The first lady says in an interview in the April issue of Vogue magazine that she and the president were straightforward when they said — before moving from Chicago to Washington in 2009 — that their family, including two young daughters, would be their priority.

She said "the stresses and the pressures" of the White House are so real that they prefer to spend free time with their daughters, now 14 and 11.

"Our job is, first and foremost, to make sure our family is whole. You know, we have small kids; they're growing every day. But I think we were both pretty straightforward when we said, 'Our No. 1 priority is making sure that our family is whole,'" Mrs. Obama said in the interview, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press before the magazine hits newsstands on March 26.

She noted that most of the couple's friends are parents, too, and that when she and the president go on vacation, usually with longtime friends or relatives, they are surrounded by children.

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Booker, who leads the state's largest city, also says he's also thinking about running for the U.S. Senate.

He tells CBS' "Face the Nation" that he has to decide on a gubernatorial bid in the next couple of weeks out of respect for his party and the other Democratic candidates who'd like to take on the outspoken Christie.

Speculation about the 43-year-old's political future has been high for much of his second term as mayor.

Christie has said he's running in the November 2013 election.

As for the Senate, the seat held by 88-year-old Democrat Frank Lautenberg is up in 2014.

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It was the first meeting, and likely a moving one, between America's first black first lady and the political prisoner who later became his country's first elected black president.

Mrs. Obama, daughters Malia, 12, and Sasha, 10, and her mother, Marian Robinson, were being shown some of Mandela's personal papers during a stop at his foundation when, according to White House officials, he sent word from his nearby home that he wanted to meet the Obamas.

The family was then driven to Mandela's home in a well-manicured Johannesburg neighborhood, where they spent about 20 minutes with him and his wife, Graca Machel, who is a former first lady of Mozambique.

Mrs. Obama's niece and nephew, Leslie Robinson, 15, and Avery Robinson, 19, who are traveling with her, were also invited to meet Mandela.

White House officials had no immediate comment on the meeting. No aides, except for photographers for the foundation and the White House, witnessed the meeting.

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The recession didn't happen overnight and won't end that way, either, the president said Saturday in his weekly radio and online address.

"It's going to take time," Obama said.

Recent polling found broad disapproval with Obama's handling of the economy as the 2012 presidential election takes shape. It reached 59 percent in a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Job growth slowed sharply in May and unemployment inched up to 9.1 percent. Economic indicators also showed that manufacturers cut 5,000 jobs last month. Those were the first job losses in that sector in seven months.

No president since World War II has won a second term with a jobless rate above 7.2 percent, and Obama's options for achieving faster economic growth before the November 2012 election appear limited.

Obama scheduled a visit to Durham, N.C., on Monday for a session with his jobs council on how Washington can encourage private-sector hiring. Council members and administration officials also planned to hear from businesses in the region.

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Obama said Saturday that the measures "make good sense" and will help reduce U.S. consumption of imported oil in the long term. But he acknowledged anew that they won't help to immediately bring down gasoline prices topping $4 a gallon in many parts of the country.

His announcement followed passage in the Republican-controlled House of three bills -- including two this week -- that would expand and speed up offshore oil and gas drilling. Republicans say the bills are aimed at easing gasoline costs, but they also acknowledge that won't be immediate.

The White House had announced its opposition to all three bills, which are unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, saying the measures would undercut safety reviews and open environmentally sensitive areas to new drilling.

But Obama is adopting some of the bills' provisions.

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Standing at the border Tuesday, Obama mocked Republicans for never being satisfied and always changing the conditions about what's needed to secure the border. Said the president: "Maybe they'll say we need a moat. Or alligators in the moat."

Obama says that stepped-up enforcement is getting results.

Obama used his speech in El Paso, Texas, to push Congress to work with him on a plan to give millions of illegal residents a path to citizenship.

He also said a burden rests with illegal immigrants to do right by the law. He said they make a "mockery" of all those who try to immigrate legally.

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

President Barack Obama, visiting the U.S.-Mexico border for the first time as president, is trying to build pressure on Republicans to take on comprehensive immigration legislation -- while showing vital Hispanic voters that he is not the one standing in the way.

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Obama said Saturday that Libya's air defenses have been "taken out" and forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi have been pushed back from cities where the people have risen up against him. A humanitarian catastrophe has also been avoided, he said.

"We're succeeding in our mission," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

His remarks served as a warm-up for a planned speech to the nation Monday explaining his decision-making. Both addresses follow complaints from lawmakers of both parties that the president hasn't sought their input or hasn't clearly explained U.S. participation in the mission.

