2012 Presidential Election | featured news

The second, and more combative, presidential debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney attracted an audience of more than 65.6 million people, according to Nielsen. Ratings were up nearly 4% for Tuesday night's debate at Hofstra University in New York, moderated by Candy Crowley, when compared with the second debate in 2008 between Obama and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz).

Voters say that President Barack Obama performed better than Republican rival Mitt Romney by a substantial margin in their second debate, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday. Forty-eight percent of registered voters gave the victory to Obama, while 33 percent say Romney prevailed in the Tuesday debate, the online poll found.

What do a Navy mom, Big Bird and AARP have in common? They want President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney to leave them alone.

President Obama fights back in his second debate with Mitt Romney, banishing some of the doubts he raised in their first showdown... By the end of Tuesday's debate, it was obvious this highly competitive president very much wants a second term and, more, wants to win it decisively.

On the Internet, the real winner of Tuesday night’s presidential debate may just be the phrase “binders full of women.” Mitt Romney’s sound bite quickly spawned its own Twitter account, Facebook page with more than 161,000 likes and countless online memes.

Here is a complete transcript of President Obama and Mitt Romney’s remarks at the second presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York on Oct. 16, 2012. Remarks from the two candidates were updated as the debate unfolded.

Debate moderator Candy Crowley interjected during Mitt Romney's remarks in Tuesday's presidential debate, saying that President Obama "did in fact" call the attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya an act of terror the day after the incident.

After a poor performance in the first presidential debate two weeks ago, President Barack Obama came back strong in the second one, winning perceived victories over Mitt Romney in two instant-reaction polls -- one of debate-watching registered voters, the other of debate-watchers who went into the debate uncommitted to either candidate.

USA TODAY's Paul Davidson, Tim Mullaney, Gregory Korte, Susan Davis and Aamer Madhani took a deeper look at some of the claims Obama and Romney made in the second debate.

Some African American, Spanish-speaking and elderly voters in Florida and Virginia are apparently being targeted by anonymous voter-suppression groups trying to trick them or intimidate them into not voting in the November presidential election, according to election officials and voter protection organizations.