Politico is already digging into the veep speculation. “In part due to successful election years in 2009 and 2010, one year out from the GOP convention in Tampa there’s no shortage of eligible vice presidential prospects—and some of them generate even more excitement in Republican circles than the presidential candidates themselves. They range from the geographically and demographically ideal (Rubio, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez) to establishment and intelligentsia heartthrobs (Christie, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, South Dakota Sen. John Thune). Some are swing-state ticket-balancers while others bring different assets to the table—such as charisma, policy heft or regional appeal.”

BACHMANN: Bachmann gets her own Super PAC, the Washington Post’s Cillizza reports.

CHRISTIE: New Jersey had its credit downgraded from AA to AA-: “The credit rating agency Fitch has lowered New Jersey's general bonds, citing unfunded pension and employee benefit liabilities,” the Star-Ledger reports. “The agency wrote that making an increased pension payment, which Christie has said he will do, will ‘conflict with other long term challenges, such as property tax relief, school funding, and infrastructure needs.’” The state had already been downgraded in February by Standard & Poor’s. Ben Smith calls it “the shortest Christie boomlet ever.”

“The evangelical organizer who helped Michele Bachmann win the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa Saturday was previously charged with terrorism in Uganda after being arrested for possession of assault rifles and ammunition in February 2006, just days before Uganda's first multi-party elections in 20 years,” The Atlantic writes of Peter Waldron. The Bachmann camp responded this way in the article: “Michele's faith is an important part of her life and Peter did a tremendous job with our faith outreach in Iowa. We are fortunate to have him on our team and look forward to having him expanding his efforts in several states."

PAUL: Ron Paul has a message from the Tea Party -- Rick Perry isn't your man. Despite his fierce opposition to the Federal Reserve Bank, making "End the Fed" a central theme of his campaign, Tea Party grandfather Ron Paul said in a swipe at Perry last night, "He makes me look like a moderate. I have never once said Bernanke committed treason."

PERRY: The Boston Globe’s has this headline on its front page: “Texas style toned down a notch, Perry tests message in Granite State”: “Governor Rick Perry of Texas, who has held statewide prayers for rain in his home state and holds many positions dear to social conservatives, came to moderate New Hampshire yesterday to fish for votes in the backyard of front-runner Mitt Romney… But whether Perry, a pistol-packing Texan fond of cowboy boots and cuff links, can attract broad-based support in a state known for its frugal, independent-minded Yankees is a major question that will help determine the contours of the race. … Perry, fresh from a trip to Iowa, is spending two days in New Hampshire meeting with political and business leaders as he tests his message and determines whether to invest heavily in the first-in-the-nation primary state that is so prized by Romney.” And this quote from a GOP consultant working at St. Anselm’s College: “This guy’s got swagger that makes George Bush look like a college professor.”

And note this point: “Perry took 10 questions from the audience, calling on them with a drawled ‘Yes ma’am,’ and ‘Yes sir,’ but avoided any inquiries from the media. He also spoke from prepared remarks, and appeared determined to avoid making controversial statements as he did Monday when he said the actions of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may border on treason.”

The Globe’s Vennochi sums it up this way: “The breakfast showed he is off to a serious start. The room was packed, but the crowd was cool. The governor, looking Back Bay buttoned-down in a gray suit and striped shirt, read the vibe perfectly. He ditched some of the swagger and just worked the ‘Yes, Ma’am’ twang. Focusing on the economy and President Obama’s handling of it, he offered a simple, standard, business-friendly message to a standard business crowd.”

Bloomberg: “Subdued Perry Woos Voters in New Hampshire After Bernanke Barb.”

The Post's Rubin wants answers on Perry's turnaround on the HPV vaccine mandate.

The AP's lede out of Bedford, NH, looked at his comments on global warming. "GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry told New Hampshire voters Wednesday that he does not believe in manmade global warming, calling it a scientific theory that has not been proven."

Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Texas's school system under Perry: “I feel very, very badly for the children there.” “U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Texas’s school system ‘has really struggled’ under Governor Rick Perry, a Republican candidate for president, and the state’s substandard schools do a disservice to children. ‘Far too few of their high school graduates are actually prepared to go on to college,’ Duncan said on Bloomberg Television’s ‘Political Capital With Al Hunt’ airing Aug. 19-20. “I feel very, very badly for the children there.”

ROMNEY: Karl Rove hugs Romney on health care, something GOP 12’s Heinze calls a “complete reversal” and a “total reversal.” Yesterday on FOX, Rove said, in part, “There are big differences between what they did in Massachusetts and what they did in Washington.”

