2012 Presidential Election | 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.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting an investigating of alleged fraud involving a company hired to register voters by the state's Republican Party.

A comment by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney earlier this week regarding how he would overhaul the U.S. tax code set off a back-and-forth between the Romney and Obama campaigns on Wednesday.

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.

Romney built much of his convention around Obama’s “you didn’t build that” comments, but only 32 percent were impacted negatively by them. Meanwhile, more viewed the remarks as a positive, and 62 percent either saw them as a positive or weren’t impacted by them at all.

Here's one program candidates aren't likely to mess with: The Medicare prescription drug plan. A new poll sponsored by a health care group shows that 90% of seniors are satisfied with the program known as Medicare Part D, and approval has constantly risen since the plan came on line in 2006.

Vice President Biden’s off-script remark at a campaign rally Tuesday that the middle class has “been buried for the last four years” has rekindled debate over his effectiveness on the stump, with defenders contending that such gaffes are a sign of Biden’s authenticity, while critics argue that he has served as more of a punch line than an effective messenger on the trail.