WASHINGTON/DEL RAY BEACH, Florida (Reuters) – Facing a cliffhanger re-election attempt, President Barack Obama will launch a round-the-clock, two-day campaign blitz through six battleground states next week to try to fend off the challenge from Republican Mitt Romney.

Polls show Obama’s strong debate performance this week gained him little or no ground against the former Massachusetts governor with just over two weeks until the November 6 election.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Locked in a tense race with time running out, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney took time off to exchange light-hearted jabs and make fun of each other on Thursday in a joint appearance at a high-profile charity dinner.

Two days after a brutal debate in which they exchanged verbal blows and stalked each other on stage, Obama and Romney greeted each other warmly, dressed formally in white tie and tails.

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) – Mitt Romney accused Vice President Joe Biden on Friday of contradicting the testimony of U.S. State Department officials on Libya, in an escalation of the Republican presidential challenger’s attacks over the September 11 deaths of four Americans there.

Hoping to puncture President Barack Obama’s credibility on foreign policy ahead of the November 6 election, Romney jumped on comments that Biden made on Thursday night during a debate with Romney’s vice presidential running mate, Paul Ryan.

MONTREAT, North Carolina (Reuters) – Evangelical leader Billy Graham offered to help Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Thursday in what could prove to be a boost in getting evangelicals to turn out for the Republican in the November 6 election.

Graham, who will turn 94 next month, is one of the most recognized religious figures in the world and has been a spiritual adviser to a number of American presidents and political leaders. He has had talks with presidents going back to Harry Truman and President Barack Obama visited him in 2011.

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio (Reuters) – Not long ago, Republican Mitt Romney’s crowds on the campaign trail were mostly in the hundreds, he was fading in the polls and his calls to create jobs by limiting government’s reach seemed overrun by his own missteps.

Then a new Mitt Romney emerged.

The U.S. presidential challenger outmaneuvered a subdued President Barack Obama in their first debate last week, has pulled even with – or ahead of – Obama in national polls, and has seen crowds of thousands of people turn out for him in Ohio this week. (For a graphic representation of American Mosaic data, click www.tinyurl.com/2012tracking )

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio (Reuters) – Not long ago, Republican Mitt Romney’s crowds on the campaign trail were mostly in the hundreds, he was fading in the polls and his calls to create jobs by limiting government’s reach seemed overrun by his own missteps.

Then a new Mitt Romney emerged.

The U.S. presidential challenger outmaneuvered a subdued President Barack Obama in their first debate last week, has pulled even with – or ahead of – Obama in national polls, and has seen crowds of thousands of people turn out for him in Ohio this week.

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will stop telling the story of a former U.S. Navy SEAL killed in Libya after the man’s mother complained his death was being politicized.

Romney on the campaign trail on Tuesday began telling the story of Glen Doherty, who he met at a Christmas party a few years ago and learned last week that he had been killed in the assault on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11.

VAN METER, Iowa (Reuters) – A day after blasting President Barack Obama’s handling of the deadly assault by militants on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya last month, Mitt Romney revealed on Tuesday that he had met one of the four Americans killed in the attack.

The Republican presidential candidate departed from an otherwise upbeat campaign speech to recount a chance meeting with Glen Doherty, a former Navy SEAL who was among three Americans who died with U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens in the attack on September 11.

LEXINGTON, Virginia (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivered a sweeping critique on Monday of President Barack Obama’s handling of threats in the Middle East, saying Obama’s lack of leadership had made the volatile region more dangerous.

In what his campaign called a major foreign policy address, Romney called for a more assertive use of American influence in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Republican presidential
candidate Mitt Romney offered a sweeping critique of President
Barack Obama’s handling of threats in the Middle East on Monday
in a foreign policy address in which he tried to present himself
as a credible mainstream alternative.

Romney departed from his focus on the U.S. economy to talk
about how he would handle foreign policy if elected Nov. 6. The
speech allowed Romney to lay out his national security positions
ahead of his Oct. 16 debate with Obama, which will include
discussion of foreign policy.