DENVER (AP) - Tonight is the big night for President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney as they come face to face in Denver for the first of three televised debates.
   
The candidates are expected to be speaking to a TV audience of tens of millions.
   
Romney calls the event the beginning of a month-long "conversation with the American people."
   
Obama plans to use the first presidential debate as the hook for fundraisers and recruiting volunteers.
   
Former President Bill Clinton will be helping raise money for Obama in Boston tonight, with donors paying $20,000 a person. And the Obama campaign plans more than 4,000 debate-watching events around the country.
   
The Romney camp plans hundreds of debate parties at restaurants, bars, grills, VFW halls and other sites concentrated in battleground states.

Earlier story:

DENVER (AP) - Tonight is the first debate between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney in Denver.
   
Both candidates spent Tuesday mostly in private, preparing for the face-off.
   
But Romney did an interview with a Denver TV station (KDVR), in which he said he would consider a plan to cut tax rates by 20 percent across the board that also would reduce income tax deductions on mortgage interest and health care costs.

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