Obama claws back as race heads to wire - analysts

US: Barack Obama clawed his way back into the US presidential race with an aggressive performance in his second debate against Mitt Romney, as the election seemed set to go down to the wire.

With just one more debate to go, and the president performing noticeably better than he did in the opening face-off in Denver, Colorado, the race is essentially up for grabs just three weeks before election day on November 6.

“I think the president had a much better night than he had in Denver,” John Pitney, professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College, told AFP.

“It was close, but I have to give the edge to Obama.” Nearly all analysts said Romney mopped the floor with a dull and unfocused president two weeks ago, and Americans agreed; the challenger had been on the ropes after his controversial comments disparaging 47 percent of the electorate as government-dependent freeloaders, but he soared in post-debate polls.

But Obama, knowing he had to raise his game to have any hope of winning a second term, charged hard out of the gate in the 90-minute town-hall showdown, attacking Romney on his economic recovery plan and delivering a fiery retort to criticism of his handling of last month's Libya attack.

“It was a morale booster for the Democrats, and Republicans will find things to cheer too, but Obama needed the morale booster a lot more,” Pitney said.

“We'll see if this moves the polls at all.”

Several national surveys and polls in key political battlegrounds showed Romney wiping away his deficit in recent weeks, with some having him wresting the lead away from Obama.

AFP