Nightly News   |  October 03, 2012

Todd: ‘Don’t take this first debate lightly’

NBC’s Chuck Todd examines strategies to be employed by the Obama and Romney campaigns in the first of three debates that will help determine the presidential election.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> now over to our political director and chief white house correspondent chuck todd also at that time venue tonight. chuck, what's the task for both sides, for both men?

>> reporter: well, i can tell you that both campaigns view it this way. the candidate that's spent more time litigating the other guy's plans will feel as if they're winning. the campaign that feels like spending more time defending their own plans will feel like they're losing. one lesson that president obama and his campaign believe they've taken from president bush in 2004 is don't take this first debate lightly. that's why they prepared so much. and don't assume he's just going to sit back and, quote, sit on his lead. he's going to be a little more aggressive tonight than many people realize. as for mitt romney , don't be surprised if he tries to get libya in the conversation. yes, it's an economy debate, but he's got a big libya foreign policy speech that he'd like to do in the next couple of days.

>> chuck todd part of our