WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Sunday faced the delicate task of balancing his administration’s biggest storm response with his tough campaign for re-election as Hurricane Sandy bore down on the U.S. East Coast little more than a week before Election Day.

Trying to show he had learned the lessons of White House predecessor George W. Bush’s botched handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Obama sought to project the image of a president fully engaged in marshaling resources to deal with a looming natural disaster.

WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama voiced
confidence that if re-elected he would secure within six months
a deficit-reduction deal with Republicans equivalent to the
“grand bargain” he failed to achieve last year.

Obama made the bold prediction in an interview Tuesday with
the Des Moines Register which was originally off-the-record. The
White House released it Wednesday after the editor of the
newspaper, which is still deciding its presidential endorsement,
wrote a blistering blog complaining of the restriction.

BOCA RATON, Florida (Reuters) – Mitt Romney passed up on his last best chance to put President Barack Obama on the defensive over his handling of a deadly September 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Libya when the Republican challenger held fire on the issue in their final debate on Monday.

Obama came to the showdown in Boca Raton, clearly prepared for Round Two over the events surrounding last month’s killings of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans at the consulate in Benghazi, a big vulnerability for the president on foreign policy just two weeks before the November 6 election.

BOCA RATON, Florida (Reuters) – President Barack Obama repeatedly attacked Republican challenger Mitt Romney on foreign policy on Monday in their third and final debate in an effort to blunt his opponent’s surge in the polls with two weeks left until Election Day.

The high-stakes debate strayed frequently into domestic policy, with Romney seeking to bolster his argument that Obama had bungled the U.S. economic recovery with high unemployment and rising debt.

, Oct 22 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama
and Republican challenger Mitt Romney battled over foreign
policy on Monday in their third and final debate as they sought
to break a deadlock in opinion polls heading into the final two
weeks of campaigning.

The debate was the last major opportunity for either
candidate to appeal directly to millions of voters – especially
the roughly 20 percent who have yet to make up their minds or
who could still switch their support at the Nov. 6 election.

BOCA RATON, Florida (Reuters) – President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney battled over foreign policy on Monday in their third and final debate as they sought to break a deadlock in opinion polls heading into the final two weeks of campaigning.

The debate was the last major opportunity for either candidate to appeal directly to millions of voters – especially the roughly 20 percent who have yet to make up their minds or who could still switch their support at the November 6 election.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney face off on Monday in their third and final debate, it will be the Republican challenger’s last best chance to recover from his botched “Libya moment” and exploit vulnerabilities in his opponent’s foreign policy record.

But Romney has an uphill struggle to make his case against Obama, who will be buoyed by the advantages of incumbency as well as polls showing him with an edge – though a shrinking one – on the question of who is more trusted in global affairs.

WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) – In the defining moment of a
testy debate, President Barack Obama lashed into Mitt Romney on
Tuesday over the Republican’s criticism of his handling of a
deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya and sought
to cast him as unfit to become commander-in-chief.

Moving to regain lost ground after a weak performance in the
first presidential debate, Obama fought back against his rival’s
accusations that he had played down the Sept. 11 assault by
Islamist militants in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador
and three other Americans.

WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama and
Republican Mitt Romney locked horns on Tuesday over last month’s
deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, engaging
in their angriest exchange yet on an issue that has become a
flashpoint in the final weeks before Election Day.

Moving aggressively to regain lost ground after a weak
performance in the first presidential debate, Obama fought back
against his rival’s accusations that he had played down the
Sept. 11 assault in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador and
three other Americans.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In the months before the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, U.S. and allied intelligence agencies warned the White House and State Department repeatedly that the region was becoming an increasingly dangerous vortex for jihadist groups loosely linked or sympathetic to al Qaeda, according to U.S. officials.

Despite those warnings, and bold public displays by Islamist militants around Benghazi, embassies in the region were advised to project a sense of calm and normalcy in the run-up to the anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the United States.