Obama argued Saturday that the mission in Libya is clear and focused, with the U.S. and its allies and partners working together to enforce a U.N. Security Council mandate to protect the Libyan people from forces loyal to Gadhafi.

U.S.-led forces began launching missile strikes against Gadhafi's defenses on March 19 to keep him from acting on threats to attack his people.

Obama was expected Monday night to emphasize a larger role for NATO and a reduced one for the U.S. military.

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The current budget expires next Friday. That means lawmakers must OK a new spending plan before the March 4 deadline to keep much of the government from running out of money and closing. The Republican-run House and Democratic-controlled Senate are bickering over how much to cut.

"For the sake of our people and our economy, we cannot allow gridlock to prevail," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. "I urge and expect them to find common ground so we can accelerate, not impede, economic growth."

House Republicans have proposed $4 billion in cuts as part of legislation to keep the government functioning through March 18, and they have urged Senate Democrats to accept that approach to avoid closing it down.

Democrats want a short-term extension at current spending levels so the parties can negotiate over how deeply to cut expenditures and begin chipping away at the deficit and the trillions of dollars in accumulated debt.

But House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, insists that a short-term bill without spending cuts is unacceptable.

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Obama wants to spend more on education despite his call for a five-year freeze on other government spending. He says an educated work force will attract jobs and help the U.S. compete with the rest of the world. The budget proposal he unveiled this week seeks $13 billion more for education.

His visits Thursday and Friday to politically friendly areas on the West Coast are partly designed to spotlight his focus on education and prod Republicans to support the higher spending.

Republicans are pursuing steep spending cuts instead.

With the trip, Obama is also trying to burnish his image as a leader who is listening to the ideas of innovators and who, while faced with a tough budget environment, isn't afraid to push for spending increases in areas such as education and clean energy that he thinks will create lasting, forward-looking jobs.

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Giffords' husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, however, was not expected to join them.

Kelly was invited to attend but will remain in Houston, where he is based and where Giffords is now receiving medical care, her office said Monday. She was transferred to a facility there last Friday to begin rehabilitation after being hospitalized in Tucson since the Jan. 8 shootings.

"He wants to stay in Houston to be near his wife," said Mark Kimble, Giffords' spokesman in Tucson.

Intern Daniel Hernandez was hailed as a hero after the shooting. The 20-year-old University of Arizona student rushed to her side and applied pressure to her wounds until medical personnel arrived.

When he spoke Jan. 12 at a national televised memorial service in Tucson, Hernandez pointedly shunned the hero label. But Obama, who followed him to the microphone, politely disagreed and assured Hernandez that he was, in fact, a hero.

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Symbolism and protocol are very important to the Chinese and the opulence of Wednesday's black-tie affair with President Barack Obama should be plenty satisfying for Hu, a 67-year-old hydroelectric engineer who has ruled the country since 2002. That could help relations between the leaders of the world's two largest economies.

A grand soiree is in the works, but big questions remain. Will a celebrity chef do the cooking? Will first lady Michelle Obama's gown have an Oriental flair? Will the Obamas try to turn Hu on to American pop culture with the entertainment? The White House has yet to release any details.

But Mrs. Obama, White House social secretary Julianna Smoot and other staffers deeply immersed in pulling off the administration's third state dinner hope to avoid repeating the slights, both perceived and real, that marred Hu's reception for an April 2006 summit.

For starters, Hu was unhappy that President George W. Bush opted for lunch over a state dinner.

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Pressing for passage by year's end, he told lawmakers in his radio and Internet address Saturday that "our recovery will be strengthened or weakened based on the choice that now rests with Congress."

The deal would extend for all earners cuts in income tax rates that are set to expire next month. It would renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and trim Social Security taxes for one year.

Republicans support the plan because it would not impose higher taxes on the wealthiest, as Obama long had wanted to do. Democrats object to the pact on grounds that it is too generous to the rich.

Obama said the agreement will require that both parties accept some things they don't like. But he said the agreement will help the middle-class families that he and others have argued should be spared further economic hardship.

"The opportunity for families to send their kids to college hinges on this debate," Obama said. "The ability of parents to put food on the table while looking for a job depends on this debate."

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Obama and Vice President Joe Biden toured a rebounding Chrysler transmission plant in this hard-hit industrial city, holding it up as a symbol of the "hope and confidence" of a better economy even while millions are still unemployed and hurting.

The economic message, however, was overshadowed by North Korea's surprise shelling Tuesday of a South Korean island, a provocation that added another complication to Obama's recent foreign policy challenges.

The trip to Kokomo, a city Obama visited during his 2008 presidential campaign, came on the same day the Commerce Department reported that the economy grew slightly faster this summer than expected. It also followed GM's initial public stock offering last week, a turnabout sign for the bailed out automaker.

