“President Obama plunged into the midst of Europe’s rapidly disintegrating debt deal on Thursday, arriving in this iconic seaside town to exhort European leaders to get their financial house in order,” the New York Times says. “During an initial meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Mr. Obama called a resolution of the European financial crisis the most important task facing world leaders gathered at the Group of 20 summit and largely stuck to his administration’s overall message that Europe’s leaders must ‘flesh out details’ about the plan they announced last week to deal with the debt crisis in the euro zone countries.”

Politico’s Ben Smith: “[A]s the president’s re-election team begins in earnest to attack Mitt Romney, Obama faces one of the most difficult tests of his political career: to tear down Romney without getting a single smudge of dirt on his own shirtfront - a trick he has performed deftly in previous races.”

It's not uncommon for the president to do quick interviews with local news stations as he's traveling around the country.  But yesterday’s setup at the White House was a little unusual, NBC’s Shawna Thomas reported. The White House invited 10 stations, including three NBC affiliates, WAVY, KUSA and KGW, to send anchors to interview the president and then report live from the White House South Lawn.  While the local stations had questions specific to their areas, the president used the time to further push the components of the American Jobs Act.

The president in an interview with WAVY harkened back to the Clinton years: "One way of looking at it is we tried this experiment in the 90s under Bill Clinton. We had slightly higher tax rates. Everybody was paying their fair share. Twenty-two million jobs created and by the way businesses did better than ever. Between 200 and 2010 we lowered those rates for people at the very top and we had very little job growth. So we've tried both approaches."

Tom Schaad from WAVY said in a lunch with White House Senior Advisor David Plouffe, Plouffe explained how stations were chosen. “They selected certain stations, No. 1 TV stations, in certain markets in certain states,” Schaad said. “One from each state that they thought was very important to get this message out about the jobs bill.”

The phrase of the week at the White House has been "executive action."  That's what the administration has termed the announcements the President has made about changes to government mortgage and student loan programs.

The thing is, no one is quite sure what an executive action is.  What is clear is that these Presidential moves have not been "executive orders." According to the C-Span Glossary an executive order is "a presidential directive with the force of law” that doesn’t need congressional approval. And the White House clarifies that executive orders are "binding because as Chief Executive the President has the power to command the executive branch."

But the trusty C-Span Glossary has no entry for "executive action" and tonight the White House clarified why, it's because it's kind of a catch all term. "It just means something the executive branch does.  The use of any of a number of tools in the executive branch’s toolbox," said one administration official.

Executive actions can include "regulation, enforcement, statements of policy...and numerous other things," the official continued.

So, basically, it's anything the President does that doesn't modify a law.  Multiple officials have said this is a continuation of changes President Obama has called for in various departments throughout his presidency. 

It's just that this week, the packaging is a little prettier.

The New York Times looks at all of the executive actions the Obama White House has announced in recent days. The flurry of announcements, senior administration officials said, is calculated to show a president who is determined to keep pushing on jobs, regardless of resistance from Congress to his broader legislative proposals. Given the modest scale of the measures, they are as much about symbolism as substance. ‘It’s just extremely difficult to move the needle on unemployment without spending money, and for that you need Congress,” said Jared Bernstein, a former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. ‘These are useful measures of relatively small magnitude, but anything helps.’”

Politico’s Roger Simon writes about his candid interview with White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley. “Daley, the White House chief of staff, will twice in the course of our hourlong interview refer to the first three years of Barack Obama’s administration as ‘ungodly’ and once as ‘brutal.’” More from the story: “‘It’s been a brutal three years,’ he says. ‘It’s been a very, very difficult three years, an incredible three years. And we are doing all this under the overhang of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. F—k! It wasn’t like all this was happening in good times.’”

“But good times — well, better times — are possible before November 2012, Daley says. And all President Obama has to do to achieve this is make a startling end run around not just the Republicans but also the Democrats, in Congress.”

“A legal advocacy group that seeks equal treatment for gays serving in the military filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court today against several high-ranking Obama administration officials, challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act and its effect on gay service members,” the Boston Globe writes.

