WASHINGTON – In a moving naturalization ceremony in the East Room of the White House, 25 active members of the military declared their allegiance to the United States and became U.S. citizens on Wednesday.

The group hailed from countries ranging from the Ukraine to Cameroon to Honduras. President Barack Obama used the event to highlight his recent immigration announcement and renew the call for comprehensive immigration reform.

The president proclaimed that “America’s success demands comprehensive immigration reform” and that a “Dream Act,” legislation that would give young illegal immigrants a path toward permanent residency, was still necessary.

“For just as we remain a nation of laws, we have to remain a nation of immigrants. That's why as another step forward we're lifting the shadow of deportation…from deserving young people who were brought to this country as children.  That's why we still need a Dream Act to keep talented young people who want to contribute to our society and serve our country,” the president said.

He used the 25 men and women in uniform before him as an example of how the American dream “endures for all those…who are willing to work hard, play by the rules and meet their responsibilities.”

The president also declared the naturalization ceremony as  the “perfect way to celebrate America’s birthday.”  He also said of the group, “All of you did something profound.  You chose to serve.  You put on the uniform of a country that was not yet fully your own in a time of war.  Some of you deployed into harm's way. You displayed the values that we celebrate every Fourth of July: Duty, responsibility and patriotism.”

Last month, Obama announced a policy to stop deporting young illegal immigrants who entered the United States as children if they meet certain requirements.

After administering the Oath of Allegiance, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano highlighted efforts by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to expedite the naturalization process for members of the military.

“Since 2001, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has naturalized over 80,000 members of the armed forces, bringing immigration services to our troops wherever they serve. And since 2009, we have offered non-citizen enlistees the opportunity to naturalize before completing basic training so they can graduate as American citizens,” she said.   

It currently takes a few weeks to a few months for an immigrant who has enlisted in the U.S. military to become naturalized citizen.   However, one must be a legal immigrant to enlist, therefore the president’s embargo on deporting young illegal immigrants does not give them an opportunity to enlist and find a way to citizenship via that pathway.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- President Obama told the graduating class of Air Force Academy cadets that they would be starting their military careers in an international environment shaped largely by his administration's policies.

The president described a new era in combat defined by stronger international alliances and a leaner fighting force, shaped by this administration's work to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and efforts to overhaul the defense budget.

“For a decade, we have labored under the dark cloud of war. Now, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon,” Obama said, noting that this class was the first to graduate in nine years with no American soldiers fighting in Iraq. He mentioned several of his administration’s other defining national security actions, including killing Osama bin Laden, putting al Qaeda on “the path to defeat,” and drawing down forces in Afghanistan.

“Ending these wars will also ensure that the burden of our security no longer falls so heavily on the shoulders of our men and women in uniform. As good as you are, you can’t be expected to do it alone.”

Obama, who campaigned on ending the war in Iraq, suggested that the view of the United States around the world has improved since his administration implemented his national security plan.

“Around the world, the United States is leading once more. From Europe to Asia, our alliances are stronger than ever. Our ties with the Americas are deeper. We’re setting the agenda in the region that will shape our long-term security and prosperity like no other—the Asia-Pacific.”

“When people around the world are asked, 'Which country do you admire most?' one nation comes out on top: the United States of America,” he added.

During the speech at the Academy’s Falcon Field, the president also seemed to subtly push back on some criticisms he’s weathered from opponents on his approach to national security.

Alluding to the criticism that the United States had “led from behind” during the March 2011 military operations in Libya, the president turned that phrase around, saying that the military prevented a massacre in the country “with an international mission in which the United States – and our Air Force – led from the front,” with extra emphasis on the last word of the sentence.

Obama also paraphrased a conservative buzzword –- “American exceptionalism” -- often used by Republican detractors to criticize the president's worldview.

“The United States has been, and will always be, the one indispensable nation in world affairs. This is one of the many examples of why America is exceptional,” he said.

And later, he used the phrase again: “I see an American Century because of the character of our country—the spirit that has always made us exceptional.”

