House minority leader Nancy Pelosi told The Daily Caller that she has “confidence” in President Obama heading into Wednesday night’s first presidential debate.
TheDC asked Pelosi how she thinks Obama will perform against Republican challenger Mitt Romney, and if she thinks Romney’s campaign will get a boost afterward.
“We’ll all find out in a very short period of time, now won’t we? But [in] 36 hours we shall see,” Pelosi told TheDC.
“But I have confidence in how the president will talk about the future, and let’s hope that Mitt Romney — the public deserves that discussion: Where do we go from here?”
Pelosi was then asked, “What should the president say?”
“You had a question already,” Pelosi replied.
She also declined to say what she thinks the president should focus on in the first debate.
President Obama has portrayed himself as the underdog going into the debates.
“You may have heard that in a few days, my opponent in this election and I are going to have a debate,” Obama said Sept. 30. “I’m looking forward to it. … Gov. Romney, he’s a good debater.”
In an apparent attempt to downplay the all-important expectations, Obama added that’s he’s “just okay.” (RELATED: In pre-debate spin, Romney is winning by losing)
House Speaker John Boehner said the debates are critical for Romney.
“Now listen, you’ve seen all this polling data. It’s almost comical,” Boehner told Yahoo! News. “Because what this is today is a dead heat election. It is as close as anything that you’ve seen. These debates over the next couple of weeks are going to be very important for our team. One thing you know about me is that I never give up.”