Watching football this weekend? Keep an eye out for the president

By Anjeanette Damon

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012 | 3:12 p.m.

President Barack Obama’s decision to spend three days preparing for the campaign’s first debate in Henderson wasn’t made on a whim. Nor will he let the extended stay in one of the most important states to his re-election effort go by without some campaign activity.

In fact, if you’re out catching the game on Monday, you might want to keep an eye open for Secret Service agents.

So far, Obama’s public schedule in Las Vegas includes a Sunday evening campaign rally at Desert Pines High School.

He then heads off to an enclave at Lake Las Vegas, where he'll spend the next three days getting ready for Wednesday’s debate in Denver.

But don’t expect him to stay holed up out of view doing nothing but debate prep.

“He always enjoys meeting people where they work, where they have lunch and where they watch football games,” an Obama campaign source said. “And he hopes he will be able to make a stop around town while he is in Nevada.”

The Obama campaign is releasing few details about how the president will be preparing for the debate against his Republican rival Mitt Romney.

Although they won’t name all of the close aides and staff members who will be with him at Lake Las Vegas, the campaign did confirm that U.S. Sen. John Kerry will be part of his prep team.

Kerry has been playing a stand-in role as Romney in Obama’s mock debates.

So why Nevada?

“The President always enjoys visiting Nevada and it is also a state that is pivotal to our goal of reaching 270 electoral votes in what we know will be a close race,” the campaign source said.