The president also noted the spending reductions that will affect the military in the coming years, mandated in part by last summer's debt-ceiling agreement. But he said that he would not “allow us to make the mistakes of the past,” without getting into specifics.

The trip was the president’s second to Colorado, a crucial swing state for his re-election, in a month. He visited the University of Colorado at Boulder on April 23 on an official visit intended to urge Congress to pass measures to keep student loan interest rates low.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama greet suporters after a campaign event Saturday at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio.

RICHMOND, Virginia -- In back-to-back speeches in two key swing states, the Obama campaign indicated how it wants to define the general election: as a choice between a tool of congressional Republicans who wants to undo the president’s first-term agenda and an incumbent looking to spend the next four years building on his achievements.

The president seemed to tie his presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney to Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan, which Democrats use to represent congressional Republicans’ entire agenda. Obama warned that in Romney, the House GOP had a candidate who would be willing to gut Medicare and end regulations on insurance companies and banks – policies “that created this mess,” the president said.

“After a long and spirited primary, Republicans in Congress have found a nominee for president who has promised to rubber-stamp this agenda if he gets the chance,” Obama said at Ohio State University, his first stop of the day, later adhering to the same script at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

“We cannot give him that chance,” Obama continued.

The president also sought to define himself in his two speeches Saturday, employing populist themes that touch on those of several past presidential campaigns while remaining entirely unique to the Obama campaign. Using a sort of “values play” evocative of the pitches used by the Clinton campaign, the president’s wife, Michelle, underscored that he grew up in an environment where everybody played by the rules, sometimes struggling to get by.

“He is the son of a single mother who struggled to put herself through school and pay the bills.  That’s who he is.  He’s the grandson of a woman who woke up before dawn every day to catch a bus to her job at the bank,” the first lady said of her husband in Columbus.

“So believe me, Barack knows what it means when a family struggles,” she continued.

Michelle Obama’s speech also employed a tactic from George W. Bush’s re-election campaign, in which the incumbent is portrayed as the familiar choice against an unknown risk.

“We all know what Barack Obama is -- who he is,” she said. “We all know what our president stands for, right?” she implored the audience.

There’s also a little bit of Harry Truman’s campaign evident in Obama’s pitch, as he warns supporters that they need to re-elect him in order to stop “those guys” in Congress who are threatening to pass items like the Ryan budget.

“As long as I’m president of the United States, I will never allow Medicare to be turned into a voucher that would end the program as we know it,” Obama said. “That’s what’s at stake in this election.”

And in preventing Republicans from accomplishing their agenda, Obama is arguing, the lives of average Americans will continue to improve – even as he acknowledges they are not where they need to be currently.

So in a twist of Ronald Reagan’s “are you better off than you were four years ago” trope, which Romney is using, the president is asking his supporters if they think they are on the right direction to being better off, say, four years from now.

The real question, he said, “is not just about how we’re doing today. It’s about how we’ll be doing tomorrow.”

Obama drops gloves vs Romney in campaign launch

“Will we better off if more Americans get a better education? That’s the question. Will we better off if we depend less on foreign oil and more on our own ingenuity? That's the question.”

The decision to re-ask a different question to the "are you better off" refrain is a tacit acknowledgment by the campaign that the "are you better off" question isn't an easy one for voters to answer in the affirmative for Obama.

While his stump speech did copy some pages from past playbooks, one aspect of most presidential re-election pitches was absent from the president’s opening salvo: the introduction of a clear second-term agenda.

Instead, the president’s stump speech was all about protecting his first-term achievements like the health care reform law and developing alternative energy sources. And while, historically, second terms are mostly about preserving such accomplishments, there is usually at least a vague nod to what the president wants to get done in a second term.

But that was missing in Saturday’s speeches. Perhaps by the convention, the president will have a more direct pitch about what another four years will look like.

All about field operations
This election will likely be decided on the two groups of swing voters in American politics: that tiny slice of independents who actually do vacillate between the two parties, making up maybe 8 to 10 percent of the entire electorate, and those swing voters who “swing” between voting and not voting.

