Give Us Liberty: DEBATE: Monday's face-off in Boca Raton, Florida, represents one of the last major opportunities for Obama and Romney to capture the attention of millions of voters - especially that small but sought-after group of voters who haven't yet made up their minds.

Say your prayers, Barack: Mitt and Ann go to church before game of football on debate eve as poll puts candidates in dead heat

With one debate and one jobs report to go, President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are hurtling towards Election Day in a virtual deadlock, each convinced that victory is within reach if his campaign sticks with its plan. In 16 days, voters will prove one of them wrong.

One day out from their last debate, Republican Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama are cramming foreign policy and taking a rare break from swing-state campaigning.

The latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll has the two candidates in a dead heat, with both Obama and Romney claiming 47 per cent of respondents.

Monday's face-off in Boca Raton, Florida, represents one of the last major opportunities for Obama and Romney to capture the attention of millions of voters - especially that small but sought-after group of voters who haven't yet made up their minds.

Obama was holed up in Camp David in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains, where he arrived Friday to prep for the debate, a 90-minute encounter focused on international affairs.

Steely-eyed: Mitt and Ann Romney were in Florida over the weekend, attending church on Sunday (pictured) and preparing for the third and final debate on Monday

Battleground states: President Obama spoke to a crowd in Fairfax, Virginia on Friday

With him at the presidential retreat were a band of top advisers including National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, campaign strategist David Axelrod and White House senior adviser David Plouffe.

Romney planned to spend the weekend in Florida, continuing intensive preparation that has consumed large amounts of his time in recent weeks.

Foreign policy has surfaced as a prominent issue in the waning weeks of the race, elevated by a deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and a restive situation in Syria. Although polls show voters continue to prioritize economic issues, both candidates are aggressively pitching themselves as more competent to be commander in chief.

Sunshine state: Florida's Lynn University will host Monday night's debate

Appealing to viewers: The debate will be one of the last chances for the candidates to vie for undecided voters

Finishing touches: The debate is expected to focus on foreign policy

In an unusually quiet day on the campaign trail, Romney running mate Paul Ryan was the only candidate to be out in front of voters.

The Wisconsin congressman plans two events Sunday in Iowa, including one in Sioux City with country singer Mark Wills, plus an evening rally in Colorado.

Still, with a tight race closing in, neither Romney nor Obama can afford more than a few days away from the handful of states that will decide the winner.

Working on the weekend: Vice president Joe Biden addressed a crowd in Florida on Saturday

Taking turns: Dr Jill Biden campaigned in Minnesota on Saturday as well

Obama planned a whirlwind excursion starting after Monday's debate.

Events Tuesday in Florida and Ohio will be followed by around-the-clock campaigning Wednesday in Davenport, Iowa; Denver; Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Then on to Tampa, Florida; Richmond, Virginia; and Cleveland on Thursday, when Obama will also return home to Chicago to vote early as part of the campaign's push for early and absentee voting.

In a sign that the candidates' time has become the most precious commodity, Obama's aides said he planned to sleep Wednesday night aboard Air Force One and would call undecided voters from the airplane between stops.

In 16 days, voters will prove one of them wrong.

When that happens, the losing team will have years to ponder whether one final tweak in tactics or message might have turned a fiercely fought, sometimes joyless election that seems likely to rank among the nation's closest.

World issues: The Romneys arrived in Florida days before Monday's debate in Boca Raton which will focus on foreign policy

With one debate and one jobs report to go, President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are hurtling towards Election Day in a virtual deadlock

Having steadied himself after a damaging first debate, Obama is banking on his renowned get-out-the-vote ground operation to steer millions of supporters to the polls.

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Many have already voted, under early balloting scenarios that favor campaigns with the most volunteers to flush out potential supporters.

Republicans, meanwhile, feel Romney has finally broken through with his message that the economy can be much better, and that he's the man to prove it.

He pounded that theme in last week's second debate, sounding almost like a romance counselor in imploring Americans not "to settle" for a less robust economy than they deserve.

Greeting: Romney speaks with a fellow parishoner as he leaves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Boca Raton Sunday morning

Feeling good: Romney and Obama are thought to be locked in a dead heat in the presidential race

Interviews with top strategists indicate that neither campaign feels it needs to make a significant shift in strategy in the closing days.

Obama may hold a slight edge in battleground states, some Republicans grudgingly say, but Romney has the time, money and message to erase it.

'Republicans are coalescing around a candidate who has bridged the credibility gap, and now the question is, can we make our closing arguments and win on the ground,' said veteran GOP strategist Terry Holt.

'We're not there yet. But that's where we're getting to.'

Two scheduled events before November 6 could wrinkle the race's fabric, although millions of Americans have already voted or firmly made up their minds.

Supporters greet their presidential favourite as he steps off his plane

Obama and Romney meet Monday for their final debate, focused on foreign policy. It's a topic that generally favors an incumbent president. But the forum comes as Obama faces growing heat over the administration's handling of a deadly confrontation at a U.S. consulate in Libya.

Romney stumbled last week when he tried to press that point. He will be under pressure to deliver a sharper, more precise indictment Monday.

