However, Obama held back from directly criticizing Republicans for opposing his tax plans, perhaps signaling that private negotiations over the "fiscal cliff" are showing progress. Obama and Boehner met privately at the White House Sunday.

Obama traveled to Michigan Monday to try to rally public support for his proposals to raise rates on the top 2 percent of income earners. Speaking to auto workers, he said he was willing to support "tough spending cuts" as long as those cuts do not disproportionately hurt the middle class.

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From Colorado to Iowa to ever-important Ohio, bigger crowds and late October scenery offered the feel of a campaign starting to finally crackle. Obama centered on a closing theme that voters simply cannot trust Romney, while the challenger warned of the bleak times that four more Obama years would bring.

At the majestic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado late Tuesday, Romney said Obama's promise of more of the same is "why he's slipping and it's why we're gaining."

He cast the race as moving his way during a rally of up to 10,000 at the amphitheater, a stunning setting cut into mountain rocks outside Denver. Blue lights and the Romney "R'' logo lit the rocks rising on either side of the venue, and the crowd wore colored T-shirts that, viewed from afar, formed the Colorado state flag.

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Obama will step before the United Nations General Assembly and declare that the United States will not shrink from its role in troubled, transitioning nations despite the killing of four Americans in Libya, including U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens, and more than 50 people total in violence linked at least in part to an anti-Muslim film.

Obama will also to seek to show U.S. resolve in preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, a menacing issue that has undermined White House relations with Israel's leadership.

In his final international address before the November election, Obama will stand up for democratic values on a stage afforded to presidents, not presidential challengers. He will use it to try to boost his political standing without ever mentioning Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

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Obama will unveil his economic strategy in a speech right after Labor Day, hoping to frame the autumn jobs debate by pressuring Republicans in Congress to act or face the voters' wrath. The country is in a deep state of disgust about Washington politics, piling urgency on both parties to help the economy quickly -- or somehow position the other side to take the blame.

To pay for his jobs ideas, Obama will challenge the new "super committee" in Congress to go well beyond its goal of finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, with part of the savings used to cover some of his economy-jolting help without sinking the nation deeper in debt. But there, too, Obama already faces trouble from Republican members who have ruled out tax hikes.

It's all leading to a sharp campaign for public opinion, the outcome shaping the presidential and congressional elections in 2012.

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Olsen, if confirmed by the Senate, would direct the National Counterterrorism Center, an agency born in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on America. That agency is charged with analyzing and integrating information gathered across the intelligence community and then providing assessments to the president and other senior policymakers.

"Matt will be a critical part of my national security team as we work to tirelessly thwart attacks against our nation and do everything in our power to protect the American people," Obama said a statement.

Olsen, 49, currently serves as the general counsel for the National Security Agency. He has also held high-level roles in overseeing intelligence matters at the Justice Department and the FBI. From 2009 to 2010, Olsen directed the task force that, on Obama's orders, reviewed the intelligence on detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

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In testimony to separate congressional panels, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton left no doubt that Obama chose a quicker path to winding down U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan than his generals preferred.

"The president's decisions are more aggressive and incur more risk than I was originally prepared to accept," Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee.

"More force for more time is, without doubt, the safer course," he added. "But that does not necessarily make it the best course. Only the president, in the end, can really determine the acceptable level of risk we must take. I believe he has done so."

Obama announced Wednesday evening that the U.S. and its allies had achieved enough in Afghanistan to merit a drawdown of forces beginning this summer. Obama said 10,000 troops would come home by the end of this year, to be followed by as many as 23,000 by the end of next summer. That will leave about 68,000 U.S. troops there.

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A total of 10,000 troops will leave the war zone by the end of this year -- fulfilling Obama's promise -- and more than 20,000 additional forces will leave by the summer of 2012, shortly before the president will go before voters in search of a second term.

Still, almost 70,000 U.S. troops will remain in an unstable country, fighting in a war bound to see more Americans killed. Obama said they will leave at a steady pace, but the U.S. combat mission is not expected to end until December 2014 -- and even then, a sizable and enduring contingent may remain in a different role.

Obama's announcement from the White House came in a perilous political environment, with Americans soured on the war and the economy, many members of Congress pushing him to get troops home even faster, and his Republican presidential rivals taking shots at his leadership at every chance. Conceding the economic strain of waging war at a time of rising debt and fiscal constraint, Obama said it was time for America "to focus on nation building here at home."

