Presidential Debate | featured news

The Obama campaign appears to be taking nearly every opportunity ahead of the second presidential debate to tell Americans what to expect from President Obama, while the Romney camp has remained essentially mum – a sharp contrast to the days before the first debate when the parallel strategy was to lower expectations.

Losing ground to Republican Mitt Romney on a host of issues, President Barack Obama faces a serious challenge to put his re-election bid back on track when the two men face off on Tuesday in their second debate.

It's either candidate's race to win as President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney prepare for their second debate Tuesday night, with just three weeks to go until the election and voting well under way in many states.

Vice President Joe Biden has mangled a heaping helping of facts over the years. Despite being newer to presidential campaign politics, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan has already earned something of a reputation for taking flying leaps past reality.

It is clear to anyone in either party that in last week's debate Romney cast aside all of his principles and reversed himself on everything he has said he believes... After reversing himself on the central issues of the campaign, Romney's standing went up in the polls. How? Why? Were the members of the electorate paying absolutely no attention to the campaign?

...Romney was greeted Tuesday by protesters dressed up like Big Bird, Elmo and other Sesame Street characters, The Des Moines Register reports. The Elmo protester shouted, "Trickle down economics does not tickle me." And the gang, identified by the newspaper as supporters of the liberal Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, sang a ditty about the economy and Wall Street to the tune of the Sesame Street theme song. It began: "Stormy days ... taking our jobs away."

President Barack Obama deployed Big Bird in a new campaign ad Tuesday mocking Mitt Romney's vow to end federal funding for public broadcasting. Romney's campaign dismissed it as an example of Obama being small-minded while the foundation behind Big Bird's program, "Sesame Street," asked that the ad be taken down.

NBC, usually protective about the process of putting together Saturday Night Live, allowed access to the show’s writers, stars and rehearsals this week as they prepared their debate sketch.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stayed within striking distance of President Barack Obama in a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Sunday, two-points behind the Democrat for the third straight day after winning last week's debate in Denver.

Mitt Romney has the support of 49 percent of voters nationwide, compared to 47 percent for President Obama, according to a Rasmussen poll based entirely on interviews conducted after the first presidential debate Wednesday.