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CHICAGO – Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi may not yet be a Republican presidential candidate, but his travel itinerary suggests that may be simply a formality, as he visited President Obama’s hometown on Monday before flying to Iowa to begin testing themes of a probable campaign.

In a luncheon speech to the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Barbour delivered a sweeping indictment of the president’s economic and energy policies, saying that expanding the size of government would not lead to the creation of more jobs in the United States.

“Let’s look at their record,” he said. “In the last two years, the federal government spent $7 trillion and our economy lost seven million jobs. I guess we ought to be glad they didn’t spend $12 trillion. We might have lost 12 million jobs.”

Mr. Barbour is among the wide field of Republicans who are considering entering the fight for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. He has said that he intends to make a decision after the Mississippi legislative session ends next month.

In a 30-minute address to business leaders, Mr. Barbour offered a preview to the message of his potential candidacy, with a heavy emphasis on traditional Republican themes of economic growth, job creation and increasing oil production through expanding drilling. He delivered more criticism than specific policy proposals.

“In fairness, the Obama administration arrived in office facing some of the worst economic conditions in decades,” Mr. Barbour said. “But for more than two years, this administration and its Congress has pursued policy after policy that created economic uncertainty or directly hurt the economy.”

As the country’s energy policy takes on heightened importance with the turmoil in the Middle East and the nuclear disaster in the wake of the earthquake in Japan, he said: “The Obama energy policy basically boils down to this: increase the price of energy so Americans will use less of it. That’s an environmental policy, not an energy policy.”

He stopped well short of declaring his intentions. In a question following the speech, a man in the audience asked if Mr. Barbour was ready to announce his presidential bid.

“No,” Mr. Barbour said, not pausing for even a moment. As laughter broke out in the room, he added: “That was easy.”

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President Obama made an unannounced trip to Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday afternoon to honor the last American World War I veteran.

Mr. Obama, joined by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., paid his respects to Frank Buckles, who died on Feb. 27 at the age of 110. Mr. Buckles, who was a corporal in the Army, was buried with full military honors at Arlington.

Republican and Democratic leaders denied a request from Mr. Buckles’ family that his body lie in honor in the Rotunda of the Capitol, a privilege usually reserved for presidents, military officers and, occasionally, senators. In 2005, the civil rights icon Rosa Parks lie in honor in the rotunda, only the third civilian to be granted that honor.

Mr. Buckles, who served in France, lied about his age to join the Army at age 16.

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Doug Mills/The New York Times President Obama signed an electronic “white board” as he met with music students at a school in Arlington, Va.

2:22 p.m. | Updated President Obama called on Congress to revamp the “No Child Left Behind” education law by the time students start a new school year in September, urging lawmakers to “seize this education moment.”

Mr. Obama made the remarks on Monday at a school in Virginia, using the backdrop of a classroom to urge changes to a law that Democrats and Republicans agree is broken.

“I want every child in the country to head back to school in the fall knowing that their education is America’s priority,” the president said. “The goals of No Child Left Behind were the right goals. But what hasn’t worked is denying teachers, schools and states what they need to meet these goals.”

Mr. Obama last week met with lawmakers from both parties in an attempt to jump-start the debate over reauthorizing the law, known officially as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Enacted in 2002, it was one of President George W. Bush’s signature pieces of legislation.

But while both sides agree that the existing law needs and overhaul, there are differences over what needs to be done. Democrats have generally favored greater investment in schools while conservatives have pushed for more local control over decisions.

Unions have also complained about the president’s push for connecting teacher pay to judgments about classroom performance.

In his remarks, Mr. Obama called for changes to the education law that would push more control to local and state governments, improve the quality of testing, demand increased standards and increase accountability by principals.

In the face of an ongoing budget dispute with Republicans, Mr. Obama also said efforts to remake the law must be supported by the funding necessary to make it work.

“A budget that sacrifices our commitment to education would be a budget that’s sacrificing our country’s future. That would be a budget that sacrifices our children’s future. And I will not let it happen,” Mr. Obama said. “So yes, I’m determined to cut our deficits, but I refuse to do it by telling students here, who are so full of promise, that we’re not willing to invest in your future.”

UPDATE: Representative John Kline ,the chairman of the House education committee, said in a statement Monday that “the president’s remarks affirm the importance of fixing the nation’s broken education system. As we develop targeted, fiscally responsible reforms, the Committee on Education and the Workforce continues to work with school officials and state and local leaders to learn about the tools they need to prepare students for the future. We need to take the time to get this right – we cannot allow an arbitrary timeline to undermine quality reforms that encourage innovation, flexibility, and parental involvement.”

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Pool photo by Leslie E. Kossoff President Obama gave a speech on reforming education at Kenmore Middle School, in Arlington, Va.

As they prepare to wage political war against President Obama, the potential 2012 Republican candidates are doing everything they can to draw sharp distinctions with him.

But Mr. Obama isn’t cooperating.

Rather than emphasize his differences with potential Oval Office rivals or Republican adversaries on Capitol Hill, the president is taking every opportunity he can to embrace members of the other party as co-conspirators in his efforts to confront the country’s challenges.

