Romney said his campaign will 'come into focus' during his face-offs with Obama. | REUTERS Romney: Obama may lie in debates

Mitt Romney said in an interview that his campaign will “come into focus” with the debates and that he’s preparing for President Barack Obama to “say things that aren’t true” during the three upcoming face-offs next month.

“This is a campaign which I think will come into focus as the debates occur,” Romney said, according to a transcript released by ABC of Romney’s sit-down with “Good Morning America’s” George Stephanopoulos. “The president got a bit of a bump after his convention. I got a bit of a bump after ours. It’s going to go back and forth.”


The debates, including the vice presidential debate, he said, could “well be a decisive point in the campaign,” and he added that while he wouldn’t try to predict the outcome, he thought they would be “revealing one way or another.”

Romney also suggested that Obama might be untruthful during the debates.

“But I think the challenge that I’ll have in the debate is that the president tends to, how shall I say it, to say things that aren’t true,” Romney said, adding, “I’ve looked at prior debates. And in that kind of case, it’s difficult to say, “Well, am I going to spend my time correcting things that aren’t quite accurate? Or am I going to spend my time talking about the things I want to talk about?”

When asked about what course he’d take, Romney said, according to the transcript, “Well, it’s a challenge you always have. And that’s a judgment you make.”

Romney said that his wife, Ann, keeps him calm in the lead-up to, and even during, the debates.

“Ann always gives me the advice as I get ready to go up on the stage and offers a few words of encouragement,” he said. “And I look to her when I’m in the debate. I look and see her. Typically, her eyes are down. [She’s] more nervous in the debates than I am. She says, ‘I wish I could debate instead.’ She said, ‘I wouldn’t be as nervous.’ But I look to her. And when she’s smiling and confident, that gives me the boost I need.”

In the interview, Romney also pushed back against the notion that his poll numbers were slipping.

“I’m virtually tied in the polls, some days up, some days down a point or two,” he said in the transcript, adding later, “Look, the nation is pretty evenly divided. And … ultimately … the outcome is decided by the people in the middle. They’re taking a close look. A lot of them won’t make their mind up until the very, very last moment. And I believe that as they look at who they believe can get this economy strong again and create jobs again and rising wages and take home pay for middle-income families, they’re going to say, I’ve got the best prospects for doing that. And I’ll get their nod.”

Romney, striking a lighter tone, also addressed a different poll: an ABC News/Washington Post survey out earlier this week that found a majority of Americans would rather have dinner with Obama than with the Republican candidate.

“I can’t tell people who would have more fun at whose table,” he said. “But I can tell you the president’s a person that a lot of people like. I don’t dislike him myself and wish him the very best. But I think the American people are looking for someone who has the capacity to help them get good jobs and more take-home pay. And I do.”

But if voters did crash a Romney dinner, they would be in for a rambunctious affair, Romney said.

“It’d be chaotic,” he said. “You’d have grandkids climbing all over you. Probably some food would be thrown from one side of the table to the other by one of my grandkids. It’d be a lot of fun. By the way, that’s my favorite dinner in the world is with my kids and my daughters-in-law and with my grandkids.”