Given the task definition and input, reply with output. In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are skipping campaigning Sunday to focus on preparing for their debate Tuesday night, with the incumbent trying to rebound from a widely panned performance at the first face-off and the Republican nominee hoping to repeat his strong showing. 
  
 Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney picks up a baby as he campaigns in front of The Golden Lamb Inn and Restaurant in Lebanon, Ohio, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. (AP... (Associated Press) 
  
 President Barack Obama walks to greet people on the tarmac as he arrives at Newport News Williamsburg International Airport on Air Force One, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012, in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/Carolyn... (Associated Press) 
  
 Graphic compares electoral and popular vote for presidential elections since 1960, shift in party preference by state since 1992, exit poll results from 2004 and 2008, state voting history since 1976,... (Associated Press) 
  
 The president was gathering with advisers at a riverfront resort in Williamsburg while Romney was sticking to his Boston-area home ahead of the prime-time town-hall style debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., exactly three weeks before the Nov. 6 election. 
  
 After a listless first debate Oct. 3, Obama was working with aides on more pointed and aggressive responses to his Republican rival in the tight race. While dismissing Romney's debate tenor as "magical and theatrical," Obama adviser Robert Gibbs predicted the president would step up his game in the second matchup. 
  
 "He knew when he walked off that stage, and he also knew as he watched the tape of that debate, that he has to be more energetic. I think you'll see somebody who is very passionate about the choice that our country faces," Gibbs said on CNN's "State of the Union." 
  
 Romney will be ready for a more aggressive Obama, adviser Ed Gillespie said. 
  
 "The president can change his style, he can change his tactics, he can't change his record and he can't change his policies. And that's what this election is about," Gillespie told CNN. 
  
 Romney's campaign released a new television advertisement using footage from running mate Paul Ryan's debate last week with Vice President Joe Biden. The ad features clips of Ryan saying the government "can't keep spending money we don't have." His comments are juxtaposed with video from the debate of Biden laughing. 
  
 The campaign did not say in which states the ad would run. 
  
 Obama aides have tried to make debate preparations a higher priority for the president this time. Ahead of first debate, some of Obama's practice sessions were cut short, and others were canceled, mainly because of developments in Libya, where four Americans were killed at a U.S. consulate. 
  
 Aides say Obama is still dealing with those matters and others. But the urgency that led to interruptions during earlier debate preparations has subsided, and the campaign is trying to ensure that Obama stays more fully engaged in his practice sessions. 
  
 Despite questions about the effectiveness of his debate preparation, Obama is working with the same team this time around. Advisers David Axelrod and David Plouffe, along with former White House officials Anita Dunn and Ron Klain, are running the preparations. Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes has been added to the team because the second and third debates involve foreign policy. 
  
 Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is playing the role of Romney. 
  
 One of the priorities during the practice sessions is sharpening the president's retorts to Romney and drawing a sharper contrast between what the campaign says are Romney's shifting positions on key issues. 
  
 The president may have picked up a few pointers from Biden. 
  
 Obama watched Thursday's debate with aides in a conference room on Air Force One as he traveled back to Washington. The president said little throughout the debate, but did chime in when Biden would deliver a particularly pointed counter to Ryan. 
  
 Romney returned to Massachusetts on Saturday night after campaigning in Ohio. He planned to spend most of his two days at home in Belmont getting ready for the debate. 
  
 With Romney is Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who's playing Obama in mock debates. 
  
 ___ 
  
 Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt in Boston and Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) claims that the Obama administration has "been misleading us" on what happened during the fatal attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, because it doesn't fit the White House "narrative" of what is happening in the Middle East. 
  
 Senior administration officials initially said the the Benghazi incident was a spontaneous riot brought about by rage over an anti-Muslim video. But President Barack Obama and other administration officials now acknowledge it was a terrorist attack that left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. 
  
 "My belief is that was known by the administration within 24 hours," said Graham said on CBS's "Face the Nation." 
  
 "They're trying to sell a narrative, quite frankly, that the Mideast, the wars are receding and al Qaeda has been dismantled. And to admit that our embassy has been attacked by al Qaeda operatives and Libya - leading from behind - didn't work, I think undercuts that narrative," Graham said. "They never believed the media would investigate. Congress was out of session. This caught up with them. I think they've been misleading us and it finally caught up with them." 
  
 "Either they're misleading the American people or incredibly incompetent," Graham concluded. 
  
 Stevens' death and the Benghazi attack has emerged as a campaign issue. Republican challenger Mitt Romney has repeatedly slammed the president and his aides for failing to bolster security in Benghazi and not being forthright about what happened - and who is responsible - for the attack. 
  
 Graham asserted that the Obama administration is quick to leak details on military and intelligence victories to the press but covers up mistakes or defeats. 
  
 "They're very political when it comes to foreign policy," Graham charged. "When something goes bad, they deny, they deceive and they delay... The truth is the foreign policy choices of President Obama is allowing the region to come unraveled." 
  
 Read more about: Barack Obama, Lindsey Graham, Libya ||||| Sen. Rob Portman said on Sunday that Mitt Romney could still win the White House without carrying the senator's home state of Ohio, though he suggested that the Republican presidential nominee's path would be much narrower without the prized battleground. 
  