“Across America, despite the hundreds protesting for limited government or more government action, a broad swath of the middle class hit hard by the crash in housing prices is quietly resigned, given up on seeing any relief -- particularly from politicians,” the AP reports.

“Some glitz, some glamor and plenty of campaign cash. President Barack Obama is hitting a reliable fundraising trail in California, tapping star donors and trading quips with Jay Leno in what is for him a well-worn path,” AP writes.

The New York Daily News notes that Obama’s trip, though, politically is all about Hispanics.

“President Obama did an end-run around Congress on a trip to Las Vegas yesterday, launching an expanded program to help down-on-their-luck homeowners refinance their loans -- while hitting the jackpot for his campaign at a fund-raiser at the Bellagio Hotel,” the New York Post adds. 

“President Obama's approval rating in Gallup's popularity tracker went up 6 points in the past week - to 44%,” The New York Daily News notes. “Obama's poll numbers jumped in the wake of the Thursday slaying of Libyan strongman Moammar Khadafy.” It’s worth pointing out Obama’s approval rating in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has been 44% for the past two months.

“Joe Biden’s office has complained to the Senate press gallery about a confrontation the vice president had with a conservative journalist last week on Capitol Hill,” The Hill reports. “Biden aides asked whether Senate rules were broken in the wake of the contentious exchange between the vice president and the reporter.”

“President Obama’s reelection campaign has hired a former lobbyist to serve as a senior adviser to the 2012 team,” The Hill reports. “The Obama campaign announced Monday the hiring of Broderick Johnson, a veteran of the Clinton White House and Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) 2004 presidential campaign.”

“With his jobs plan stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, President Obama on Monday will begin a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming months, heralded by a new mantra: ‘We can’t wait’ for lawmakers to act,” the New York Times says.

John Harwood writes that things don’t look bullish for tax reform. “Even in good times, tax reform poses steep political challenges. And these aren’t exactly good times,” he says. “That helps explain the angst among advocates of revamping the tax code as they have watched events erode their hopes of near-term success on Capitol Hill. The escalating tax debate among Republican presidential candidates ensures the issue won’t go away, but it also means any resolution will probably wait until after Election Day 2012.”

“Vice President Joe Biden yesterday doubled down on his claim that the president’s jobs bill would stop rapes and murders,” The New York Post writes. Biden told CNN, “That is a fact. If [cities] don’t get help, crime is going to continue to go up.”

But crime has actually gone down since the recession began. Some criminologists are even looking into what they call the “Obama Effect.”

But there’s also another Obama Effect, Politico writes, “In trips to Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania — all states that he carried in 2008 — members of Congress were notably missing from the president’s side. Though none came out and said they were deliberately avoiding him, they didn’t have to: Dodging a presidential candidate who’s riding low in the polls is a time-honored political practice.”

“President Barack Obama is employing the services of the first lady on the final leg of his three-day bus tour as they tout proposals in the president's jobs bill that the White House says would put more of the nation's unemployed veterans back to work,” the  AP writes. “During a joint appearance Wednesday before airmen and soldiers at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, the president and his wife, Michelle, also were to announce a deal with the private sector to hire 25,000 veterans and military spouses. The White House said the American Logistics Association, which includes major companies like Tyson Foods Inc. and Coca-Cola Co., is aiming to meet that goal by the end of 2013.”

The Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Winding into Virginia on the second day of his bus tour, President Barack Obama on Tuesday pitched his jobs plan — and the cash it could direct to teachers, police and firefighters — and criticized Republican efforts to block the package. He'll switch subjects this morning in Hampton to focus on hiring veterans, before motoring into the Richmond area, where he will visit a Chesterfield County fire station in House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's district. By 8:30 a.m., a crowd of several hundred members of the military had gathered at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton to see the president.”

“After the feds announced Tuesday they deported an all-time high number of people last fiscal year - 396,906 - a White House official went on the defensive at a local confab to court Latino voters,” the New York Daily News reports. "It's not fun to enforce immigration laws," Felicia Escobar, a senior policy adviser on President Obama's domestic policy council, said at New York's Hispanic Community Action Summit. She added, "We all think that the laws should be changed, and the system is broken.”

