Julie Pace

HENDERSON, Nev.— Nearing their first face-off, President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are hunkering down for intense preparations ahead of Wednesday’s presidential debate, where the GOP nominee hopes to change the trajectory of the White House race.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign doesn’t want to talk about what the Democrat is doing to prepare for the fall debates with Republican Mitt Romney. But aides are readily setting expectations — and not surprisingly, they want to keep them low for Obama while raising the stakes for Romney.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Barack Obama’s decision Wednesday to scrap plans to accept his Democratic nomination before a massive crowd outdoors was as much about trying to mitigate political risk in a key battleground state as it was about public safety.

HOBBS, N.M. — Seeking to reset his economic message, Republican Mitt Romney pledged Thursday to create 3 million jobs and more than $1 trillion in revenue by ramping up offshore oil drilling and giving states more control over energy production on federal land.

Romney, reviving a long-elusive goal pushed by presidents and presidential candidates for decades, said his plans would make the U.S., along with Canada and Mexico, energy independent by 2020.

“This is not some pie in the sky kind of thing,” Romney told voters in Hobbs, the heart of New Mexico’s oil and gas industry. “This is a real achievable objective.”

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. — Making a play for middle-class voters, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney sought Tuesday to elevate welfare reform as a campaign issue, accusing President Barack Obama of encouraging a "culture of dependency."

SAN FRANCISCO — The acrimonious presidential campaign eases back into action Monday after a weekend pause for the nation to absorb the shock of a horrific mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama declared unequivocal support for gay marriage on Wednesday, becoming the first president to endorse the politically explosive idea and injecting a polarizing issue into the 2012 race for the White House.