CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) – Former President Bill Clinton gave a rousing defense of President Barack Obama’s handling of the weak U.S. economy on Wednesday and launched a detailed attack on Republican Mitt Romney in a speech that electrified the Democratic National Convention.

Folksy, long on detail and showing he is still a master orator nearly 12 years after he left office, Clinton gave a more cogent defense of Obama’s actions as president than perhaps the current resident of the White House himself has given.

WARSAW (Reuters) – Mitt Romney upset Londoners, Palestinians and U.S. journalists on his ill-fated tour abroad, but with voters focused on the economy at home it is unclear whether the Republican presidential challenger’s fumbles will have a lasting effect on the November 6 election.

Romney is facing doubts about whether he can handle himself on the world stage as he tries to replace President Barack Obama.

WARSAW, July 31 (Reuters) – U.S. Republican presidential
candidate Mitt Romney wrapped up a gaffe-filled European tour on
Tuesday dismissing criticism he had undermined his attempt to
present himself as a replacement for President Barack Obama on
the world stage as one of his aides lost his cool with the
media.

Romney’s European tour was meant to burnish his foreign
policy credentials but has instead generated embarrassing
headlines after he offended the British by questioning their
readiness to host the Olympics and the Palestinians by
suggesting they were culturally inferior to the Israelis.

WARSAW (Reuters) – U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney held up Poland’s transition from Communism to democracy as an example for the rest of the world while saying on Tuesday that Russia had faltered on the path to freedom.

Romney was speaking in the Polish capital at the end of a three-country foreign tour that also took him to Britain and Israel. The trip was supposed to show voters back home that the Republican could serve on the world stage just as well as President Barack Obama, but it has been marked by gaffes and missteps.

GDANSK, Poland (Reuters) – Solidarity, the trade union movement which led the Polish struggle against Communist rule, distanced itself on Monday from a visit to Poland by U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney, saying he supported attacks on unions in his own country.

Romney was in Poland on the third and final leg of a foreign tour aimed at burnishing his foreign policy credentials and demonstrating that he would be a viable alternative to U.S. President Barack Obama on the world stage.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Monday tapped Jewish-American donors for more than $1 million, ending a trip to Israel that aimed to show he would be a better ally than President Barack Obama.

After days in which Romney spoke mostly on foreign policy issues, the fundraiser returned him to more comfortable turf – the state of the U.S. economy, which he sees as the main issue in the November 6 election.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. Republican candidate Mitt Romney, presenting himself as Israel’s best friend in the November 6 presidential election, said on Sunday that “any and all measures” must be used to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

A top aide said Romney would support an Israeli military strike if all options had been exhausted, but the candidate himself balked at repeating that position.

JERUSALEM, July 29 (Reuters) – U.S. Republican presidential
candidate Mitt Romney would respect an Israeli decision to use
military force to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, a
senior aide said on Sunday.

Romney met in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, on the second leg of a foreign trip aimed at
bolstering his foreign policy credentials in his race to unseat
Obama in the Nov. 6 presidential election.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would back Israel if it were to decide it had to use military force to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, a senior aide said on Sunday.

“If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing that capability, the governor would respect that decision,” Romney’s senior national security aide Dan Senor told reporters travelling with the candidate.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign left a troubled visit to London behind him on Saturday and looked to rebound in Israel, whose ties with the United States have been a familiar theme during his election bid.

Romney arrived late on Saturday on the second leg of a foreign trip aimed at bolstering his foreign-policy credentials in his race to unseat Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 6 election.