, July 14 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama,
soaked to the skin as he rallied supporters during a downpour in
the election battleground state of Virginia on Saturday, kept up
his attack on Republican Mitt Romney as the rhetoric hardened on
both sides.

Standing before about 900 people at the Walkerton Tavern &
Garden who stood cheering and chanting despite the drenching
rain, Obama attacked Romney’s record as head of a private equity
firm and contrasted his middle class childhood with Romney’s
wealth.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney demanded President Barack Obama apologize on Friday for his campaign’s assault over Romney’s time at a private equity firm that outsourced U.S. jobs, as he tried to recover from a week-long pounding on the issue.

Romney went on a coordinated campaign, appearing on all U.S. television networks, to respond to charges from the Obama team that have again put the Republican in a defensive posture and kept him from focusing on Obama’s handling of the U.S. economy and high 8.2 percent unemployment.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama called on Monday for a one-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for families earning less than $250,000 a year, seeking to steer the election-year debate away from high unemployment and portray himself as a champion of ordinary Americans.

The tax proposal is unlikely to sway Obama’s Republican opponents in Congress, who argue that the cuts should be maintained for everyone, including higher earners.

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will
call on Monday for a one-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for
families earning less than $250,000 a year, seeking to put
Republicans on the defensive and reinforce his campaign mantra
of being a middle-class champion.

Obama’s proposal is unlikely to sway his opponents in
Congress, who have argued consistently that the Bush tax cuts
should be extended for everyone, including higher earners.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iraq questions the continued presence of large numbers of Americans on its soil, U.S. lawmakers were warned on Thursday, even as the State Department plans to shrink the size of its mission by almost a third over the next 16 months.

Government experts told Congress that Iraq makes life difficult for the embassy in ways large and small, signaling ambivalence toward relations with Washington at a time when critics fear that the country is moving closer to Iran.

, June 25 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack
Obama accused his November election rival Mitt Romney on Monday
of having outsourced jobs to India and China and sought to
convince voters that the former private equity executive is out
of touch with their economic concerns.

In remarks to a rally in New Hampshire, the Democratic
president seized on a Washington Post report that Bain Capital,
the firm that Romney founded and led, had helped U.S. companies
become “pioneers” in shipping work overseas.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, beset by a faltering economic recovery five months before he seeks re-election, said on Friday European leaders must act urgently to resolve the region’s financial crisis and stem the threat of recession.

Obama said decisions about how to solve the euro zone crisis were fundamentally in the hands of Europe’s leaders and their political commitment would be a “strong step.” He was speaking a week after a dismal U.S. jobs report heightened concerns about the impact of Europe’s crisis on U.S. growth.

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has
been battered by bad news dimming the outlook for his
re-election, but he might find hope in an unlikely place: the
aisles of Wal-Mart.

Female shoppers at the big-box superstore are viewed as
crucial swing voters in the closely fought 2012 election, and a
pair of recent focus groups suggest that Obama’s attempts to
portray Republican rival Mitt Romney as a ruthless corporate
raider might bear fruit.

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama
said on Friday that European leaders face an “urgent need to
act” to resolve the region’s financial crisis as the threat of a
renewed recession there spells dangers for an anemic U.S.
recovery five months before elections.

Speaking a week after a dismal U.S. jobs report, Obama said
decisions about how to solve the euro zone crisis are
fundamentally in the hands of Europe’s leaders and that showing
political commitment will be a “strong step.”

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama told his supporters on Friday he could break Washington’s gridlock in a second term, and pushed Congress to enact his “to-do list” prescriptions to heal the economy in spite of it being an election year.

At a political fundraiser in Minneapolis, Obama said that if he won re-election in November, Republicans in Congress who now oppose his every move would be more inclined to work with him.