Presidential Debate | featured news

Who knew Sesame Street's Big Bird would play a role in tonight's presidential debate in Denver? About 30 minutes into the verbal contest between President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney, the former governor explained that he would cut what he considers non-essential items in the budget, including cuts to PBS, which employs debate moderator Jim Lehrer.

In a showdown at close quarters, President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney sparred aggressively in their first campaign debate Wednesday night over taxes, deficits and strong steps needed to create jobs in a sputtering national economy.

President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney spun one-sided stories in their first presidential debate, not necessarily bogus, but not the whole truth.

WASHINGTON – Wednesday night’s presidential debate will feature two candidates with very different strategic imperatives talking, to some extent, to different audiences.

Wednesday night's debate holds the potential to nudge the polling numbers in a race that has given President Barack Obama a narrow lead throughout 2012, but the chances of a debate that will turn the race upside down are slim. Voters are expressing strong interest in watching the debates. A poll by Quinnipiac found that 93 percent of likely voters planned to watch at least some of the debate.

It's debate night in America, to borrow the hype-tastic monicker of one of the major cable networks: the first face-to-face meeting between President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney. That means 90 minutes of what are likely to be the most substantive exchanges between the candidates to date, sandwiched between hours of spin.

David Gergen says President Obama needs a big debate victory to claim broad support for his second-term plans... Moreover, a big Obama victory would keep the Senate safely in Democratic hands and -- less likely -- might put a few House seats in play.

When President Obama steps onto the debate stage Wednesday night in Denver, he'll seek to avoid what might be called "incumbents opening debate syndrome." Presidents seeking re-election have often struggled in their first debates: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Two of those wound up winning re-election anyway; two lost.

As far as one researcher is concerned, the fate of presidential candidates is in the eyes -- namely, how many times they blink during debates. Joseph Tecce, a Boston College psychophysiologist who studies political body language, reports that the candidate who blinks the most during debates has lost every election but one since 1980 -- and the exception is George W. Bush, the year he lost the popular vote.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden and Republican rival Paul Ryan sought votes in political battleground states on Saturday while their running mates took a day off the campaign trail ahead of a potentially make-or-break debate next week.