Republicans use first major debate to attack Obama

REPUBLICAN presidential candidates used their first big televised debate to lash out at President Barack Obama — but not each other.

However, the debate may have done little to define differences between the seven candidates in the unwieldy Republican line-up as White House hopefuls reserved their venom for Obama on the economy and foreign policy.

But Michele Bachmann, a congresswoman and leading light of the staunchly conservative Tea Party movement, upstaged the other six when she used her opening comments to announce that she had just formally registered her candidacy — a move that could further shake up the volatile fight for the party’s nomination.