One week ago, prior to the Town Hall debate that uncommitted voters saw as a win for Obama, that margin was just three points.
    
Among independents who are likely voters - a group that has swung back and forth between McCain and Obama over the course of the campaign - the Democratic ticket now leads by 18 points. McCain led among independents last week, CBS reported.      McCain's campaign strategy may be hurting hurt him: Twenty-one per cent of voters say their opinion of the Republican has changed for the worse in the last few weeks. The top two reasons cited for the change of heart are McCain's attacks on Obama and his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate, it said.
    
Unlike at the previous two presidential debates, the Obama and McCain will sit at a table facing one another.     

CBS News' Bob Schieffer, host of "Face the Nation," will moderate the debate.