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Obama was expected to use his Middle East speech Thursday to sharply defend new sanctions on Assad as the U.S. government toughens its message for the repressive leader: Embrace democracy or get out. In a primary thrust of his address, Obama also was announcing aid for Egypt and Tunisia, the two nations seen as models while protests for freedoms elsewhere have been crushed.

Collectively, Obama's economic proposals will account for much of what's new in a speech that, by design, is intended to look back and let him put his imprint on the massive change across the Middle East and North Africa over the last six months. The core of what Obama will argue is that the United States must help nations modernize their economies and give job opportunities to their young people so that democracy can take hold and thrive -- the kind of regional stability that is deeply in the political interests of his government.

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The White House announced the sanctions Wednesday, a day before President Barack Obama delivers a major speech on the uprisings throughout the Arab world with prominent mentions of Syria.

The Obama administration had pinned hopes on Assad, seen until recent months as a pragmatist and potential reformer who could buck Iranian influence and help broker an eventual Arab peace deal with Israel.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Assad's increasingly brutal crackdown left U.S. officials little choice but to abandon the effort to woo Assad, and to stop exempting him from the same sort of sanctions already applied to Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.

The sanctions will freeze any assets Assad and others have in U.S. jurisdiction and make it illegal for Americans to do business with them. The U.S. had imposed similar sanctions on two of Assad's relatives and another top Syrian official last month but had thus far refrained from going after Assad himself.

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By midday Friday, most employees of the federal workforce had been told whether they had been deemed essential or would be temporarily laid off from work if lawmakers failed to reach an agreement by midnight. In the event of a shutdown, official furlough notices would begin going out by email, by written letter or in person.

Many workers would be allowed into their offices for up to four hours on Monday to finish tasks, but that would be it.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused the Republicans of blocking a compromise because they were determined to make it harder "for women to get cancer screenings." That was a reference to money for Planned Parenthood, an organization Republicans assail as the country's largest provider of abortions.

Reid's main antagonist in the long-running negotiations, House Speaker John Boehner, said spending cuts -- not social issues -- were blocking agreement to prevent a shutdown.

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Obama said military action was not his first choice.

"This is not an outcome the U.S. or any of our partners sought," Obama said from Brazil, where he is starting a five-day visit to Latin America. "We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy."

A senior military official said the U.S. launched air defenses Saturday with strikes along the Libyan coast that were launched by Navy vessels in the Mediterranean. The official said the assault would unfold in stages and target air defense installations around Tripoli, the capital, and a coastal area south of Benghazi, the rebel stronghold.

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The president spoke as French warplanes began the first sorties to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, where Moammar Gadhafi's bloody attacks on rebels continued.

"Our consensus was strong, and our resolve is clear. The people of Libya must be protected, and in the absence of an immediate end to the violence against civilians our coalition is prepared to act, and to act with urgency," Obama said in Brasilia, Brazil, on the first day of a three-country Latin American tour.

Shortly before he spoke, top officials from the U.S., Europe and the Arab world meeting in Paris announced immediate military action to protect civilians caught in combat between Gadhafi's forces and rebel fighters. American ships and aircraft were poised for action but weren't participating in the initial French air missions.

As the military action was announced, French fighter jets swooped over Benghazi, the opposition stronghold that was stormed by Libyan government forces earlier Saturday, in defiance of a proclaimed ceasefire.

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Obama said he was encouraged with the restraint showed Friday and repeated his insistence that the U.S. opposes the use of violence either by the government or the protesters.

"This is obviously still a fluid situation, and we're monitoring it closely," Obama said.

He said the U.S. wants to send a "strong and clear message" that attacks on journalists, human rights activists and peaceful protesters "are unacceptable."

He did not directly blame the Mubarak government for the attacks but said the Egyptian government is responsible for protecting its people.

Obama did not insist that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak leave immediately. But he talked about "a transition period that begins now."

He said the process must "lead to free and fair elections" but that "details of this transition will be worked by Egyptians."

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Humbled by a poor election for his party, sharply defensive about a tax deal with Republicans, Obama kept talking until he finally refocused on his whole purpose for being president. He spoke about the value of compromising, the merits of thinking long term, the point of leadership being to help people have better lives.

Axelrod looked up from his BlackBerry as if someone had jolted him. "That's our guy," Axelrod recalled thinking. "That's the guy I've been working with for almost a decade now."