But in a more sobering development that underscored the president's difficulties, the Federal Reserve lowered its outlook for the economy through 2011, citing worse-than-expected growth.

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From blunt TV ads to friendlier backyard chats, they're straining to persuade women that it's the Democrats who are on their side and it's in women's vital interest to turn out and vote in the Nov. 2 elections that could give Republicans control of one or both houses of Congress.

In Seattle on Thursday, Obama told local women and others that "how well women do will help determine how well our families are doing as a whole." Accompanied by women who own businesses, he spoke in a family's backyard about the economy's effects on women and outlined ways he said his policies have helped them.

Later, trying to rekindle the enthusiasm of his presidential race, he all but ordered thousands of cheering supporters at a packed University of Washington arena to get out and vote, even though he's not on the ballot. Hoarsely shouting over the applause, he said, "If everybody that voted in 2008 shows up in 2010, we will win this election. We will win this election. But you've got to come out and vote."

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"We had to move so fast, we were in such emergency mode, that it was very difficult for us to spend time a lot doing victory laps and advertising exactly what we were doing," Obama said, "because we had to move onto the next thing."

"I take some responsibility for that," said Obama, speaking in Seattle at one of a host of campaign events he'll attend in the next three days as he strives to help fellow Democrats keep control of Congress.

Obama spoke to a gathering of women voters in the midst of his longest campaign swing as president, a four-day trip through Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada and Minnesota.

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In turn, House GOP leader John Boehner said the president had stooped to partisan attacks because he can't sell his own plan at a time when millions of people want to know what happened to the jobs Obama promised to create.

Days after imposing new regulations on the financial industry, Obama said Saturday that the new law is a "key pillar" of his overall economic plan to reverse the recession that began on Wall Street and build a stronger economy overall.

"It took nearly a decade of failed economic policies to create this mess, and it will take years to fully repair the damage," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. "But I am confident that we are finally headed in the right direction. We are moving forward. And what we can't afford right now is to go back to the same ideas that created this mess in the first place."

Previewing one of the arguments he'll be making as he campaigns for congressional Democrats heading into the November midterm elections, Obama acknowledged that the economic growth on his watch isn't nearly enough to replace the millions of lost jobs.

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In an Oval Office meeting with Netanyahu Tuesday, Obama also hailed what he called "real progress" in the Gaza Strip, where Israel recently relaxed an embargo on the entry of goods.

Obama said the U.S. would never ask Israel to take any steps that undermine its security.

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

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed into a White House meeting Tuesday with the same goal: trying to move the Israelis and Palestinians to resume face-to-face peace talks.

Netanyahu's limousine arrived at the West Wing entrance of the White House for the meeting as protesters gathered across the street in Lafayette Park chanted "No More Aid, End the Blockade," referring to Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The prime minister had no comment as he entered the White House.

Netanyahu on Sunday endorsed the U.S. call for direct talks between the two parties, just days after White House officials said Obama would push during the Oval Office session for those negotiations to get under way sooner rather than later.

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"Ultimately there is no dividing line between Main Street and Wall Street. We rise or we fall together as one nation. So I urge you to join me," Obama said in a high-stakes speech near the nation's financial hub.

The president acknowledged differences of opinion over how to best protect bailout-weary taxpayers but denounced criticism from some Republicans who claim a Democratic-sponsored bill headed for Senate action would encourage rather than discourage future bailouts of huge banks.

"That may make for a good sound bite, but it's not factually accurate," Obama said. He said the overhaul legislation would "put a stop to taxpayer-funded bailouts."

Obama's speech came at a delicate time in negotiations over the Senate measure, which could be debated next week. The House has passed its own version of financial overhaul legislation. Obama did not say which one he favored but told an audience that included dozens of financial leaders "both bills represent significant improvement on the flawed rules we have in place today."

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In a speech Thursday at New York's Cooper Union college, in the shadow of Wall Street, Obama will outline the need for legislation imposing new financial regulations and explain the risks of doing nothing, according to excerpts released hours before his address.

The president will also call on Wall Street to join -- not fight -- the overhaul effort.

Obama is to speak at Cooper Union, where he also delivered remarks on financial reform as a presidential candidate in March 2008 -- a speech in which he decried what he said were practices that reward financial manipulation instead of productivity and sound business practices.

"I take no satisfaction in noting that my comments have largely been borne out by the events that followed," Obama will say on Thursday.

"But I repeat what I said then because it is essential that we learn the lessons of this crisis, so we don't doom ourselves to repeat it. And make no mistake, that is exactly what will happen if we allow this moment to pass -- an outcome that is unacceptable to me and to the American people."

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