And while the Obama campaign will hold rallies like the two Saturday to generate media buzz, their more immediate concern is that they connect with exactly these swing voters – especially the second subset – which both the president and first lady seemed to make clear.

“We are going to win this thing the old-fashioned way,” the president said, emphasizing the need to go door to door and establish neighborhood-by-neighborhood teams of volunteers.

The first lady made a pitch directly to college students who, along with African-Americans, are the two groups who came out in the strongest numbers for the president but also run high risk of staying home in 2012.

“To all of the college students out there, all of you -- if you're going to be moving over the summer, remember to register at your new address in the fall. You got that? Get that done,” she urged.

Lost energy?
The crowds at Ohio State University’s Schottenstein Center were screaming enthusiastically, waving signs and chanting “Four more years! Four more years!”

But the arena did not reach its full capacity of 18,300, with about 4,000 of those seats remaining unfilled. Observers of the 2008 race know that the first Obama campaign would have been able to fill every seat.

But the crowds at both OSU and VCU were more enthusiastic than any so far at a Romney rally. And while the Republican Party has joyfully pointed out that the Obama campaign isn’t generating the same excitement that it did in 2008, the only campaign that has gotten more than 5,000 folks to show up is Ron Paul's, not Romney's.

And while the GOP has fun pointing out that Obama 12 isn't inspiring the response that Obama 08 is, it's worse for the party out of power. The real reason? This is going to be a negative campaign. And negative campaigns involving incumbents are simply different beasts.

It's a campaign in which both sides are painting a pessimistic view of life if the other side wins.

The Obama campaign did flex muscle the Romney campaign has yet to show: It can throw a big rally with supporters who are still gaga for their candidate. The little things that win close elections are something Team Obama is proving fairly adept at. Can Team Romney keep up on this front? It's an open question.

With both sides eying one of the fastest-growing blocs in the American electorate, President Barack Obama's re-election campaign on Wednesday announced an aggressive outreach to Latino voters, pushing Democrats' reform proposals and casting Mitt Romney as "extreme" on immigration issues.

The new "Latinos for Obama" effort includes on-the-ground volunteer and staff outreach as well as Spanish-language ads slated to air in heavily Hispanic swing states Colorado, Florida, and Nevada.

Backers of the president hope that Romney's embrace of Arizona's controversial immigration law as well as his pledge to oppose the DREAM Act -- which would offer a path to citizenship for some children who were brought to the United States illegally at an early age -- will mobilize Latinos against the presumptive Republican nominee.

"This election is an opportunity in this country for the Latino community to send a message," said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., on a conference call announcing the new push. "The reality is that we look at this as the civil rights issue of our time."

Opposition to the DREAM Act is "insulting" to Hispanic families, added San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who -- echoed by campaign manager Jim Messina -- labeled Romney's positions "the most extreme nominee that the Republican party has ever had on immigration."

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has pushed for a "conservative alternative" to the DREAM Act, which would allow some young illegal immigrants to stay in the United States but would prevent them from attaining citizenship. Messina said Wednesday that the president has been focused on reviving the original legislation, which failed in the Senate by a narrow margin late in 2010, but added that the White House would work to "find common ground" with those on the other side of the aisle. 

The Republican National Committee announced its own Latino-focused program earlier this week, launching community outreach directors in Florida, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia.  A key part of their message, said chairman Reince Priebus, is to highlight the impact the nation's sluggish economy has on the Hispanic community.

Hispanic voters favored Obama over Republican John McCain by an almost 2-1 margin in the 2008 presidential election. Nationally, the Hispanic vote in 2008 rose to 9 percent of the electorate, up from 8 percent in 2004, but turnout jumped by five points in swing states Colorado and Nevada and by nine points in New Mexico.

WASHINGTON -- With last night's hat trick of decisive primary state wins behind him, a victorious Mitt Romney launched Wednesday into his general election attack against President Obama, whom he accused of "hide and seek" politics that obscure his true agenda for a second term.

Casting Obama as both unfocused and partisan on economic issues, Romney questioned his Democratic rival's "candor" and painted the fall campaign as a referendum on his policies.

