President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney stayed off the campaign trail Sunday as they prepared for their next presidential debate.

The president will be looking to rebound from a widely panned performance at the first debate, while Romney is hoping to repeat his strong showing.

Campaign surrogates on both sides hit the Sunday political talk shows to promise energetic performances from the candidates.

"I think he's going to be aggressive in making the case for his view of where we should go as a country and a country that's built around a growing, thriving middle class, not this top-down theory that Governor Romney has," David Axelrod, an Obama campaign senior adviser, said on "Fox News Sunday."

"The president can change his style, he can change his tactic but he can't change his record and he can't change his policy and that's what this election is about," Romney campaign adviser Ed Gillespie said on CNN's "State Of The Union."

Obama and his advisers are in Virginia, while Romney and his team are at the Republican's Boston-area home.

Tuesday's debate will be a town hall-style match-up. NY1 will bring the debate live from Hofstra University at 9 p.m. and then show a special half-hour wrap-up show with reaction and analysis.