AP

Vice President Joe Biden (D)

Vice President Joe Biden lashed out at critics today who have claimed that his and the President's efforts to get a job's bill passed is mere "campaigning." 

"Are we campaigning?"  he said. "Yes! We are campaigning to change this environment." 

Biden was in York, Pa., visiting the Goode Elementary School to argue that the American Jobs Act would support 400,000 education jobs. 

Because of budget cuts, the York School District has been forced to lay off 100 teachers.

Waxing at times poetic, Biden stressed the importance of education in keeping the nation competitive.

"If our students suffer, our future suffers,” Biden said, adding, "They are the kite strings that lift our national ambitions aloft."

The AP: “Deep in the mountains of politically important North Carolina, Obama soaked up the region’s autumn beauty as he assailed foes of his jobs legislation, accusing them of failing to listen to the public.” More: “In North Carolina, the president directed his most pointed remarks at Senate Republicans, who last week blocked action on his full $447 billion proposal combining tax cuts and new spending… Republicans denounced the bus trip as nothing more than a taxpayer-funded campaign trip to try to bolster Obama’s standing for the 2012 election. As he traveled along on his imposing black bus, there was little denying the presidential politics at play at each stop.”

The coverage from the Asheville Citizen-Times: “Barack Obama made it clear Monday the gloves are off.

Speaking to more than 2,000 people at Asheville Regional Airport, the president vowed to take his jobs fight back to Congress, breaking a $447 billion plan that failed in the Senate into smaller, easier-to-digest pieces. His plan, the president said, would put teachers, construction workers, public safety employees and others back to work ‘right now’ — a phrase he touched on repeatedly.”

“That message hit home with Scott Anderson, a 34-year-old Asheville construction worker who’s been unemployed for nearly a year. ‘This is what the country needs,’ said Anderson, a father of three. ‘The people in Washington fight with each other all the time. They never think about what’s good for the people. What’s good for working people. They don’t know how tough it is for a lot of folks out here.’”

During his bus tour, Obama has said that the Senate GOP jobs plan has been panned by the same economist who said Obama’s job bill would create 1.9 million jobs. As Greg Sargent wrote last week, “Moody’s recently estimated that Obama’s jobs plan, if passed, would add two percentage points to economic growth next year, add 1.9 million jobs, and cut unemployment by a full percentage point. By contrast, the Senate GOP plan isn’t designed to help the economy in the short term, [Moody’s] Faucher said. ‘Should we look at regulations and make sure they make sense from a cost benefit standpoint? Certainly. Should we reduce the budget deficit over the long run? Certainly,’ Faucher said. ‘But in the short term, demand is weak, businesses aren’t hiring, and consumers aren’t spending. That’s the cause of the current weakness — and Republican Senate proposals aren’t going to address that in the short term.’”

“The White House sent mixed messages yesterday on the future of a financially troubled long-term care program in President Obama’s health overhaul law, as supporters and foes heaped criticism on the administration,” the AP says. “At stake is the CLASS Act, a major new program intended to provide affordable long-term care insurance. Last Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the administration would not proceed with the plan because she has been unable to find a way to make the program financially solvent. Yesterday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a ruling that cleared the way for repealing the act, but the administration rejected that step - and created considerable confusion. Backers and opponents said the White House is trying to have it both ways.”

NBC Washington writes: “A van containing President Obama's teleprompter and podium were stolen from a Virginia hotel parking lot on Monday, NBC12 in Richmond reports. The truck was parked at the Virginia Center Commons Courtyard Marriott near Richmond before the president's scheduled Wednesday appearance in Chesterfield, the Richmond station reports.  In addition to the teleprompter, $200,000 worth of audio equipment and presidential seals mounted on Obama's podium were inside the stolen vehicle.”