According to Mr. Obama, the two parties have cooperated — or are showing signs of being willing to work together — on education reform, tax cuts, energy security, economic growth and potential changes to an entitlement system that has become a drain on the nation’s budget.

“I am proud of the commitment by Democrats and Republicans in Congress to fix No Child Left Behind,” Mr. Obama said Monday at a Virginia middle school.

Two weeks ago, at a fund-raiser in Miami, he noted that “I’m proud that Democrats and Republicans joined forces in December to cut taxes for every American.”

And at a meeting of the National Governor’s Association, he spoke optimistically about confronting the rising costs of Medicare and Medicaid, saying that “I think that’s something that Democrats and Republicans should be able to agree on.”

He’s also heaped special praise — tinged with just a bit of sarcasm — on Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts (for his health care plan) and Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah, for serving as Mr. Obama’s ambassador to China. Both men are considering a bid for president in 2012.

The logic behind Mr. Obama’s approach appears to be rooted in the belief that voters — and especially independents — are looking for evidence that politicians in Washington are working together on problems rather than content to live with an unending stalemate.

In a cabinet meeting the day after the midterm elections in November, Mr. Obama said that that was the message he had received from the drubbing his party took. Voters, he said, are “concerned about making sure that taxpayer money is not wasted, and they want to change the tone here in Washington, where the two parties are coming together and focusing on the people’s business as opposed to scoring political points.”

The change in the president’s rhetoric since then has been striking.

In the weeks before the election, Mr. Obama hardly missed an opportunity to suggest that it was Republicans who had driven the American economy into a ditch. “Have you noticed when you want to go forward, what do you do with your car?” he would repeatedly ask. “You put it in D. When you want to go backwards, what do you do? You put it in R. That’s not a coincidence.”

Except for one fund-raiser on Nov. 5, Mr. Obama has not said the word “ditch” in public since then.

In addition to appealing to some voters, the bipartisan rhetoric from Mr. Obama may be an attempt to disarm his potential 2012 rivals and Republicans on Capitol Hill. In Miami this month, Mr. Obama stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, to promote education reforms.

“it’s time we came together — just like Jeb and I are doing today — coming from different parties but we come together not as Democrats or Republicans, as Americans, to lift up all of our schools,” he said.

Not everything is sweetness and light, of course. Mr. Obama and the Capitol Hill Republicans remain at loggerheads over the current year’s budget. And there’s no clear indication of how the two sides are going to reach agreement on raising the nation’s debt ceiling later this year.

The president will also need to shift into a more adversarial mode as the election grows closer. Even as his campaign preached hope and optimism in 2008, Mr. Obama’s victory against Senator John McCain of Arizona was built on drawing a clear contrast between the two men.

It may be that Mr. Obama can put off that kind of sharp-edged campaign rhetoric for several months. It seems unlikely he will have a serious primary challenger, and that will allow him to appear somewhat above the fray while the Republicans battle among themselves.

But already, his campaign operatives are beginning to travel the country, hat-in-hand, looking for donations from wealthy supporters. And his finance operation will soon be asking for donations from the millions of less-wealthy supporters who contributed a few dollars in 2008.

Both groups will be looking for contrasts, not just mushy expressions of cooperation.

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Doug Mills/The New York Times President Obama began his remarks on Friday by offering the condolences of the American people to Japan.

1:37 p.m. | Updated President Obama on Friday rejected criticism from Republicans that his administration was blocking domestic oil production and said his government was prepared to encourage new drilling in the face of rising gas prices.

“Any notion that my administration has shut down oil production might make for a good political slogan, but it doesn’t match up with reality,” Mr. Obama said during a wide-ranging news conference in which he also addressed the earthquake in Japan and the uprisings in the Middle East.

Republicans in Congress said this week that the White House was responsible for the rising price of gasoline. Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio on Thursday proposed new efforts to expand domestic oil production.

“The Obama administration has consistently blocked American energy production that would lower costs and create jobs in our country,” Mr. Boehner said on Thursday.

In his news conference, Mr. Obama said his administration was moving to encourage more drilling on land and offshore. But he stressed the need for new investment in clean energies that would help the country wean itself of its dependence on foreign oil.

“Every few years, gas prices go up, politicians pull out the same political playbook and nothing changes,” Mr. Obama said. “I think the American people are tired of talk. We’ve got to work together, Democrats, Republicans and everybody in between.”

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News Speaker John A. Boehner said that Congressional Republicans would introduce several energy bills to encourage domestic oil production.

Asked about the budget negotiations on Capitol Hill, Mr. Obama said it would be “irresponsible” for Congress to continually try to operate the government by a series of two-week budget extensions.

But he conceded that the negotiations were not likely to succeed by the end of next week, which would force at least one more extension. He said Democrats and Republicans must find a way to reach a compromise between the cuts that both sides have already proposed.

“Both sides are going to have to sit down and compromise on prudent cuts,” Mr. Obama said.

On the continuing violence in Libya, the president said he had not taken any options off the table as the government and its allies sought ways to force the Libyan leader out of the country.

But he pushed back against criticism that the United States was being too timid in its handling of the crisis Some have criticized the administration for failing to move quickly in imposing a no-flight zone above Libya.

