WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will forecast an unemployment rate averaging 8.9 percent in 2012 in his annual budget on Monday – but before the document has been officially released his aides have already called the projection “stale.”

Under pressure to reduce unemployment in an election year, Obama has welcomed a series of monthly reports showing unexpected declines in the unemployment rate.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Saturday pressed lawmakers to pass his proposal to provide up to $10 billion in aid to struggling homeowners, saying a failure to address the housing crisis would put the rest of the economy at risk.

“The housing crisis has been the single biggest drag on our recovery from the recession. It has kept millions of families in debt and unable to spend, and it has left hundreds of thousands of construction workers out of a job,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

CAMBRIDGE, Maryland (Reuters) – President Barack Obama vowed on Friday to push back hard against Republicans who try to obstruct his election-year proposals on taxes and jobs, as he sought to rally congressional Democrats and move past a period of strained relations.

Wrapping up a cross-country tour to promote a populist agenda laid out in this week’s State of the Union address, Obama hammered home a reelection campaign appeal for greater economic fairness and called on fellow Democrats to close ranks with him.

ANN ARBOR, Michigan (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, appearing before thousands of cheering students at the University of Michigan, touted his plan on Friday to reward colleges that keep their tuition under control with more federal aid as he makes school affordability a top election-year priority.

Obama, seeking to reform federal aid for students to pay spiraling college costs, unveiled fresh details of a proposal to make higher education affordable for more families that he first announced on Tuesday in his State of the Union address.

AURORA, Colorado (Reuters) – President Barack Obama pitched a plan on Thursday to boost U.S. use of natural gas and open more land for drilling during a campaign-style tour aimed at bolstering confidence in his economic stewardship in an election year.

At a Colorado air force base hangar, Obama called the United States “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas” and said developing its reserves would create U.S. jobs and provide cleaner, cheaper energy to American consumers.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama was set on Thursday to promote a plan for greater use of natural gas and open up more land for offshore drilling during a campaign-style tour aimed at shoring up confidence in his economic stewardship.

At a stop in Las Vegas, Nevada, Obama will seek to counter Republican criticisms of his energy policies by rolling out a proposal to offer tax incentives for companies to buy natural gas trucks, which would help build demand for abundant supplies of the fuel.

MESA, Arizona (Reuters) – A day after his confrontational election-year State of the Union address, President Barack Obama had a tense exchange with Arizona’s Republican governor on Wednesday as she greeted Air Force One in Phoenix.

During their brief encounter on the tarmac, intended to be a ceremonial welcome, Obama told Governor Jan Brewer that he disagreed with an account she had given of a meeting they had at the White House two years ago.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Reuters) – President Barack Obama began a campaign-style swing through political battleground states on Wednesday, pitching his State of the Union initiatives on taxes and jobs as he made his case for a second term.

Fresh from his election-year speech to Congress, Obama amplified his proposals for rewarding companies that keep jobs at home and eliminating tax breaks for those that outsource overseas. He also pressed his argument for higher taxes on the rich.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama entered the White House in 2009 carrying an olive branch for Iran, determined to show the world that Washington would not play the villain in a relationship marked by blood and bitterness over three decades.

Obama chose his words with excruciating care in reaching out to Iran publicly and privately, including through secret letters to Iran’s Supreme Leader. The new president emphasized he wanted a “new beginning” with a country that called the United States “the Great Satan” and was branded by his predecessor as part of an “axis of evil.”