“President Barack Obama will call on Congress this week to send $35 billion to communities to rehire teachers, firefighters and police, in the first stage of his strategy to get some parts of his jobs plan enacted, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said yesterday,” Bloomberg writes. “ ‘It’s the president’s view that they should take up first the proposal that’s included in the American Jobs Act to help communities rehire teachers, police officers and firefighters,’ Earnest said on a conference call with reporters previewing the president’s bus trip to North Carolina and Virginia Oct. 17 to Oct. 19. ‘That’s where he believes the process should get started and he believes that process should start this week.”

The Asheville Citizen-Times: “Several thousand people turned out Sunday to get tickets to President Barack Obama’s speech on jobs today at Asheville Regional Airport. Many waited in line much of the day in the Gate 6 parking lot at the WNC Agricultural Center, some since early morning, for a chance at the free tickets. ‘It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the president in person,’ said Stacey Gardner, a 27-year-old student from Greenville, S.C. ‘I’m interested in the jobs plan, but mostly I’m interested in seeing him.’”

“When Lucille Richmond cast her ballot for Barack Obama three years ago, she, like many African-Americans, embraced the historic opportunity to help elect the nation’s first black president,” the Boston Globe writes. “But waiting in line at the county employment security commission last week, the 52-year-old grandmother — who lost two food preparation jobs and is searching for full-time work — can’t muster the will to support Obama for a second term. ‘I don’t see what he’s done,’ said Richmond, a Democrat. ‘I’m not even going to waste my time and vote.’ The president will visit North Carolina today in an attempt to stem such sentiments as he promotes his jobs bill. Obama’s most ardent supporters in Durham’s black community worry that waning enthusiasm among African-Americans may prevent him from repeating his razor-thin North Carolina victory of 2008.”

NPR strikes a similar chord: “This is not a state where a strong union presence can mobilize potential supporters. So he'll have to rely all the more heavily on the young voters and African-Americans who tipped the scales for him in 2008.

The New York Times: “The presence of Mr. Obama seemed to energize the crowd, with a loud ovation and shouts of ‘Four more years!’ and ‘That’s the man!’ as he took the stage. But his speech drew tepid applause from some in the audience who said they felt he was too restrained. ‘He has the ability to put it where the goats can get it, but instead he keeps it all in a little box,’ Ms. Harris said, a reference to Mr. Obama’s oratory skills. She added: ‘We like him. We just wish he would fight harder.’”

The Washington Post highlights the dilemma the White House faces over the Keystone XL pipeline. “The Keystone permit decision has landed literally and figuratively on the White House’s doorstep. Several key union allies and the Canadian government are pitted against environmental and youth activists who are threatening to turn Keystone into a campaign issue for President Obama.”

John Harwood writes how White House Bill Daley has struggled to please both Wall Street and the left.

“President Barack Obama's campaign raised more than $70 million combined for his re-election and the Democratic party during the summer, an amount that gives him a clear advantage over his Republican rivals but is less than his initial fundraising effort,” AP reports, adding: “The numbers include $42.8 million for Obama's campaign and $27.3 million for the Democratic National Committee, which will help Obama's re-election effort next year.”

More: “Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in an e-mail to supporters that more than 600,000 people donated to the campaign in the most recent quarter, more than the previous three months. He said more than 980,000 people have given money to the campaign, and in the most recent quarter, 98 percent of the donors gave $250 or less, with an average donation of $56.”

“President Obama challenged Republican lawmakers Thursday to pass his jobs package and deny him a key plank in his campaign platform: running against a ‘do-nothing Congress,’” The Hill writes.

The New York Times on Obama’s news conference yesterday: “In perhaps his most sober remarks about the economy this year, President Obama on Thursday described the weakening economy as ‘an emergency” and made the case for his jobs bill as “an insurance policy against a possible double-dip recession.’”

“House Speaker John Boehner yesterday ripped President Obama for ‘throwing in the towel’ on fixing the economy and spending all his time campaigning,” the New York Post reports. Boehner said, “Nothing has disappointed me more than what’s happened over the last five weeks, to watch the president of the United States give up on governing, give up on leading, and spend full time campaigning. All year, I’ve reached out to the president. Yet the president, some 14 months before the election, throws in the towel ... We’re legislating; he’s campaigning.”