 "He can probably win the presidency without Ohio, but I wouldn’t want to take the risk," Portman said on ABC's "This Week." "No Republican has." 
  
 The Republican senator said the race is "dead even" in his state and the "momentum is on our side," saying the Romney team's ground game has been much more aggressive there than Republicans were in 2008. 
  
 "I’ve never seen this kind of enthusiasm or energy on the ground," Portman said. "It’s turning our way." 
  
 Read more about: Mitt Romney, Ohio, Rob Portman, Swing States ||||| Satirist Stephen Colbert says some of his political guests on his late night comedy show don't seem to be in on the joke. 
  
 In an interview aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Colbert said he tells politicos that he performs his show in character -- whom he refers to as an "active idiot" who is "willfully ignorant of what you know and care about." 
  
 Colbert said he tells his guests: "Please honestly disabuse me of my ignorance, and we'll have a great time." But he said they sometimes forget. 
  
 Take former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey, who is now running for the open Nebraska Senate seat. In 2005, Kerrey was a guest on the show discussing the aftermath of 9/11 as well as the invasion of Iraq. 
  
 "And we were about three minutes into a seven-minute interview. And I don't know what I said, but he turned to me and he said, 'What the hell are you talking about?'" Colbert recalled in his interview with "Meet the Press" host David Gregory. "But in the middle of the interview, I couldn't explain to him what it was. ... And then he just [took the] mic off and then left as soon as the interview was over. So I hope at some point someone explained to him that I was just fooling, senator. And I'm very sorry." 
  
 In the same NBC interview, Colbert - acting in character - said that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is "on fire" after his first debate performance. 
  
 "He is on a rocket ride to plausible at this point," Colbert said. "Did you watch?" 
  
 After Gregory indicated he did, Colbert shot back: "What was it like? I didn't see it." 
  
 "I don't really watch the news so much," Colbert added 
  
 "You don't?" Gregory asked. 
  
 "I come in around 6:30 and then I just say the opposite of whatever Rachel Maddow said the night before," Colbert said. "And I'm usually good." 
  
 Read more about: Stephen Colbert, Bob Kerrey, Colbert Report ||||| Robert Gibbs, senior advisor to the Obama campaign, criticized GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney for "playing politics" with the recent deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead. 
  
 Romney and other Republicans have harshly criticized President Barack Obama and other top White House officials, claiming requests for more security at the Benghazi consulate were turned down for political - rather than security - reasons. 
  
 Gibbs pushed back on the GOP claims during an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union." 
  
 "I think what we need to do is stop playing politics with this issue," Gibbs said. "Ambassador [Chris] Stevens' own father said this shouldn't be a political issue. This is an issue we get to the bottom of for our investigation and bring those that did this to justice." 
  
 "We don't need wing tip cowboys. We don't need shot-from-the-hip diplomacy," Gibbs added. "When Mitt Romney first responded to what happened in Libya, his own party called him out for insensitivity... He has done nothing but politicize what happened in Libya." 
  
 Read more about: Robert Gibbs, Libya ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| The vice president's son, Beau Biden, roundly dismissed Republican criticism Sunday that his father's facial expressions and body gestures were unbecoming on the national debate stage last week with Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP vice presidential nominee. 
  
 "Any time the other side, Karl Rove or folks on the far right are going after my father for smiling too much, you know that's a victory," said Biden, who's the Delaware attorney general. 
  
 "This isn't, Jake, about how much my father smiled or how many gallons of water that the congressman drank nervously on that stage. It's about speaking directly to the American people about very important facts," Biden told host Jake Tapper on ABC's "This Week." 
  
 Read more about: Debate, Beau Biden |||||

With President Obama and Mitt Romney hunkered down in debate prep, their surrogates took to the airwaves today, as did Steven Colbert, both in and out of character, reports Politico. Assessing Romney's post-debate trajectory, Colbert quipped, "He is on a rocket ride to plausible at this point." He later turned serious in breaking down differences between the two candidates, saying Obama might be "a more aggressive reformer" in his second term, while Romney "might govern as a technocrat." But "he can't tell us what he's gonna do, 'cause he hasn't seen the books yet." If Romney wins, "I hope he's a good president." As for Obama, "I hope he keeps some of the promises he didn't keep the first time." Other highlights from around the Sunday dial, as per Politico: Lindsey Graham on White House handling of Benghazi attack: "They're trying to sell a narrative that the Mideast, the wars are receding and al-Qaeda has been dismantled. And to admit that our embassy has been attacked undercuts that narrative. They never believed the media would investigate. I think they've been misleading us and it finally caught up with them." Robert Gibbs on Romney's handling to Benghazi attack: "We don't need wing tip cowboys. We don't need shot-from-the-hip diplomacy. He has done nothing but politicize what happened in Libya." Rob Portman on Ohio: Romney "can probably win the presidency without Ohio, but I wouldn’t want to take the risk. No Republican has." Momentum, however, "is on our side. It's turning our way." Beau Biden on his grinning dad: "This isn't about how much my father smiled or how many gallons of water that the congressman drank nervously on that stage. It's about speaking directly to the American people about very important facts."