Referencing the moment last week when Obama was overheard suggesting to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more “flexibility" in nuclear negotiations during a second term, Romney said the incident reveals that the president "does not want to share his real plans before the election, either with the public or with the press." 

"By 'flexibility,' he means that 'what the American public doesn't know won't hurt him.'" he told a conference of newspaper editors in Washington DC. "He is intent on hiding. You and I will have to do the seeking."

Romney, who has taken on the mantle of presumptive nominee despite the persistence of Rick Santorum's dwindling campaign, also said the president's strategy to resolve the nation's ballooning entitlement costs amounts only to finger-pointing.

"This election will be about principle. Freedom and opportunity will be on the ballot," the former Massachusetts governor said. "I am offering a real choice and a new beginning. I am running for president because I have the experience and the vision to get us out of this mess."

Obama, who spoke in the same venue yesterday, used his remarks for a blistering broadside against the Republican agenda, mentioning Romney by name for the first time this cycle. 

Labeling as "social Darwinism" the budget measures championed by Rep. Paul Ryan and embraced by Romney, Obama said Republicans have "proposed a budget so far to the right it makes the Contract with America look like the New Deal."

Romney said Wednesday that Obama has greatly exaggerated the impact of the Ryan plan.

"President Obama came here yesterday and railed against arguments no one is making – and criticized policies no one is proposing," he said. "It’s one of his favorite strategies – setting up straw men to distract from his record."

Romney, who received muted applause from the audience of journalists, also disputed Obama's assertion that the vaunted GOP icon Ronald Reagan would be unable to succeed in today's GOP contest.

The Republican presidential frontrunner’s remarks to the group came in a hotel ballroom across the street from the venue where Romney announced the end of his 2008 run at an annual conference of conservatives four years ago.

President Obama's re-election team argued that Mitt Romney had threatened to drive independent voters away the GOP in the general election by moving rightward to win primary contests.

The morning after Romney failed to clinch the Republican nod in Super Tuesday's slate of 11 contests, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina and senior adviser David Axelrod painted the not-quite-nominee as having "leveraged" the general election with "tactical" moves to the right.

A prime example of that "leveraging" in their eyes? Romney's reaction to Rush Limbaugh's flammably-controversial comments about women and birth
control.

Without prompting from reporters' questions, senior strategist David Axelrod mentioned the Limbaugh matter three times, calling Romney's response "timid" and accusing him of being "afraid to challenge the de facto boss of his party."

"If you don't have the strength to stand up to the most strident voices in the party how are you going to stand up to Ahmedinajad?" Axelrod said of his response. "How are you going to stand up to the challenges of the presidency?"

"The Limbaugh thing was a test of leadership, and you have them all the time. And Mitt Romney's failed those tests in the campaign," he added.

Messina said that the recent spate of primary results have not changed the campaign's five potential paths to 270 electoral votes as laid out last year -- a series of regional efforts that include pushes in the mountain west and the rust belt.

"If anything, our map has gotten more expansive and there's more opportunities," he added, citing the campaign's strong organizational infrastructure in swing states like Arizona and Florida.

The duo characterized Romney's apparent lurching towards the nomination as a sign of Democrats' strength in rebuilding the coalition that boosted them to victory four years ago.

"He continues to kind of grind out a kind of tactical victory, tactical victories in a kind of death march here," said Axelrod of Romney.

And both pointed out Romney's recent primary state losses among low-income workers and youth, saying that Romney's negative advertising has taken a toll on his appeal to wide swaths of the electorate.

"They appear to be appealing to the worst instincts and impulses. And I think there's a price to be paid for that," Axelrod said.

As for internal Democratic politics, Messina would only generally comment on Obama's record on gay rights in response to comments this morning by DNC convention chair Antonio Villaraigosa calling for making gay marriage is a part of the Democratic party platform.

"There's a process to go through this discussion and the DNC will go through that and we will have a platform," he said.

Villiaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles, said that fighting for same-sex marriage was essential to the Democratic Party's identity.

"I do, I think it's basic to who we are," he said at a breakfast sponsored by Politico.