While President Obama and Mitt Romney prepare for their next debate, their running mates hit the campaign trail to rally voters in key battleground states.

SOUNDBITE: Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan saying:

"The President has been ducking these issues, blaming other people, playing partisan politics."

SOUNDBITE: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden saying:

"Romney Wasn't Sketchy, He Was Etch-A-Sketchy."

In Ohio, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan took aim at Obama.

SOUNDBITE: Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan saying:Never in the history of this country has one generation knowingly consigned its' next generation to a lower living standard."

Republicans are hoping to sway voters in Ohio's economically hard hit Appalachian region, while Democrats focus on the state's more populated urban centers.

In the sunshine state of Florida, Vice President Joe Biden accused Romney of changing his positions based on polls.

SOUNDBITE: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden saying:

"Presidential elections are about character, and the character of your convictions, and my guy, he never tells you anything he doesn't mean and he doesn't do."

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Obama with a microscopic lead, 46 percent to Romney's 45 percent ----a margin so slim that most analysts are calling the race a dead heat.