Obama to address Air Force Academy grads, campaign in Bay Area

President Obama plans to speak at a U.S. military service academy Wednesday, a forum he has used throughout his administration to chart an evolution in military strategy and the gradual process of withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The president is scheduled to speak at the graduation of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, days after he and the other leaders of the NATO alliance shook hands on a plan for withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

The speech marks the president’s fourth commencement at a service academy. The tour of the academies began in the spring of 2009 when he told graduates of the Naval Academy that their mission was changing, along with the global threat, to require more than simply subduing enemies in combat.

Later that year, he used an address to cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to detail an immediate surge in troops as part of a larger plan to begin bringing troops home in the middle of 2011.

In May 2011, he went to the Coast Guard Academy to talk about elevating the country’s moral standing in the world.

“The arc of your careers, like the course of our country, will be shaped by the values that have kept us strong for more than 200 years,” Obama said then.

On Wednesday, Obama is set to speak at the commencement in Colorado Springs, an appearance that follows closely on the heels of a NATO summit devoted to withdrawal planning.

With that as a key part of his case for reelection, Obama is coming out of the world summit and hitting the campaign trail, with campaign events in Denver, and then Atherton and Redwood City, Calif., on his calendar for Wednesday.

On Thursday, Obama plans to travel to Iowa to highlight the latest on his congressional “to-do” list – urging Congress to extend and expand tax credits for the clean energy sector.

christi.parsons@latimes.com

Original source: Obama to address Air Force Academy grads, campaign in Bay Area