With 16 days to go, Obama and Romney neck and neck

DELRAY BEACH, Fla., - US President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney were tied in a dead heat on Sunday with 16 days to go until the election, increasing the stakes for their third and final debate.A NBC/Wall Street Journal poll had both Romney and Obama at 47 percent among likely voters, marking a comeback for the Republican since a series of missteps including the release of a secretly recorded video in which he suggested almost half of the electorate lives off government handouts.The squeaky tight nature of the race brings an air of unpredictability to the last, intense round of campaigning and raises the importance of the face-to-face encounter between the pair on Monday night in Boca Raton, Florida.Romney has been on a roll since soundly thrashing Obama at their first debate in Denver on October 3. The Democrat rebounded with a solid performance two weeks later in Hempstead, New York, but it wasn't enough to vault him back into a sizeable poll lead.