WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is facing the stiffest political headwinds he has experienced since taking office 18 months ago as Americans sour on his handling of the U.S. economy.

Two opinion polls published on Tuesday painted a grim picture as the U.S. economy emerges from the financial crisis and its worst downturn since the 1930s.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – President Barack Obama urged the U.S. Congress on Friday to pass a $5 billion expansion of tax credits for clean energy manufacturing that he said would generate tens of thousands of new jobs.

With anxiety over high unemployment threatening Obama's Democrats in November congressional elections, he used a campaign swing for key political candidates to defend his economic agenda and promote job-boosting measures.

HENDERSON, Nev. – U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle on Friday denounced Majority Leader Harry Reid as a 'desperate man' who was distorting her conservative record while ignoring a state that leads the nation in joblessness, foreclosures and bankruptcies.

HENDERSON, Nev. – U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle on Friday denounced Majority Leader Harry Reid as a 'desperate man' who was distorting her conservative record while ignoring a state that leads the nation in joblessness, foreclosures and bankruptcies.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AFP) – US President Barack Obama Thursday bemoaned a "sledgehammer" last decade of economic irresponsibility, but insisted his policies were succeeding in powering a genuine recovery.

Obama launched a two-day western political swing by touring a plant which makes electric vehicles, a symbol of his plan to spend billions of stimulus dollars to develop a new job-rich green energy revolution.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – President Barack Obama defended his handling of the U.S. economy and blasted Republicans on Thursday for "peddling snake oil" as he went on a two-day campaign swing for fellow Democrats going into November's congressional elections.

Obama has come under fire for bank and auto bailouts and a $787 billion stimulus package whose effectiveness is a subject of debate. He is under election-year pressure to reduce a 9.5 percent unemployment rate but said he was confident Americans would "dig ourselves out of this hole".

LAS VEGAS – Mixing policy and politics, President Barack Obama called on Congress Friday to expand a clean energy tax credit that could pay off in Nevada, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is struggling in his re-election campaign.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – President Barack Obama told voters Thursday they can choose between the party that caused the economic meltdown and the one that's fixing it, seizing on a theme for the November midterms as he campaigned in Missouri and Nevada.

Here's something Capitol Hill lawmakers in both parties generally agree on: With the jobless rate near 10 percent and the economy only sputtering toward recovery, unemployment benefits should be extended beyond the 99 weeks -- or nearly two years -- that state and federal benefits currently last in the hardest-hit states.

But out on the campaign trail, it's a different story -- some insurgent Republican candidates with libertarian streaks are arguing to scale back -- not extend -- the benefits.

WASHINGTON – More than 1.3 million laid-off workers won't get their unemployment benefits reinstated before Congress goes on a weeklong break for Independence Day.

And hundreds of thousands more will lose their benefits in the coming weeks.