WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama has returned to the uncertainty of election year politics after putting his foreign policy on display: A secret trip to Afghanistan on the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin laden.

But a suicide bombing in Kabul shortly after his pre-dawn departure from Afghanistan Wednesday and a ticklish diplomatic crisis in China illustrated how the ground beneath the president is perpetually shifting.

And at home, economic conditions remain in flux with a vexing mix of positive and not-so-positive signals that suggest that a recovery of fits and starts will be far more dominant than international affairs in this election.

Underscoring the tug of politics, the president was scheduled to attend two fundraisers Wednesday, just hours after getting back to the Oval Office.

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