The economy remains the top issue, but to make his closing pitch to voters, Romney 'needs to look strong and presidential in a national security setting,' said Steve Schmidt, who managed Republican John McCain's 2008 campaign.

And on November 2 - less than 100 hours before Election Day - the government will release its monthly unemployment report, for October.

President Barack Obama was campaigning in Virginia on Friday

Obama greets supporters during a campaign rally at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia

It's doubtful that anything short of a huge rise or fall in the rate would change many votes' minds. But in a neck-and-neck election, almost any event might be viewed as crucial.

Republicans remain buoyed by what they see as the substantial and long-lasting boost Romney received from his strong showing in the first debate, on October 3, when the president seemed listless.

Obama apparently stopped his slide with a vastly improved performance in the second forum, two weeks later. But even the most partisan Democrats don't say he completely undid the damage from October 3.

Pollsters and strategists in both parties say the two debates essentially returned the contest to its mid-August status, before Obama enjoyed a bounce from the late-summer nominating conventions.

Romney now is focused on the two-step strategy every challenger must pursue: Obama deserves to be fired, he says, and he, Romney, is a qualified alternative.

It's the essence of Romney's argument from the start. His campaign hopes the noise from flubs - such as Romney's criticism of the 47 per cent of Americans who pay no income tax - has subsided to the point that voters are ready to tune in.

On Friday Romney was at Daytona Beach, Florida, where he was greeted by adoring supporters

Supporters made their preferences very clear

Romney boards his campaign plane in Daytona Beach, ahead of his stop in West Palm Beach today

The race 'is definitely going in the right direction,' Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, told a Florida radio show Friday. 'It's going to come down to turnout, voter enthusiasm.'

Despite such optimism, the Electoral College map remains in Obama's favor. He carried more states than he needed in 2008, so he can lose several of them next month and still win a second term.

Romney's path is much narrower. He must take away at least a half-dozen states from Obama. And they can't be just the small ones like Iowa and New Hampshire.

Florida is an absolute must for Romney. Ohio is the next closest thing. Democrats see Ohio, with its lower-than-average unemployment rate and general embrace of the president's auto industry bailout, as their best chance to stop Romney cold.

Rather than pour their heaviest efforts into Florida and risk losing it by a hair, the Obama campaign has placed its heaviest bet on Ohio. That has forced Romney and Ryan to make their own stand there.

The two Republicans spent six of eight days in Ohio after the first debate. Obama has made repeated visits.

More advertising money was being spent in Ohio last week, almost $9 million, than any other state including Florida, where ad time is expensive. The campaigns were spending a combined $7.3 million in Florida last week.

President Barack Obama speaks about choices facing women in the election during the campaign event

'I need you': Obama points at the crowd during is campaign stop

When Democrats are asked about polls that seem to show a pro-Romney drift, they quickly change the subject to Obama's voter-turnout operation.

Some of the Obama campaign's paid workers never left key states after the 2008 election. They have spent four years building files of likely volunteers, supporters and persuadable voters. It's a labor-intensive effort they say Romney cannot match.

Jeremy Bird, Obama's national field director, released a memo Friday about early voting in Ohio. The campaign has 125 field offices 'in every corner of the state,' Bird wrote. 'We are ahead of where we were at this time against John McCain - and ahead of Mitt Romney.'

There's anecdotal evidence of strong early voting for Obama in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and elsewhere, but it's possible that Romney is roughly keeping pace.

In Florida, Democrats have cut into the GOP's traditional advantage in absentee balloting. But Romney officials dismiss the numbers.

Many absentee-voting Democrats otherwise would have engaged in another practice, simply called 'early voting,' which Democrats traditionally have dominated, GOP officials say. They contend there's no net gain for the president.

President Obama steps aboard Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House as he prepares for the final stops on his campaign tour

In Colorado, another battleground state, Romney's ground game 'is equal to, if not superior to, the Obama ground game,' said Dick Wadhams, a former state Republican Party chairman.

Wadhams said he thinks Colorado suburban women, in particular, are edging towards Romney, reassured by his solid performance in the first debate and his vow to generate more jobs.

Obama, meanwhile, focused his campaign almost entirely on women after last Tuesday's debate, in which Romney spoke awkwardly of receiving 'binders full of women' seeking top jobs when he was Massachusetts governor.

Campaigning Friday in northern Virginia, Obama told a heavily female audience that when it comes to issues important to women's health and jobs, his opponent has developed 'Romnesia.' The president was flanked by signs saying 'Women's Health Security.'

Romney's jobs-and-economy pitch grew slightly more difficult at the week's end, when nearly all the battleground states reported drops in their unemployment rates. Most were modest, however.

In all-important Ohio, the unemployment rate dropped even though the total number of jobs also fell, due to people retiring or leaving the workforce for other reasons.

GOP strategists say the overall economy remains bleak enough for Romney to make a forceful closing argument: Obama has failed to bring the jobs he promised, and Romney has the skills and philosophy to do better.

'It remains jobs and the economy, and related fiscal issues, which people remain unhappy about,' said veteran Republican consultant Charlie Black. 'And people believe Romney is up to the task.'

Obama volunteers hope to steer enough voters to the polls to overcome the GOP message.