In May, Rove said this: “I mean, it has an individual mandate just like President Obama’s, and it’s got a bunch of bad things that are happening. We’ve got rationing, we’ve got a new survey out that was in the Wall Street Journal editorial page today, where doctors are saying, in essence, they’re not accepting new patients.” And he said he’s “not certain” Romney’s reasoning about states’ rights and the 10^th Amendment is “satisfactory.”

RYAN: Mitch Daniels is a Paul Ryan fan: “If there were a Paul Ryan fan club, I'd be a national officer,” Daniels told the Weekly Standard (via GOP 12). “I don't think it's a secret that he was strongly encouraging me to try. I've been strongly encouraging him to run as well. He has all the qualities our party needs to be emphasizing in these elections.”

SANTORUM: He hit Perry as well for calling Bernanke “treasonous.” "I mean, you're charging someone with a high crime punishable by death. I mean, you know, that's worse than impeachment, as far as I'm concerned," Santorum said on FOX, per GOP 12.

“On the surface, Americans Elect, No Labels and Ruck.us might look like similar groups, complaining about hyper-partisanship and gridlock while trying to dislodge the two-party system. But a closer examination reveals that each group is prescribing its own cure for the country’s problems,” Nathan Gonzales writes in Roll Call.

MINNESOTA: “Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty yesterday definitively ruled out a 2012 campaign for the US Senate after ending his bid for the White House a few days ago,” AP writes. Pawlenty said, “I don’t know what I will be doing next. However, I will not be running against Amy in 2012.”

Christine O’Donnell (remember her?) walked off the set of Piers Morgan’s show after questions about witch craft and gay marriage.

CONCORD, N.H. -- Congressman Ron Paul wasted no time here joking that "some Southern governor," (referring to his governor, Rick Perry, but not naming him), makes him look moderate.

"I have never once said Bernanke committed treason," the Texas congressman said, chuckling. That was greeted with thunderous applause from the 600 supporters awaiting him at a campaign office opening.

On his lack of media coverage of him on Sunday following the Ames Straw Poll, Paul said he is not worried.

"In this day and age, they are not as relevant as they think they are," he said, referencing the Sunday morning talk shows. "We have enthusiasm, rightness of our cause, and another little gadget called the Internet."

As for the next steps in his campaign, Paul was confident.

"It looks like this energy has spread to New Hampshire!" he exclaimed.

After the speech, Paul patiently signed copies of his book -- and the Constitution -- and talked to voters who are lined up, roughly 200 by this reporter's count.

While still proclaiming it is "independent," the new powerhouse super PAC called "Make Us Great Again" has launched a website filled with photos of Rick Perry and campaign bullet points about the governor’s record creating jobs and lowering taxes in Texas.

"Rick Perry Can Make America Great Again," reads the headline on the group’s home page.

The pro-Perry message isn’t a surprise: The group was co-founded by Austin super lobbyist Mike Toomey, who was Perry’s chief of staff (and shares ownership of a New Hampshire island with David Carney, Perry’s campaign manager.)

But it marks one more step removing the illusion of "independence" surrounding super PACs, which are proliferating this year because of their ability to collect unlimited amounts of money from corporations and wealthy donors….

"Restore Our Future," the website founded by three former political aides to Mitt Romney, has no photos of the former Massachusetts governor even though the group’s organizers are three former Romney political who have explicitly said their goal is to elect Romney president (and Romney has appeared at its fundraising dinners.)

Similarly, Priorities USA Action the super PAC created this year by two former White House aides to President Barack Obama, including Bill Burton, his former spokesman, has no photos or explicit references to the president on its home page (although it does have a YouTube video attacking Republicans for criticizing his policies.)

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE.

MANCHESTER, NH -- Discussing President Obama's forthcoming economic plan this morning in Berlin, NH, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney jabbed the president for his upcoming planned vacation on Martha's Vineyard. 

"It's too little too late," Romney said of the plan. "But we appreciate the fact that he's going to devote some time to it. Not just going to be on his bus tour, not just going to be vacationing in Martha's Vineyard, but giving some thought to the American people."

Romney mentioned the vacation again in a radio interview with WLS Chicago, when asked if he would be calling Congress back into session were he president.

"The first thing I would do is go back to my office immediately," Romney said. "If I were president, I wouldn't be looking to spend ten days on Martha's Vineyard."

