WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will recommit himself to halving the United States’ record deficit by 2013 in his State of the Union address on Wednesday, but Republicans will still try to paint him as a big spender.

HOW BIG OF AN ISSUE WILL DEFICIT BE IN ELECTIONS?

Democrats and Republicans will do their best to minimize their contact with this political hot potato, so they don’t get burned in the November congressional elections, which could potentially alter the balance of power on Capitol Hill.

Expect to see the blame game intensify as both parties try to persuade voters that the other side is responsible for the $1.4 trillion deficit, while portraying themselves as the fiscally prudent party.

Democrats are already pushing for the Obama administration to ramp up its rhetoric and do a better job of pinning the blame for the huge deficit on the Republicans.

“If we don’t blame Republicans for the state of the economy, they will blame us and voters will believe them,” warned one Democratic blogger.

Liberal economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times last week that Obama had “allowed the public to forget, with remarkable speed, that the economy’s troubles didn’t start on his watch.”

WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama called lawmakers on Saturday to check that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had enough support for a second term and two key senators said the nomination was on track.

In a sign of how worried the White House is about a sudden recent surge in opposition to Bernanke’s renomination, Obama contacted the Democratic Senate leadership to make sure it had enough votes.

“(The) president made … calls to a few senators this afternoon including leadership to make sure everything on track and he has been assured that Bernanke is on track for confirmation,” a senior administration official said.

Bernanke’s second term suddenly appeared at risk on Friday after two Senate Democrats announced their opposition.

They joined a growing number of senators who vowed to vote against his appointment as November’s congressional elections approach against a backdrop of broad frustration with the economy and anger over the way Washington rescued banks.

The Democratic chairman and a Republican on the U.S. Senate banking committee said on Saturday they were confident he would win the Senate’s backing.

“Based on our discussions with our colleagues, we are very confident that Chairman Bernanke will win confirmation by the Senate for a second term,” Senators Chris Dodd and Judd Gregg said in a joint statement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama called lawmakers on Saturday to check if Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had enough support for a second term and two key senators said in a statement the nomination was on track.

In a sign of how worried the White House is about a sudden surge in opposition late last week to Bernanke’s renomination, Obama contacted the Democratic Senate leadership to make sure they had enough votes.

“(The) president made … calls to a few senators this afternoon including leadership to make sure everything on track and he has been assured that Bernanke is on track for confirmation,” a senior administration official said.

Bernanke’s second term suddenly appeared at risk on Friday after two Senate Democrats announced their opposition.

They joined a growing number of senators who vowed to vote against his appointment as November’s mid-term elections approach against a backdrop of broad frustration with the economy and anger over the way Washington rescued banks.

The Democratic chairman and a Republican on the U.S. Senate banking committee said on Saturday they were confident he would win the Senate’s backing.

“Based on our discussions with our colleagues, we are very confident that Chairman Bernanke will win confirmation by the Senate for a second term,” Senators Chris Dodd and Judd Gregg said in a joint statement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama launched an extraordinary attack on the Supreme Court on Saturday, saying a ruling on corporate donations to political campaigns this week “strikes at democracy itself.”

Obama’s broadside was triggered by a 5-4 ruling by the court’s justices on Thursday that removed long-standing campaign finance limits and allowed corporations to spend freely in campaigns for president and Congress. In the ruling, the court’s conservative majority said the limits had violated corporations’ constitutional right to free speech.

The ruling is expected to unleash a flood of money into this year’s congressional elections. Obama’s fellow Democrats face a struggle to retain control of the Congress amid voter unhappiness over double-digit unemployment, a record deficit, political gridlock in Washington and other matters.

“This ruling opens the floodgates for an unlimited amount of special interest money into our democracy,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

“It gives the special interest lobbyists new leverage to spend millions on advertising to persuade elected officials to vote their way — or to punish those who don’t. This ruling strikes at democracy itself,” Obama said.

In the 2008 election cycle, nearly $6 billion was spent on all federal election campaigns, including more than $1 billion from corporate political action committees, trade associations, executives and lobbyists.

REPUBLICANS PRAISE RULING

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A year after promising a fresh approach to U.S. foreign policy by offering to engage foes like Iran, President Barack Obama is under pressure for results on an array of diplomatic initiatives.

By trying to pursue dialogue with Iran, pushing for better ties with Moscow and Beijing and reaching out to the Muslim world, Obama devoted much of the first year of his presidency to improving the tone of U.S. relations abroad.

His message of a major break from the “cowboy diplomacy” of the George W. Bush years came across loud and clear.

This year will likely bring fewer dramatic gestures and a greater focus on seeking tangible results, analysts said.

Can Obama persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions or if not, can he mobilize world powers to push for tougher sanctions on the Islamic Republic? Can he make progress with a recalcitrant North Korea? Can he keep tensions with China, the largest U.S. creditor, from hindering cooperation?

These questions loom as Obama seeks to wind down the Iraq war while escalating the conflict in Afghanistan.

