Obama: ‘No doubt I can make a better case’

WASHINGTON -- President Obama, admitting he “had a bad night” in his debate with Mitt Romney a week ago in Denver, vowed Wednesday to make up for it in their next showdown.

“There’s no doubt that I can make a better case,” he told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, “which is why I’m so looking forward to Tuesday.”

Obama deflected a number of questions about why he wasn’t up to his game. As in sports, he said, when he has a bad game “you just move on, you look forward to the next one, and it makes you that much more determined.”

“I think what’s important is that the fundamentals of what this race is about haven’t changed. Gov. Romney went to a lot of trouble to try to hide what his positions are because he knows that those ideas have been rejected,” he said. “They won’t work. And if he’s making an honest presentation about what he’s proposed, he will lose, because the American people are not going to go back.”

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He defiantly answered no when asked if he “handed” Romney the election, and said he’s “absolutely” more committed to winning a second term than he was to winning his first.

“Because one of the things about being in this office is you’re reminded every day about what’s at stake,” he said.

As for the vice presidential debate on Thursday, Obama said his only advice for his running mate is: “Joe just needs to be Joe.”

“Congressman Ryan is a smart and effective speaker. But his ideas are the wrong ones, and Joe understands that,” he said.

In another interview that aired Wednesday on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show,” Obama guaranteed that Vice President Joe Biden “will be terrific.”

“I think a lot of the hand-wringing will be complete because we’re going to go ahead and win this thing,” he said.

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