But, as it turns out, the Republican presidential candidate will be spending one day there -- at the very time Obama is on Martha's Vineyard.

Romney will hold a fundraiser on the Vineyard on Aug. 27, towards the end of the president's stay. The Boston Herald reports the $2,500-per-person affair will be held "just across the island" from where the Obamas are staying, and comes at the tail end of a fundraising swing through some of the "tonier" summer communities of the Bay State, including Nantucket and Osterville, on Cape Cod.

A Romney campaign official points out that, as the former governor of Massachusetts, it is not unusual for him to be fundraising in his home state, and that he is not vacationing on the Vineyard -- but simply attending a fundraiser, then leaving.

As Romney later said in his radio interview with WLS: "Now, Martha’s Vineyard is in my home state of Massachusetts, so I don’t want to say anything negative about people vacationing there. But if you’re the president of the United States, and the nation is in crisis, and we’re in a jobs crisis right now, then you shouldn’t be out vacationing."

Romney, who has a summer home on New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee, has himself received criticism for the vacation time he has taken, with Politico coining the term "Mittness Protection Program" to describe his periodic absence from the campaign trail. 

This week, Romney fundraises in Utah. He returns to the campaign trail early next week, in New Hampshire. 

On the day of the Ames Straw Poll Saturday, Herman Cain told reporters that even if he came in “dead last” in the poll, he would still continue his presidential campaign. Cain is still vowing to march on, despite a fifth-place finish and the long odds of him becoming the nominee.

Just a few days before the poll, on Aug. 10^th, Cain had told NBC News that he need to finish in the top six of the nine names that appeared on the straw-poll ballot, three of whom, Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich, did not participate in the day’s events.

“If we come in fourth, fifth or sixth, that’s not a loss,” said Cain, who wound up finishing fifth with just 9% of the vote behind Rick Santorum and Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out of the race the next day.

Cain had sounded more optimistic, however, less than two weeks earlier. In an interview with conservative website Pajamas Media July 31^st, Cain said, “We predict that we should finish in the top three.

And at an August 4^th forum in Iowa, he said, “I need to finish in the top three,” according to the Des Moines Register. The Register points out that Cain also said if he finished fourth or fifth, he would not drop out of the campaign, but “it’s just gonna be a harder analysis that we would do to decide if we go forward.”

Cain’s goalpost-shifting suggests his campaign was trying to manage expectations for the nationally watched straw poll, even as the businessman, who has never held elected office, had done well in other recent straw polls, including first place in the Western Conservative Summit’s poll in Denver.

In that poll, Cain bested Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who had not yet announced his presidential bid, getting 48% of the 508 ballots compared to Perry’s 13%. Both addressed the group. But The Denver Post noted: “Typically, the straw-poll results reflect ‘who's given the best speech, not how people plan on voting,’ said Katy Atkinson, a local conservative political consultant.”

Cain still received more votes than Perry in the Ames straw poll, but the Texas governor did not participate in the event and was not on the ballot. Perry, a write-in candidate, beat Mitt Romney, who also was on the ballot but didn’t organize around the event this year.

When asked to comment on Cain’s shifting his expectations, campaign spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael said, “Mr. Cain believes in setting goals and striving to achieve them. Our campaign spent $0 on paid media -- radio or television advertisements -- and less than $100,000 on the straw poll all-together. As a good businessman, Mr. Cain knew it would be important not to 'bet the farm' on Ames, or any straw poll for that matter. He has opted, instead, to save resources as we approach the Iowa caucus.”

Cain rose rapidly earlier this year -- he was well received at many speeches, even compared to top-tier candidates. He was declared by a FOX News focus group the overwhelming winner of the first Republican debate in Greenville, SC. But with the entrance of Rep. Michele Bachmann, questions about his views on Muslims, as well as his knowledge of issues like the war in Afghanistan, the initial momentum that Cain generated on a national scale has all but dissipated.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) office shot down news -- reported by Newsweek’s Bloomberg’s Jonathan Alter -- that the governor is conducting focus groups in preparation of a possible White House bid.

"It's absolutely not true," Christie spokeswoman Maria Comella told First Read.

What is true, however, is that some members of the Republican establishment -- like Karl Rove -- are unsatisfied with a GOP presidential field consisting of Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachmann.

That's why the buzz around Christie and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan has grown a little bit louder in recent days. There's an opening for another Republican to get into the race. The question -- about five months until the Iowa caucuses -- is whether it's too late.

