Obama tries to ride past "rough couple of weeks"

By Caren Bohan

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Faced with doubts about his White House bid after a "rough couple of weeks," Barack Obama is trying a folksier, more personal style as he pushes his economic plans at veterans' halls, factories and country fairs.

But even as his opponents, fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain, seize on his difficulties, a major strategy shift is unlikely for the Illinois senator who takes pride in the nickname "No Drama Obama" for his steadiness.

"I wouldn't trade with anybody else, Democrat or Republican," said Robert Gibbs, Obama's communications director.

"We've had a plan from the beginning. We've executed that plan. So there's no need for us to make any drastic changes. There's ups and downs to it but we've had a lot more ups than we've ever had downs."

Obama, engaged in a protracted battle with Clinton to be the Democratic candidate running against McCain in the November election, told reporters in Indianapolis there was no doubt "we've had a rough couple of weeks."

"What I don't spend a lot of time doing is obsessing about what-ifs and should've beens," he said on Friday. "I don't spend a lot of time anguishing and looking backwards."

Obama's rousing rhetoric and vow to change Washington vaulted him to Democratic front-runner status, edging out Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady.

Obama still leads in both the popular vote and number of delegates who select the party's nominee at its August convention, but has seen some of his campaign's luster fade in recent weeks.