Mitt Romney, Presidential Debate | featured news

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.

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.

Barack Obama is cruising into the presidential debates with momentum on his side, yet he's still struggling to revive the passion and excitement that propelled him to the White House. Mitt Romney is grasping for his last, best chance to reboot his campaign after a disastrous September.

A month before the closing arguments of a campaign traditionally would be made, a steady stream of voters walked into election offices across Iowa on Thursday to cast their ballots.

With just 46 days to go, the presidential race has entered the hammer-and-tongs phase. From here on, it’s a day-to-day messaging war, with President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney taking dramatically different views on how the fall campaign conversation should be framed.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney put his money where his mouth was on Saturday in a quip at a presidential debate that may have backfired.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he will not participate in a debate being hosted this month by real estate mogul and TV personality Donald Trump.

Perry, who struggled in his previous debate performances, was talking about the three departments that he would cut to curb the size of the federal government. He named two — Education and Commerce — but for an excruciating period searched his mind for the third, as competitors tried to help him out.

Tuesday night was fight night in Las Vegas. Seven Republican presidential candidates clashed sharply over issues such as illegal immigration, taxes and health care at a presidential debate in Nevada sponsored by CNN and the Western Republican Leadership Conference. But it was the three Republican frontrunners -- former Godfather's Pizza executive Herman Cain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov Rick Perry -- who came under frequent attack.