Rick Perry called the idea of a wall across the entire U.S.-Mexico border “ridiculous” today in a stop in New Hampshire.

“You got strategic fencing in some of the metropolitan areas – it’s very helpful,” the Texas governor said. “But the idea that you’re going to build a wall from Brownsville to El Paso is just -- it’s ridiculous on its face.”

That was in the context of Perry saying how he'd asked Washington for 1,000 National Guard troops and how current efforts at border security are ineffective.

Perry swatted at the Obama administration’s assertion that the “border is safer than it’s ever been.”

“Six week ago, the president went to El Paso and sai the border is safer than it’s ever been,” Perry began. “I have no idea, maybe he was talking about the Canadian border. I will assure you one thing, if I’m president of the United States, the border will be secure.”

In June, the AP wrote of the border:

“It's one of the safest parts of America, and it's getting safer. … The four big cities in America with the lowest rates of violent crime are all in border states: San Diego, Phoenix, El Paso and Austin, according to a new FBI report. And an in-house Customs and Border Protection report shows that Border Patrol agents face far less danger than street cops in most U.S. cities. The Customs and Border Protection study, obtained with a Freedom of Information Act request, shows 3 percent of Border Patrol agents and officers were assaulted last year, mostly when assailants threw rocks at them. That compares with 11 percent of police officers and sheriff's deputies assaulted during the same period, usually with guns or knives. In addition, violent attacks against agents declined in 2009 along most of the border for the first time in seven years. So far this year assaults are slightly up, but data is incomplete.”

Next week, Newt Gingrich is heading for Hawaii, according to a schedule his campaign released this morning.

While there, Saturday through at least Monday, Gingrich holds two public events, a meeting with local activists at a church in Wailuku and a talk at a prep school in Makawao.

Asked for a reason why Gingrich is taking this trip or if there is any vacation attached to this, spokesman R.C. Hammond wrote in an email to First Read: “Fundraising.”

Other candidates have taken fundraising trips outside of the early states. Jon Huntsman is currently on one that takes him to California, Utah, and elsewhere. Mitt Romney has done the same and even went to London for a fundraiser with ex-pats.

Gingrich received criticism after the news surfaced that he had taken a planned vacation with wife Callista to the Greek Isles in early June. After he returned, many of his top staffers quit the campaign. Since then, he has had trouble raising money, and the campaign is in debt. Gingrich has limited travel, instead going to some events in early states, but also appearing on talk radio and attending events closer to home.

Gingrich will be back in New Hampshire on Aug. 25.

*** UPDATE *** The Wall Street Journal reports, per NBC's Alex Moe:

While Newt and Callista Gingrich won’t be in Hawaii on their 11th wedding anniversary, which is Thursday, they will be extending their trip to the Aloha state to celebrate it next Monday and Tuesday.

“There’s money to be raised for us there,” said campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond. “There is a dual purpose to the trip.”

Bedford, N.H. – Rick Perry acknowledged the “trouble” he got into for appearing to threaten Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

"I got in trouble about talking about the Federal Reserve yesterday,” the usually full-of-braggadocio Texas governor said in a stop here today. “I got lectured about that yesterday."

That's different than what Perry said in Iowa, per the New York Times: “Look, I’m just passionate about the issue,” he said. “We stand by what we said.”

But he pivoted to take a shot at the White House.

"Yesterday, the President said I need to watch what I say. I just want to respond back if I may. Mr. President, actions speak louder than words. My actions as governor are helping create jobs in this country. The president's actions are killing jobs in this country. It's time to get America working again."

Perry bounded onto the presidential scene with much fanfare, but he was dinged for the first time for saying in a much-talked-about on-camera comment: “If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don‘t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas.”

I mean printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous, uh, treasonous, in my opinion.”

Perry then accused Bernanke, a George W. Bush appointee, of doing so “to play politics” – something he said would be “almost … treasonous.”

That comment was met with swift rebukes from members of former President Bush’s administration.

“You don’t accuse the chairman of the Federal Reserve of being a traitor to his country, of being guilty of treason and suggesting that we treat him pretty ugly in Texas,” former Bush adviser Karl Rove told FOX yesterday.

Tony Fratto, a former Bush White House spokesman, in a Tweet yesterday called Perry’s remarks, "Inappropriate and unpresidential."

Perry has a fine line to walk – between the Tea Party and the establishment. He wants to be the candidate of both, and cannot afford for one side to turn on him.

