Obama to grads: 'A new feeling about America'

COLORADO SPRINGS -- President Barack Obama declared yesterday the world has a "new feeling about America" and more respect for its leadership, weaving re-election themes into a commencement speech to jubilant graduates of the U.S. Air Force Academy.

"We can say with confidence and pride: The United States is stronger, safer and more respected in the world," he told more than 1,000 graduates in the Air Force football stadium.

Obama used a speech before a military audience to make it clear that he thinks "American is exceptional" -- a counterargument to Republican Mitt Romney, his rival for the White House, who has challenged Obama's belief in America. And he had other unmistakable rebuttals to Romney in the graduation speech, delivered hours before he shifted toward political fundraising out West.

Obama said the United States "led from the front" in an international military campaign in Libya, countering a Romney assertion that the president has led from behind in world affairs. He told the cadets that they are the first class in nearly a decade to graduate into a world that has no Osama bin Laden, no war in Iraq and no questions about when the war in Afghanistan will end. -- AP