WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Thursday promised to be more forthcoming with the American public on his administration’s campaign of lethal drone strikes amid criticism over the targeting of suspected U.S. terrorism suspects abroad.

Obama, under pressure from the left and right to allow greater scrutiny of the secret decision-making process for killing Americans overseas, vowed to work with Congress to craft a “mechanism” to be more open about how the drone war is conducted.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address on Tuesday night to try to push past the fiscal battles that plagued his first term – and still threaten his second – as he laid out an agenda he hopes will shape his legacy.

Obama’s overarching message was that other things matter beside the Republicans’ seemingly all-consuming drive for deficit cutting, embodied in a looming showdown just three weeks away over automatic across-the-board spending cuts.

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama used
his State of the Union address on Tuesday night to try to push
past the fiscal battles that plagued his first term – and still
threaten his second – as he laid out an agenda he hopes will
shape his legacy.

Obama’s overarching message was that other things matter
beside the Republicans’ seemingly all-consuming drive for
deficit cutting, embodied in a looming showdown just three weeks
away over automatic across-the-board spending cuts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – If Inauguration Day marked the official rollout of a tougher, bolder President Barack Obama, look for him to take it a step further on Tuesday night: his State of the Union address is expected to lay out an unabashedly liberal Democratic agenda to a U.S. Congress half controlled by conservative Republicans.

With his poll numbers up, his supporters’ expectations high and Republicans still in disarray after their lackluster showing in the November election, Obama would seem to have good reason to press ahead.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama plans to visit Israel, the West Bank and Jordan this spring, the White House said on Tuesday, raising the prospects of a new U.S. push to restart long-stalled Israel-Palestinian peace efforts.

Obama’s trip, his first to Israel since taking office, signaled that he intends to make the volatile Middle East – where Iran remains locked in a nuclear standoff with the West and Syria is caught up in a bloody civil war – a top priority in his second term.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will seek to build momentum for immigration reform this week ahead of his State of the Union address, which is expected to challenge Republicans to take up an overhaul amid an increasingly contentious debate in Washington.

Obama plans to hold a series of White House meetings with corporate chief executives, labor leaders and progressives on Tuesday to lobby for their support, and he has dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to the Southwest to tout the administration’s border security efforts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama and his aides will seek to build momentum for immigration reform this week, laying down markers ahead of his State of the Union address amid an increasingly contentious debate in Washington over proposals for overhauling immigration laws.

Obama plans to hold a series of White House meetings with corporate chief executives, labor leaders and progressives on Tuesday to lobby for their support, and has dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to the Southwest to tout the administration’s border security efforts.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Just over a week into his second term, President Barack Obama took his fight for immigration reform to the West on Tuesday and pushed Congress to quickly find a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented residents.

But as Obama praised a bipartisan immigration plan during a speech in Las Vegas, disagreement emerged between the White House and Republicans that underscored the difficulty of resolving an emotive issue that has long defied a legislative fix.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – President Barack Obama called on Congress on Tuesday to make good on plans to overhaul the U.S. immigration system and offer a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.

Reflecting the growing clout of Hispanic voters, Obama travelled to Nevada little more than a week after his second inauguration to make the case for swift bipartisan action on immigration.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will move cautiously into the debate over U.S. immigration reform on Tuesday, seeking to build momentum for a new bipartisan plan to offer a pathway to citizenship for the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants.

Reflecting the growing clout of Hispanic voters, Obama is traveling to Nevada little more than a week after his second inauguration to make the case for swift action by Congress to overhaul immigration laws.