US president Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney met in Denver for a contentious but largely unmemorable debate in which each man accused the other of lying about his plans for taxes, health care and other key domestic issues.

Romney went on the offensive early, hammering Obama on his economic record: “Look at the evidence of the last four years, it’s absolutely extraordinary,” he said.

“We’ve got 23 million people out of work, stopped looking for work in this country.”

Alan Fisher reports.