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.

CLEVELAND/CHICAGO, Nov 6 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama
and Republican challenger Mitt Romney battled down to the wire
on Tuesday, mounting a last-minute Election Day drive to get
their supporters to the polls in a handful of states that will
decide the winner in a neck-and-neck race for the White House.

Capping a long and bitter presidential campaign, Americans
cast their votes at polling stations across the country. At
least 120 million people were expected to render judgment on
whether to give Obama a second term or replace him with Romney.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Republican rival Mitt Romney on Tuesday for running a hard-fought race for the White House and expressed confidence he would win re-election during a stop at a local campaign office to thank volunteers.

“I … want to say to Governor Romney congratulations on a spirited campaign. I know that his supporters are just as engaged and just as enthusiastic and working just as hard today,” Obama said as volunteers made phone calls encouraging supporters to get to the polls.

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – An emotional President Barack Obama ended his final campaign on Monday in Iowa, the place that launched his first White House bid and that could hold the key to his political future.

After two days of nearly round-the-clock travel to the battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Colorado, New Hampshire and Wisconsin, Obama ended his tour in Des Moines with a speech that harkened back to his 2008 campaign.