Obama and Romney head into final hours before debate - US politics live - US politics live Good morning and welcome to debate day! In this corner, the challenger, a life-sized wind-up toy with the comedic timing of an escalator whose previous opponents would also have lost to Ryan Lochte. And in this corner, the defending champion, an incumbent president with a tendency to over-explain and the emotional temperature of a sea cow. Here's a summary of where things stand: The first presidential debate in the 2012 race for the White House will be held tonight starting at 9pm ET at the Magness Arena (capacity up to 8,000) at the University of Denver in Colorado. The debate, which will be moderated by former PBS anchor Jim Lehrer, is to focus on domestic issues and last 1.5 hours. Our Richard Adams will take over live blogging for the main event, starting at around 6pm ET. As the organizers imagine it the debate will cover six main policy areas taking up 15 minutes each. The moderator will open each segment with a question; each candidate will have two minutes to respond; "debate" will ensue. The collective wisdom says Governor Romney, who has been trailing in the polls, needs to hit home with a memorable zinger or create a moment that somehow helps shake up the race. The best case for President Obama, they say, is for everyone to wake up on Thursday morning with no particular memory of any one debate moment. And then there are those scalawags who use "science" to "demonstrate" that the debates don't matter. Tell that to Rick Perry. A new NBC/Marist/WSJ poll shows Mitt Romney in a statistical tie with Obama in the big states of Florida and Virginia. Unfortunately for the governor, he could win both states and still face the overwhelming likelihood of failure if he doesn't take Ohio, where the poll found Obama out front 51-43.