Political Debate, Presidential Debate | featured news

Wednesday night's debate showcased a Mitt Romney resisting his worst debating weaknesses and playing solidly to his strengths. Barack Obama? This time, he couldn't overcome a weakness he has shown before, a tendency to distance himself from the audience, and this kept him from connecting and making a good showing.

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.

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.

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.

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.