Typically the top political draw in the final sprint to Election Day

Finally, the fall season offers the matchup sure to attract the biggest audience of the campaign: President Barack Obama goes one-on-one with Republican rival Mitt Romney in three prime-time debates.

Typically the top political draw in the final sprint to Election Day, the debates assume outsized importance this year with the race a dead heat. The two polished candidates will have their sound bites and rhetoric down cold so any slip or inadvertent move — like President GeorgeH.W. Bush's exasperated glance at his watch or Democrat Al Gore's repeated sighing — could roil the campaign for days and linger in voters' mind until Nov. 6.