Obama, Romney Hunker Down For Debate Prep [VIDEO]

President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are hunkering down for intense preparations ahead of Wednesday's presidential debate, where the GOP nominee hopes to change the trajectory of the White House race.

Obama is huddling with top advisers at a desert resort in Nevada. Romney has practice planned in Massachusetts, where he also spent most of the weekend working with his debate team. The Republican challenger then heads to Denver, the site of the first debate, later today for a rally and more preparation.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on the Sunday morning network political programs predicted that the debates will be a "restart" to the campaign and set the bar high for Romney.

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GOP running mate Paul Ryan on Sunday shot down the notion that Romney needed to have a breakthrough performance Wednesday night, saying he didn't think one event would make or break the campaign.

Five weeks from Election Day, polls show Romney trailing Obama in many of the nine states that will determine the election. The debates give Romney one of his best opportunities to stem Obama's momentum and convince the public to back his vision for the nation's future.

Five weeks from Election Day, polls show Romney trailing Obama in many of the nine states that will determine the outcome of the White House race. The three October debates give Romney one of his best opportunities to stem Obama's momentum and convince the public to back his vision for the nation's future.

Romney, in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, repeated his criticism of Obama for having called the attack and other unrest in the Middle East "bumps in the road."

"Our country seems to be at the mercy of events rather than shaping them," Romney wrote. "We're not moving them in a direction that protects our people or our allies."

Romney planned to deliver a major foreign policy speech in the coming weeks.

"What I'm most concerned about is having a serious discussion about what we need to do to keep the country growing and restore security to hardworking Americans," Obama said during a rally in Las Vegas Sunday night. "That is what people are going to be listening for. That's the debate you deserve."

As the candidates prepped for a debate focused on domestic issues, Republicans were keeping up the pressure on Obama on international issues, namely his administration's handling of the attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya that led to the death of the American ambassador and three others.