Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama get aggressive on Oct. 16 during the second presidential debates at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
HEMPSTEAD, NY — President Barack Obama donned a Republican red tie; Governor Mitt Romney wore a Democratic blue one, with white stripes. But that was not the only thing upside down on Tuesday night at Hofstra University. Obama came out swinging, and early polls indicated he had won the debate.
A combination of two pictures shows US President Barack Obama (L) and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney (R). The left image dates back to Obama's final debate against Republican John McCain at Hofstra University on Oct. 15, 2008. The image of Romney was taken during his campaign trail in Iowa on December 9, 2011. (Emmanuel Dunand/Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — When President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney meet Tuesday night at Hofstra University, the tension will be ratcheted to the breaking point. Here's GlobalPost's preview.
Even Sesame Street's Big Bird, seen on Broadway in New York, got enmeshed in a US election campaign quarrel. (Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)
Perhaps it’s true, as the French philosopher Joseph de Maistre wrote, that “every country has the government it deserves.” If so, then things look pretty bleak right about now.
US Vice President Joe Biden (R) and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan (L) depart the stage following their debate at the Norton Center at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, October 10, 2012, moderated by Martha Raddatz of ABC News. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
ROCHESTER, NH – Maybe it was their Irish blood that did it, but the debate between Vice President Joe Biden and the Republican challenger, Paul Ryan, was an almost polar opposite of the meeting between the two headliners just eight days ago.
US Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) speaks during the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Aug. 29, 2012 in Tampa, Florida. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — Things had been going so well. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, after a convincing win over President Barack Obama in last week’s debate in Denver, had been surging in the polls, appealing on the stump, and had even mustered the confidence to set out a major foreign policy agenda. Now Romney is facing a backlash against his new persona, and from some surprising sources.
Vice President Joe Biden and his Republican challenger Paul Ryan square off on Thursday night in a contest that has taken on new importance in the wake of last week’s presidential debate.
Most debate watchers expect Joe Biden to flex his foreign policy chops in Thursday night's faceoff against Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. (John Moore/Getty Images)
How will Joe Biden and Paul Ryan approach tonight's debate in the wake of President Obama's loss last week?
Mitt Romney delivers a foreign policy speech at the Virginia Military Institute on Oct. 8, 2012, in Lexington, Virginia. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Looking confident and presidential, Mitt Romney delivered what his campaign billed as “a major foreign policy speech” on Monday morning at Virginia Military Institute. But the Republican challenger’s stinging attack on President Barack Obama carried much more rhetoric than substance, triggering a round of counterpunches from the administration and its surrogates.
Student Courtney Johnson votes on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa on Sept. 28, 2012 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Voters filled the polling place which had been set up on campus for early voting following a nearby rally with first lady Michelle Obama. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
IOWA CITY — “We call Election Day ‘Procrastinators’ Day’ here in Johnson County,” laughed Tom Slockett, the election commissioner for the county. Judging by the brisk pace of early voters in the Auditor’s Office on a sunny Wednesday morning, he could be right.
US President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney shake hands following their first debate at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado, Oct. 3. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
IOWA CITY — There was no “aha!” moment, no “gotcha!” zinger. What most viewers saw during the 90-minute battle between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney Wednesday night in Denver was an incumbent intent to educate the electorate on the specifics of his programs, and a challenger determined to engage the same audience by telling them exactly what they wanted to hear. Guess who won?
Voting booths are set up for early voting at the Black Hawk County Courthouse on September 27, 2012 in Waterloo, Iowa. Early voting starts today in Iowa where in the 2008 election 36 percent of voters cast an early ballot. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CLINTON, Iowa — Vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan was all down-home humor and folksy charm as he wooed a crowd of about 350 people here on a crisp fall morning.
GlobalPost correspondent Jean MacKenzie is taking to the road to reconnect with a country she left more than two decades before. In the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, MacKenzie aims to form a picture of the hopes and dreams, and the frustrations and fears, that will move her fellow countrymen to make what might well turn out to be one of the most important decisions of our lives.
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