Presidential Debates - Barack Obama and Mitt Romney - GQ October 2012: Politics: GQ: What's clear is this: When the feed goes live, both men will be as assiduously trained and groomed as two spaniels at Westminster. But then the leashes will come off, and for ninety minutes Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will perform an American tradition that has historically not brought out their best.
"For all of their ego and confidence, it's a huge amount of pressure," one Republican veteran of the debate trade told me. With a forlorn chuckle, he added, "The only thing that's worse is to be someone like me who spends months and months working with these guys—and then they go onstage, and you're absolutely helpless."