BERLIN, NH -- At his only campaign stop of the day -- at a steel plant here -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney criticized President Obama's upcoming plan to boost the economy and reduce the deficit. Obama will deliver that plan after Labor Day.

"I hope he begins by recognizing that his plan three years ago hasn't worked." Romney told a small gathering of reporters here. "It's too little too late, but we appreciate the fact that he's going to devote some time to it. Not just going to be on the bus tour, not just going to be vacationing in Martha's Vineyard, but giving some thought to the American people."

He also was asked about the rumors that the presidential field may expand yet again if House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan were to run. Romney's response: "The more the merrier," adding later: "The water's fine."

In addition, Romney was asked about Texas Gov. Rick Perry's controversial comments about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and Romney declined to criticize him.

"I'm not looking to be in a give-and-take with Gov. Perry. He's expressing his views.  I express my views and my record."

Romney continued, "He's a fine guy, fine governor. We'll get a chance to debate, and we can probably have a good chance for contrasting views at that point. But I don't have anything new on the Fed for you today."

Obama to unveil jobs/deficit-reduction plan after Labor Day… It represents another September reset for the White House… Obama bus tour comes to an end with town hall in Atkinson, IL at 12:45 pm ET and Alpha, IL at 4:30 pm ET… It’s pretty transparent whom Obama wants to run against next year (answer: Perry)… Perry doesn’t back down on his Bernanke remarks, but he doesn’t double down, either… Perry, Romney, and Paul are all in NH… And Dems hold their two seats in WI.

 *** Man with the plan: After weeks of criticism by Republicans and some Democrats for not unveiling a specific deficit-reduction plan, as well as initiatives to boost the economy, President Obama is set to deliver a major speech after Labor Day introducing both. According to a senior administration official, the economic measures will be a mix of tax cuts, infrastructure ideas, and ways to help the long-term unemployed, all of which have enjoyed bipartisan support in the past. As for deficit reduction, the senior administration official tells First Read that the president will offer a detailed plan -- based upon the deal he was trying to reach with Speaker John Boehner -- that will go beyond the $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction that the “Super Committee” is mandated to find (in order to cover the cost of that economic stimulus).

*** Another September reset: The senior administration official adds that Obama will spend the fall pushing for passage of this plan. And the official gives this warning: Given the past bipartisan support of the measures that the president will propose, the only thing that could possibly stop them becoming law is politics. And if Congress refuses to act, Obama will take his case to the American people. So here we go again: another September reset for the Obama White House. In 2009, it was that health-care speech he gave to Congress (which didn’t win over the public but did rally Dems to pass bills that fall and winter). In 2010, it was a new campaign message to sell in the midterms (which didn’t work so well). The president has tried to "turn to jobs" numerous times during his presidency, and they’ve come with a ballyhooed speech or rollout. Will this time be different?

*** Bus tour comes to an end: Obama, meanwhile, wraps up his three-day bus tour across the Midwest. He holds a town hall in Atkinson, IL at 12:45 pm ET and another town hall in Alpha, IL at 4:30 pm ET. Obama returns to the White House around 10:00 pm ET.

*** It’s pretty transparent whom Obama wants to run against next year: You think the White House is seeing the influence of the Tea Party on the campaign trail -- and is loving every minute of it? You better believe it. While President Obama is happy to poke Mitt Romney (for his health-care law), he declined to take a shot at Rick Perry for criticizing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and for bringing up Obama’s lack of military experience. In an interview with CNN, “Obama said presidential candidates have ‘got to be a little more careful’ about what they say. But as Perry had just entered the race over the weekend, Obama said, he will ‘cut (Perry) some slack’ for the moment.” Cut him some slack? Whom does Obama want to run against next year? It’s pretty transparent…

*** Perry doesn’t back down, but doesn’t double down, either: As for Perry, he didn’t back down from his “treasonous” criticism of Bernanke yesterday. “Look, I’m just passionate about the issue,” Mr. Perry said in Iowa, per the New York Times. “We stand by what we said.” But he didn’t double down, either. And that’s the difference between Donald Trump (who would double down) and someone who’s won statewide office before (several times). That said, some in the GOP establishment were quick to hammer Perry. Karl Rove -- hardly a Perry supporter -- told FOX, “You don’t accuse the chairman of the Federal Reserve of being a traitor to his country, of being guilty of treason and suggesting that we treat him pretty ugly in Texas.” And even Rick Santorum compared Perry to John Conyers. “To me, the rhetoric that Rick Perry used was sort of the rhetoric I would expect from a John Conyers, talking about President Bush and saying he should be impeached,” he told CNN.

