BANGKOK (Reuters) – Poised to become the first U.S. head of state to travel to Myanmar, President Barack Obama on Monday will attempt to strike a balance between praising the government’s progress in shaking off military rule and pressing it for further reforms.

Obama will meet President Thein Sein, a former junta member who has spearheaded reforms since taking office in March 2011, and famed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the struggle against military rule and, like Obama, is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She is now a lawmaker.

BANGKOK, Nov 18 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama kicked
off a three-country Asian tour with a visit to Thailand on
Sunday, using his first post-election trek overseas to try to
show he is serious about shifting the U.S. strategic focus
eastwards.

Obama’s itinerary will include a landmark visit to
once-isolated Myanmar and an East Asia summit in Cambodia as he
seeks to recalibrate U.S. economic and security commitments to
counter China’s influence at a time when America is
disentangling itself from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – President Barack Obama kicked off a three-country Asia tour with a visit to Thailand on Sunday, using his first post-election trek overseas to try to show he is serious about shifting the U.S. strategic focus eastwards.

Obama’s itinerary will include a landmark visit to once-isolated Myanmar and an East Asia summit in Cambodia as he seeks to recalibrate U.S. economic and security commitments to counter China’s influence at a time when America is disentangling itself from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will press Myanmar leaders during an upcoming trip to restore calm to the western part of their country and bring instigators of ethnic violence there to justice, White House officials said on Thursday.

Obama leaves on Saturday for a trip to Asia that will include a historic stop in Myanmar, a former pariah state.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s first trip abroad since winning a second term was to be a chance to bask in the glow of his election triumph and promote what aides have touted as a legacy-making U.S. strategic shift toward Asia.

It is, though, shaping up as something less than a victory lap.

Obama’s efforts to persuade Asian partners of his commitment to the region could be undercut by deepening instability in the Middle East, lingering tensions with China at a time when a new leadership is taking over in Beijing and big distractions at home, including a looming fiscal crisis and a national security scandal.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama laid out his second-term agenda on Wednesday, expressing a willingness to work with Republicans in Congress and a resolve to defy them if necessary.

In his first full-scale news conference since March, Obama said he was willing to compromise with Republicans to forge a deal on the nation’s debt and taxes to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” a combination of budget cuts and tax increases that will kick in next year if such an agreement is not reached.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – International human rights activists met senior White House officials on Tuesday to press President Barack Obama to take a tough line with leaders in Myanmar and Cambodia during his forthcoming Southeast Asia tour.

The talks, which included Samantha Power, a top Obama adviser and outspoken expert on genocide, touched on what the president will say during his landmark visit to Myanmar to prod the quasi-civilian government to do more to curb sectarian violence, activists said.

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s first campaign famously left offices open in swing states after 2008 to boost his re-election effort in 2012. So what happens now to all of the infrastructure that helped secure the Democrat two terms in office?

The answer is unclear. Obama’s political advisers, in a conference call with reporters on Thursday, said they would be discussing with his supporters how to move forward, but they suggested that potential Democratic candidates in coming elections could not assume the Obama ground apparatus would be automatically at their disposal.

CHICAGO, Nov 7 (Reuters) – On the day after the 2010 midterm
election that swept Republicans into control of the House of
Representatives and decreased Democrats’ majority in the Senate,
senior White House adviser David Axelrod had a message for
President Barack Obama.

“I think they just planted the seeds of your re-election,”
he told his boss.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The crowd was smaller than it was four years ago, and the venue was indoors, but President Barack Obama’s victory party early on Wednesday shared a theme with his 2008 election night: hope.

Despite a rough economy that dulled the glow of being America’s first black president, Obama defeated Republican Mitt Romney in a hard-fought race for the White House and celebrated with confetti, hugs and a promise to represent everyone in the nation.