Since that moment in early December, what's happened in the White House amounts to a presidential rediscovery in the eyes of Axelrod. He considers the last two months a template for the next two years and a re-election campaign in which, he promises, Obama will try to "play big" all over the electoral map and revitalize a weakened coalition.

It all helps explain why Axelrod seems so comfortable about quitting the place.

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Carney, 45, will provide one of the most public faces of the White House as Obama's presidency pivots toward re-election. He replaces Robert Gibbs, who has also held an outsized presence as a counselor to Obama for the last several years.

In choosing Carney, Obama went with someone who is inside his circle yet also seen to understand the needs of the White House press corps as a former member of its ranks. Carney built his career as a reporter, covering the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush for Time and rising to the position of the magazine's Washington bureau chief.

The decision was part of a package of new personnel changes at the White House. Obama's new chief of staff, Bill Daley, announced the changes in an e-mail to staff on Thursday, saying they would offer more clarity and coordination to Obama's operation.

"I look forward to working with all of you -- those in existing roles as well as those filling new roles -- in the weeks and months ahead," Daley wrote. "We have a great team."

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The move is almost identical to the freeze Obama called for in his address to the nation last year at this time -- his current proposal would cover five years, not three years -- and ultimately it may have little effect. Congress decides the budget on its own terms, and Obama has even less sway than he did in his first two years on the job now that Republicans have taken control of the House.

In a political sense, Obama is fighting Republicans for the upper hand in showing fiscal restraint in a time of staggering debt. Public angst over spending was a defining force in the 2010 midterm elections, and it is expected to remain so as Obama's re-election drive begins.

Overall, Obama is trying to convince the American people and a divided Congress that he has a vision for speeding up job creation, promoting spending on the core of his agenda but promising to rein in debt. His speech will reflect reality: The economy trumps all.

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In an unscheduled stop shortly after landing in Arizona, Obama spent about 10 minutes with Giffords and her husband in her hospital room. The president and the first lady also met with other victims wounded in the shooting rampage before moving onto the site of the memorial, where they gathered with families of those who were killed. The president was to speak for roughly 15 minutes toward the end of the memorial, devoting most of his comments to recalling the lives of the victims. In total, 19 people were shot, and six of them killed, in what police say was a brazen attempt by a gunman to kill Giffords. She was shot point-blank in the head but is expected to survive.

Obama planned to use his comments to "reflect on how all of us might best honor their memory in our own lives," said his spokesman, Robert Gibbs. An overflow crowd packed the University of Arizona basketball arena for a service that was meant to give voice to the nation's shock, sadness and anger.

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Obama and his wife, Michelle, were visiting privately at University Medical Center with Giffords and other victims of the weekend shootings that killed six people and wounded 13. He was then meeting with family members of those killed before speaking at a nighttime memorial service in Tucson.

"The president wanted to begin this solemn trip by stopping first at the hospital where Congresswoman Giffords and others continue to recuperate," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters traveling with the president. Giffords was the target of the first assassination attempt on a member of Congress in decades.

Searching for the right tone in the evening service, Obama aimed to console the country, not dissect its politics.

A bipartisan delegation of lawmakers accompanied him on Air Force One in a sign of solidarity.

Back on Capitol Hill, Giffords' House colleagues praised her and the other shooting victims and insisted that violence would not silence democracy.

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Gibbs said he would be leaving the White House by early February. The top contenders to replace him are two of his deputies, Bill Burton and Josh Earnest, and Jay Carney, who is communications director to Vice President Joe Biden.

The move allows Gibbs to escape the grinding pace of the press secretary's job, make money giving speeches and spend more time with his wife, Mary Catherine, and their 7-year-old son, Ethan. From the outside, he will still be a key voice in Obama's decision-making, and he will end up back in a pivotal role in Obama's campaign for a second term.

The move will also change the dynamic of the White House, particularly combined with the coming departure of senior adviser David Axelrod, who, like Gibbs, has been at Obama's side for his entire presidential run. Obama is losing daily proximity to two of the aides who best know the way he thinks and who remember personally all the pledges of the campaign.

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The meeting set for Friday comes as Obama adjusts his tactics to deal with an emboldened Republican Party. The GOP takes control of the House in January.

Clinton had to deal with a similar scenario in the middle of his first term in office and ended up working with Republicans to negotiate and advance his agenda.

The official confirmed the meeting on condition of anonymity because it had not yet been announced by the White House.

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