“Great expectations have run into daunting challenges and the daunting challenges are winning,” said James Lindsay, a former aide to President Bill Clinton.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama spent his first year in office laying the foundation for a new, multilateral U.S. foreign policy.

While it is too early to talk of an “Obama Doctrine”, a signature aspect of his foreign policy has been his offer to extend a hand to U.S. foes like Iran and North Korea.

WHAT HAS THE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY YIELDED?

Obama made his most visible overtures toward Tehran, including sending a video message last year to mark the New Year celebration of Nowruz. But the administration has also tried to engage North Korea, Cuba, Myanmar and Syria.

The strategy has yet to yield breakthroughs but the administration believes it has achieved results, particularly on Iran where Washington is seeking international support for sanctions to pressure Iran over its nuclear program.

The White House says its offer to talk to Tehran created more international support to isolate Iran because the United States is no longer perceived as the problem.

IS OBAMA LIKELY TO CONTINUE TO SEEK ENGAGEMENT?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The leader of the biggest U.S. labor federation warned President Barack Obama on Monday that failure to act quickly on unemployment would be “suicidal” and would put the Democrats’ control of Congress at risk.

The warning from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka came just hours before Obama held talks with union leaders to soothe their concerns about how his ambitious proposals to overhaul the $2.5 trillion healthcare system will affect their members, including a proposed tax on so-called “Cadillac” health insurance plans that unions oppose..

In a strongly worded speech at the National Press Club, Trumka urged Democrats to deliver “genuine healthcare reform” and job growth or risk a repeat of the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994.

Obama won strong backing from trade unions in his 2008 presidential campaign and it is crucial for him to retain the support of working class voters before mid-term congressional elections in November.

Republicans view Obama’s Democratic party as vulnerable over unemployment, which is at 10 percent, and are seeking opportunities to weaken the party’s majority in Congress.

Both sides papered over their differences in statements after the meeting.

“It was a frank and productive meeting between friends about moving forward with healthcare reform,” Trumka said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. intelligence chief Admiral Dennis Blair faced tough questions about his future on Wednesday as the Obama administration fended off criticism over the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on December 25.

Publicly, the White House was standing by Blair, the United States’ top spymaster who is responsible for coordinating intelligence gathering between 16 agencies, saying the four-star admiral had the full confidence of the president.

“This is not about one person or one agency,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

But speculation was rife that Blair or Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano could be forced to resign after President Barack Obama said on Tuesday there had been a systemic failure by the country’s security agencies to prevent the botched Christmas Day attack.

Napolitano has been lambasted by Republican critics, and in the media, for initially saying the air security system worked, and then backpedaling and saying she had meant the system of beefing up measures worked after the incident had occurred.

Gibbs said Napolitano had the president’s support, and Obama referred to her in his public comments on Tuesday, supporting her statement that correct actions were taken after the attempted attack.

Kurt Volker, a former CIA analyst and until recently U.S. ambassador to NATO, said Blair and Napolitano were facing the traditional Washington blame game.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama pressed Lebanon on Monday to crack down on arms smuggling into the country, saying the weapons posed a potential threat to neighboring Israel.

The United States accused Iran last month of illicit arms deliveries to Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah guerrilla group, which fought a war with Israel in 2006.

Israel said in November that its navy had seized a ship carrying hundreds of tonnes of Iranian-supplied weapons to Hezbollah, a political movement and also the dominant military force in Lebanon, stronger even than the Lebanese army. Hezbollah denied any connection to the shipment.

Obama said after a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman there had been some progress in enforcing a U.N. Security Council resolution banning such shipments, but more needed to be done.

“President Sleiman emphasized his concerns with respect to Israel. I emphasized our concerns about the extensive arms that are smuggled into Lebanon that potentially serve as a threat to Israel,” Obama told reporters.

“It is in the interest of all parties concerned that enforcement is exerted with respect to such smuggling.”

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 34-day war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, banned all unauthorized weapons between the Litani River and the Blue Line, the U.N.-monitored border between Israel and Lebanon.

OSLO (Reuters) – There will be no “precipitous drawdown” of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and U.S. troops could still be in the country for years to come, President Barack Obama said on Thursday.

Obama told Americans in a televised speech last week U.S. troops would begin withdrawing from Afghanistan on July 2011 as they transferred control to newly trained Afghan security forces.

Obama, in Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, shied away from repeating the word “withdraw” and said July 2011 would signal a shift in the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, when “we are beginning to transfer responsibility to the Afghan people.”

There has been debate in Washington over Obama’s commitment to the July 2011 withdrawal date after administration officials testifying before the U.S. Congress suggested it was flexible.

“I have been unambiguous about this, so there should not be a debate. Starting in July 2011 we will begin that transition, that transfer of responsibility,” Obama said.

He said the pace of the transfer of authority and “the slope of the drawdown” of troops would depend on conditions.

“It is very important to understand we are not going to see some sharp cliff, some precipitous drawdown,” Obama said at a news conference.