“Now I do take very seriously making sure that any decisions I make involving American military power are well thought through,” Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Obama reiterated his belief that America could not stand by if a large-scale slaughter of civilians took place in Libya. And he said the United States and its allies were monitoring the situation to see if that occured.

But he added that “obviously we are going to have to look at what develops on the ground on a case-by-case basis.”

Mr. Obama acknowledged that the situation in Libya and the other events in the Middle East and North Africa over the past several weeks had caused uncertainty in the oil markets.

“Should the situation demand it, we are prepared to tap the significant stockpile that we have in the strategic petroleum reserve,” Mr. Obama said.

But he declined to specify what price gas would have to hit before the government would tap the reserves and release that oil into the market. He said such a release would require a significant disruption in the flow of oil similar to the oil crisis of the 1970s or Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“If we see significant disruptions or shifts in the market that are so disconcerting to people that we think a strategic petroleum release would be appropriate, then we will take that step,” Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Obama described himself as “heartbroken” by the devastation in Japan caused by the earthquake and tsunami there.

“When you see what’s happening in Japan, you are reminded that for all our differences in language or culture or religion, that humanity is one,” he said. “You think about your own family and you think about how you would feel if you lost a loved one.”

But he said he was confident that Japan would be able to rebuild, and he pledged the United States help in the coming days, largely by bringing heavy equipment to the affected areas.

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John Hart/Wisconsin State Journal, via Associated Press Demonstrators derided Republican state representatives with shouts of “Shame!” as the officials left the Assembly room of the Wisconsin State Capitol building in Madison after passing a controversial budget bill Thursday.

The votes late this week by the Wisconsin Legislature to curtail collective bargaining rights appears to hand political victories to two very different men: Scott Walker, the Republican governor of Wisconsin, and President Obama.

After a three-week stalemate, Republicans in the state found a procedural way to force Mr. Walker’s signature measure through the legislature despite the absence of the Democrats in the state senate. Mr. Walker has vowed to sign the bill over the objections of the unions and the Democrats.

But in the process Mr. Walker has done for Mr. Obama an unintended favor. He has energized labor unions, a major part of the president’s political base and one that will play a big role in whether or not Mr. Obama is re-elected.

It was always clear that the president’s political team would have to find a way to motivate union voters in 2012. In many states, labor unions provide the money and manpower for voter turnout operations that are significant for Democratic politicians.

Labor unions turned out in big numbers for Mr. Obama in 2008. But since his election, the president has been a disappointment to many union voters, in particular because he has not made their No. 1 legislative issue — secret balloting for union organizing — a top priority.

Even worse, in the eyes of some union leaders and workers, was Mr. Obama’s decision to pursue a more centrist agenda and to embrace the United States Chamber of Commerce in the wake of the midterm elections last year.

The danger for Mr. Obama was not that labor unions would fail to support him in 2012; the danger was that they would not support him enthusiastically, that their passions for him from four years ago would fade. That could translate into difficulty for Mr. Obama, especially in crucial states where union membership is high and presidential politics is competitive.

Were it not for the battle in Wisconsin, Mr. Obama would have faced a difficult task: how to fire up the union voters without alienating the independents he is clearly trying to court; how to win back the left in general while embracing a more centrist, pragmatic agenda and seeking a more cooperative relationship with Republicans in Washington.

But Mr. Walker, by sparking the Wisconsin fight over collective bargaining, may have awoken a sleeping giant, not only in his state but also across the nation.

In a speech on Thursday in Washington, Richard L. Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., made it clear that losing the fight in Wisconsin was a galvanizing moment for labor unions that will likely benefit the president at the polls next year.

“Thank you, Scott Walker,” Mr. Trumka said in the speech at the National Press Club. “We should have invited him here today to receive the Mobilizer of the Year award! Because Governor Walker’s overreaching has brought us to this moment to talk about jobs. This is the debate we’ve wanted to have. Well, guess what? Suddenly the debate came to us, and we’re winning.”

Mr. Trumka promised to help “channel this Midwest uprising” into a benefit for the middle class and union workers.

“This is a bottom-up, grass-roots movement with its own momentum — a true spontaneous outcry against our disastrous winner-take-all political culture,” he said.

Still, there are always risks in politics, and Mr. Walker and Mr. Obama both have to worry about the forces that have been unleashed on their behalf.

In Wisconsin, the anger from union workers has already prompted calls for recall elections for Republican senators and for Mr. Walker. If those efforts were to succeed, it could set back the Republican Party’s victories in a state where its progress has been a long time coming.

And Mr. Obama must walk a fine line during the next 18 months as he encourages and nurtures the motivations of union workers while not appearing to be too much a part of their effort. So far, the president and the White House have been careful to express support for the union workers without becoming their full-blown champion.

After the Wisconsin Legislature passed the bill, Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, issued just such a statement.

“The actions taken last night, which divorced the issue of the state’s budget problems from the issue of the rights of public sector employees, pretty clearly showed that the actions were not following the principle that we need to all come together and work together and not denigrate or vilify public sector employees, but bring them into the process,” Mr. Carney said.

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