WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama
signed a bill on Wednesday aimed at easing costs for U.S.
manufacturers by reducing tariffs on materials used to make the
products they sell.

The bill is part of a “Make it in America” agenda Obama’s
Democrats are pushing ahead of the Nov. 2 congressional
elections. Backers say the initiatives will reduce the huge
U.S. trade deficit with China and other countries by bolstering
American manufacturing firms.

WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) – BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(BP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) claimed
“a significant milestone” in efforts to plug its broken Gulf of
Mexico well for good on Wednesday, as the U.S. government said
nearly three-fourths of the spilled crude been dispersed or
captured or had evaporated.

“The long battle to stop the leak and contain the oil is
finally close to coming to an end,” said President Barack
Obama, whose approval ratings have been hurt by his
administration’s perceived slow response to the spill.
[ID:nN04250367]

WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Harvard University law
professor Elizabeth Warren would be a very effective leader of
the new U.S. consumer financial agency but no decision has been
made yet about the post, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner said on Tuesday.

“She, I think, would be a very effective, very capable
leader of that new entity because she, more than almost anybody
else in the country, was early and strong in pointing out the
need for better consumer protection,” Geithner told the ABC
News program “Good Morning America.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will tell Americans on Monday he is on track to carry out his campaign promise of ending the Iraq war as he marks a milestone in winding down major combat operations there this month.

Despite a deadlock in Baghdad on efforts to form a new government, Obama will highlight achievements in Iraq and discuss the formal shift taking place in the disposition of U.S. troops as they transition to a more advisory role.

WASHINGTON, Aug 1 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama, facing public doubts about his ability to turn the tide in the unpopular Afghanistan war, said on Sunday his goals there are both modest and attainable.

Obama administration officials are struggling to measure success in the nine-year-old war ahead of a December strategy review. The president and other officials have been emphasizing that their aim is fighting al Qaeda, not building a U.S.-style democracy.

"Nobody thinks that Afghanistan is going to be a model Jeffersonian democracy," Obama told CBS News in an interview that was taped on Friday and aired on Sunday.

"What we’re looking to do is difficult but it’s a fairly modest goal, which is: Don’t allow terrorists to operate from this region. Don’t allow them to create big training camps and to plan attacks on the U.S. homeland with impunity. That can be accomplished."

The release of thousands of classified documents by the website WikiLeaks has helped to fan doubts about the war. July was the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the conflict started in 2001.

U.S. officials have played down revelations in the WikiLeaks documents, which painted a grim picture of the U.S.-led war and raised new doubts about key ally Pakistan.

But at the same time, Obama administration officials said the release of military secrets could cost lives and damage trust of allies by exposing U.S. intelligence gathering methods and names of Afghan contacts.

As investigators broadened their probe of the leak, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said WikiLeaks was at least morally guilty over the release. [ID:nN02213627]

Obama announced in December an additional 30,000 troops to fight the war. He also said he intended to start pulling out U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July 2011 as long as the right conditions existed.

War weariness has become especially acute among many in Obama’s Democratic Party.

Last week, the U.S. Congress approved funds to pay for the Afghanistan troop increase but the measure garnered the support of more Republicans than Democrats.

IS WAR WORTH FIGHTING?

In an interview on ABC’s "This Week" program, Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, appeared reluctant to say whether she thought the Afghanistan war was worth fighting.

"We will see the metrics as they unfold in the next few months and certainly by the end of this year," the House speaker said.

But Pelosi echoed Obama in saying fighting al Qaeda was the top goal.

"We’re in Afghanistan because it’s in our strategic national interests to be so for our own national security, to stop terrorism, to increase global security," she said.

Asked about the July 2011 date to begin pulling U.S. troops out, Pelosi said she hoped there would be a withdrawal of more than just a couple of thousand troops.

Senator Lindsey Graham acknowledged that more troops might be needed in Afghanistan to keep the enemy "on the run," but said signs of progress must be evident.

"If, by December, we’re not showing some progress, we’re in trouble," Graham said on CNN’s "State of the Union." "And the question is, what is progress? Without some benchmarks and measurements, it’s going to be hard to sell the American people a continued involvement in Afghanistan."

On the same ABC show, Gates voiced frustration at critics who say the United States lacks a plan to win the war, despite Obama’s lengthy review last year that ended with the decision for a troop increase.

The objective, Gates said, was to reverse the momentum of Taliban insurgents, deny them access to towns and cities and ramp up Afghan security forces so they can defend themselves and prevent al Qaeda from returning to the country.

"I think that the president’s strategy is really quite clear," Gates said.

"If I didn’t think it was important for our national security to finish the job in Afghanistan, then I would pull them all out today because I have to sign letters to these family members when a loved one is lost," Obama told CBS.

Gates said that in the WikiLeaks case there were "two areas of culpability."

"One is legal culpability," he said. "… There’s also a moral culpability. And that’s where I think the verdict is ‘guilty’ on WikiLeaks. They have put this out without any regard whatsoever for the consequences."

The U.S. investigation is focusing on Bradley Manning, who worked as an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, U.S. officials say. Manning is already under arrest and charged with leaking a classified video showing a 2007 helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists.

Adrian Lamo, who reported Manning to authorities this year after receiving what appeared to be incriminating messages from him, told Reuters he believed U.S. investigators were also looking at people close to Manning with ties to WikiLeaks. (Additional reporting by Sue Pleming, writing by Caren Bohan and Phil Stewart; editing by Eric Beech)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, facing public doubts about his ability to turn the tide in the unpopular Afghanistan war, said on Sunday his goals there are both modest and attainable.

Obama administration officials are struggling to measure success in the nine-year-old war ahead of a December strategy review. The president and other officials have been emphasizing that their aim is fighting al Qaeda, not building a U.S.-style democracy.

DETROIT (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday defended his decision to bail out General Motors and Chrysler in 2009, saying he had proven the naysayers wrong as he touted his economic policies ahead of the November congressional elections.

On a visit to automakers’ plants in recession-battered Michigan, Obama sought to boost confidence in his handling of the auto industry’s crisis as part of an economic agenda that has drawn Republican complaints of a government overreach.

DETROIT, July 30 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama on
Friday defended his decision to bail out General Motors GM.UL
and Chrysler, saying he had proven the naysayers wrong as he
touted his economic policies ahead of the November
congressional elections.

On a visit to automakers’ plants in recession-battered
Michigan, Obama sought to boost confidence in his handling of
the auto industry’s crisis as part of an economic agenda that
has drawn Republican complaints of a government overreach.

WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) – General Motors Co [GM.UL]
and Chrysler are now on an “orderly course” a year after their
government-brokered bankruptcies, with the Obama administration
hopeful GM can seek a public offering of shares this year.

A report released by the White House one day before
President Barack Obama visits auto plants in Detroit touted
added production shifts, a healthier supply base, stronger
sales, increasing exports and fresh investor optimism overall
for the sector.

WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama
sought on Thursday to repair damage to his relationship with
the black community caused by his administration’s firing of an
African-American government official.

A political fracas erupted last week after Agriculture
Department employee Shirley Sherrod was forced to resign when
conservative media depicted her as anti-white because of a
speech she had given.