Third US presidential debate is final chance for candidates to swing polls

The final presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Wednesday night will be the last chance that either candidate will get to make a closing argument before tens of millions of voters.

The debate, being held in Las Vegas, could be the last chance for Trump to swing the polls in his favour. The debate takes place with Clinton currently odds-on favourite to stay on top.

Clinton is poised to be the first Democratic presidential candidate in decades to possibly win in Republican stronghold states like Utah, Arizona, and Georgia. Once solidly purple battlegrounds like Colorado and Wisconsin look like inevitable wins for Clinton as well. When Americans head to the polls on November 8, it's appearing increasingly likely that the results will be a landslide in her favour, says the Quartz.

The match-up also comes as Trump has made perhaps his most outlandish argument yet -- that the 2016 election is rigged to help Clinton win.

He also faces accusations of sexual harassment and criticism for vulgar and demeaning comments toward women, and polls show him losing in nearly every state he must win.

The final debate will also be Clinton's first chance to publicly address what has been learned from the hacking of campaign chairman John Podesta's emails and other recent information dumps, courtesy of WikiLeaks. If she can convincingly put the issue to rest, virtually nothing stands in the way of a solid Clinton victory come November, writes Quartz.

Fox News' Chris Wallace, who is moderating Wednesday's debate, has said that he does not believe it is his "job to be a truth squad". "It is up to the other person to catch them on that," he said.

He has announced six topics for the debate, including some on policy that have not been addressed in the two previous meetings. The topics are: debt and entitlements, immigration, economy, Supreme Court, foreign hot spots and fitness to be president, CNN reported.

The debate will be held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It will have the same format as the first -- with six 15-minute segments on major topics.

Each section will start with a question, and candidates have two minutes to answer.

Meanwhile, the dollar slid to levels around 103.50 yen in Tokyo trading late Wednesday, dragged down by position-adjustment selling ahead of the third US presidential debate between Clinton and Trump.

--IANS

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