After an inflammatory remark by Vice President Biden, Republican candidate Mitt Romney accused the president of running a “campaign of division and anger and hate.” The Obama campaign shot back by saying Mr. Romney “seemed unhinged"....

Mr. Romney has skated across the surface on a range of issues, offering platitudes in place of programs. How would he approach the violence in Syria, the increasingly evident toll of climate change, the looming fiscal cliff? Rhetoric is abundant, but detail is lacking. For his part, President Obama has offered only the gauziest outlines of a second-term agenda....

the candidates and their surrogates have been mired in arguments that are extraneous, disreputable or both. On this list: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s reckless accusation that Mr. Romney paid no taxes for 10 years. The gut-punching ad by Obama-supporting super PAC Priorities USA that effectively accuses Mr. Romney of complicity in the cancer death of the wife of a steelworker who lost his job when a plant owned by Mr. Romney’s Bain Capital declared bankruptcy. Mr. Romney’s false claim that Mr. Obama wants to coddle welfare recipients.