MIAMI (AFP) - The US presidential candidates did some late cramming for their high-stakes televised debate, with George W. Bush seeking to lock in his lead in the polls and challenger John Kerry hoping to stage a comeback.
The two men were set for a bruising shootout in the 90-minute session that will focus on foreign policy and security and likely feature pointed exchanges on Iraq, where a spate of car bombs Thursday killed dozens of people.
The event starts at the University of Miami at 9:00pm (2100 GMT).
Kerry goes into the debate hoping to use criticism of Bush`s Iraq policies to erase his lead, which most polls put at five to eight points ahead of the November 2 election.
The president has made no secret of his game plan to press his assault on the Democratic senator as irresolute and waffling on security issues and unfit to command the war on terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Neither man had any public appearances scheduled for Thursday as they boned up for the first of three debates to be held over the next two weeks, with tens of millions of viewers expected to tune in.
Analysts agreed the pressure was on Kerry, who polls show has failed to dent the Republican Bush`s hefty lead on leadership issues and had yet to convince swing voters he had a clear plan to run the country.
Kerry has focused on Iraq in the last two weeks and the debate will be held amid deepening turmoil there. At least 41 people, most of them children, were killed Thursday in three almost-simultaneous car bombings across western Baghdad.
As the candidates huddled with aides for last-minute preparations, their surrogates were busy hammering away on their major themes and putting some pre-spin on the debate.
Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, a Kerry adviser, assailed Bush for what she called his "arrogant approach" to Iraq, with "no sense of reality" about the chaos.
"This is a mess," Albright told CNN. "It`s a mess that`s been created by an administration that is not telling us the truth about what is happening on the ground."
She was preceded by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a staunch Bush supporter, who sidestepped details of the situation in Iraq but followed the Republican line stressing the question of leadership.
He said viewers would see the difference between a president "that`s very steady and determined and willing to stand up to criticism, and a man who has taken an incredibly contradictory set of position on war and peace for quite some time now."
US newspapers also chipped in with pre-debate advice and analysis.
The Washington Post suggested the dialogue go beyond Iraq to the overall war on terrorism. USA Today urged attention be given to the other members of the "axis of evil" -- Iran and North Korea, as well as the Middle East and China.
The Wall Street Journal chided Kerry for saying the United States bore 90 percent of the burden in Iraq. It said Iraqis suffered half the casualties and other nations had pledged 13 billion dollars in aid and 80 billion dollars in debt forgiveness.
The debate and the reaction to it will set the endgame strategy for the remaining 33 days of the campaign, helping the two sides decide where to allocate resources in the decisive state-by-state battles.
The series of televised faceoffs was scheduled after weeks of negotiations on the most minute aspects of the event, including the size of podiums, the temperature of the room and allowable camera angles.
The two camps also worked overtime on the expectations game, seeking to play down their candidate`s oratorical skills so they can hail his performance all the more heartily after the debate.
The Republicans portrayed Bush as the underdog in the face of Kerry`s vaunted record as a debater. The Democrats insisted the president`s folksy charm and plain talk made him a formidable opponent for all his mangled syntax.
The main task for each camp was to avoid a major gaffe that could influence the election, such as Richard Nixon`s famous unshaven appearance in 1960 or Al Gore`s impatient sighs and interruptions that helped turn voters toward Bush in 2000.
Kerry and Bush will have a second, "town hall," debate on October 8 in the Midwestern city of St. Louis, Missouri, and finish with a session on domestic policy October 13 in the western city of Tempe, Arizona.
Vice President Dick Cheney and Kerry`s Democratic running mate, John Edwards, will hold a single debate on October 5 in the Midwestern city of Cleveland, Ohio.