Predebate Scenes From the Postdebate Spin Room

Eric Gay/Associated Press Supporters cheered for President Obama on the campus of Hofstra University before the start of the second presidential debate on Tuesday in Hempstead, N.Y.

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. â€" Four hours before the candidates step on the stage at Hofstra University here, the cavernous spin room is already crackling with narratives and counternarratives â€" most about how pugilistic President Obama is likely to be.

“They all say he's going to come out swinging,” said Senator Rob Portman, the Ohio Republican who played Mr. Obama in mock debates to prepare Mi tt Romney. “He's going to be a new Barack Obama â€" new, different, improved.”

But an hour earlier, Stephanie Cutter, Mr. Obama's deputy campaign manager, insisted, “He is not looking to come here to score punches on Mitt Romney; he's coming in here to describe what a second term of an Obama presidency would look like.”

She said the expectations of a very combative Mr. Obama were largely a creation of the Romney campaign. At the same time, Ms. Cutter said the president would be “passionate” about making his case for a second term. She said that Mr. Obama would hold Mr. Romney to account for his statements, but that it would not be his primary thrust.

“We'll do our best to keep Mitt Romney honest,” she said, “but that could take all night.”

The traffic was light compared to the flood of surrogates who will fill the room after the debate. The Obama campaign said it would field 22 people to handle p ostdebate spin, while the Romney campaign said it would have 37.

The feverish prespinning came on a day when a number of new polls showed Mr. Romney opening up a small lead over Mr. Obama nationally. Ms. Cutter and other campaign officials brushed off the numbers, saying that the campaign had always banked on a tighter contest and that the state polls were relatively stable.

Mr. Portman, however, contended that one of the fiercest battlegrounds, Ohio, was a dead heat, with momentum flowing in Mr. Romney's direction. “Our own tracking indicates that it's a dead heat,” he said. “That's a big change.”

Mr. Portman said the movement in the polls was more than a reaction to the first debate, in which Mr. Romney delivered a commanding performance. Voters in Ohio, he said, were starting to pay attention to the substance of Mr. Romney's proposals. After a long stretch of heavy negative advertising in Ohio by the Obama campaign, Mr. Portman said, Mr. Romney w as now matching Mr. Obama in advertising buys in the state.

“I don't think style is problem, actually,” Mr. Portman said. “I think it's substance.” The senator said he had studied Mr. Obama's proposals for new ideas to play him in the debate prep, but had not found any.