*** Romney, for tax cuts for the rich or against them? Mitt Romney yesterday said, per the Concord Monitor, "I'm not for tax cuts for the rich. The rich can take care of themselves. I want to get America working again. And so I want to make sure that whatever we do in the tax code, we're not giving a windfall to the very wealthy." And yet, Romney also said yesterday, per the Boston Globe (and his campaign affirms this): “I do want to keep the Bush tax cuts in place.” Romney may say that he’s not for MORE tax cuts for the rich (he hasn’t said yet), but this kind of parsing runs the risk of playing into the narrative that he’s on both sides of a lot of issues.

*** On the 2012 trail: All the campaign activity is in New Hampshire: Rick Perry makes stops in Bedford and Nashua… Romney has another economic-themed event in Berlin… And Paul opens his campaign headquarters in Concord.

*** Dems hold their seats in WI: The two Wisconsin Democratic state senators -- Jim Holperin and Bob Wirch -- last night won the recall challenges against them. The final tally: Two state senators (both Republicans) were recalled, while seven others (four Republicans, three Democrats) held on to their seats. Although Republicans didn’t lose their majority, the recall races suggest that it was worse to back Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-collective-bargaining legislation than to flee the state like the Democrats did. “The six-month saga that was Wisconsin's state Senate recall movement ended Tuesday with Democrats retaining two seats - and Republicans still in possession of a week-old, razor-thin 17-16 majority,” the Wisconsin Journal Sentinel writes. “Bottom line: Republicans will continue to control the agenda in the Capitol, but it will be difficult for Gov. Scott Walker and other GOP leaders to get everything they want.” Are Wisconsin voters up for more recalls? Walker would like to know the answer…

*** Wednesday’s “The Daily Rundown” line-up (live from Davenport, Iowa!): White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on President Obama’s road trip… New RGA Chairman Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA)… PolitiFact’s Bill Adair… latest 2012 news with N.Y. Times’ Helene Cooper, Tribune’s Matea Gold and Club for Growth President Chris Chocola.

*** Wednesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interview Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D) and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.

Countdown to NBC-Politico debate at Reagan Library: 21 days
Countdown to NV-2 and NY-9 special elections: 27 days
Countdown to Election Day 2011: 83 days
Countdown to the Iowa caucuses: 173 days
* Note: When the IA caucuses take place depends on whether other states move up

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Bloomberg News: “President Barack Obama plans to give a speech in early September to ask Congress for additional spending to boost the economy, an administration official said. The president also will call for long-term cuts beyond the $1.5 trillion that Congress charged a 12-member bipartisan ‘super- committee’ of lawmakers to trim, the official said.”

“With a pack of Republicans trying to unseat him, President Obama was in campaigner in chief mode Tuesday on what's supposed to be an official bus tour through three crucial Midwestern states,” the New York Daily News writes.

The New York Times sets up Obama’s and Rick Perry’s swing through Iowa yesterday as kind of mini-general election. “President Obama pulled up to a bucolic community college here in his $1.1 million black armored bus on Tuesday and spent much of the day closeted in a conference with farmers and small-business owners, hoping to sell them on his message that he could revive the listless job market.”

“Eleven miles away, a more colorful, less-fortified campaign bus deposited Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, the newest Republican presidential candidate, in Dubuque, where he told another audience of business leaders over lunch, “I guess we’ve kind of got competing job tours, if you want to know the truth of the matter.”

The Washington Post on whether Obama should cancel his Martha's Vineyard vacation: Obama has taken heat the past two summers for renting Blue Heron, but the difference this time is the intensity of his critics and the fact that they are on both sides of the political aisle. Republican strategist Mike Murphy told the Daily Beast that Obama is 'acting like the rich guys he wants to raise taxes on,' while liberal columnist Colbert I. King wrote in The Washington Post that this is the wrong time 'to dwell in splendid seclusion among the rich and famous.'"

Then again, "Harry Truman was regularly mocked for wearing Hawaiian-style flowered shirts on his many jaunts to Key West, Fla., during the post-World War II era. Dwight Eisenhower spent 365 days at his farm in Gettysburg, Pa., over six years, prompting the Democratic National Committee chairman to label him a 'part-time president.' In 1990, during the Persian Gulf conflict, George H.W. Bush called on Americans to conserve energy, but he stipulated that he would not give up zipping around off the coast of Kennebunkport, Maine, in his speedboat, Fidelity."

Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Eric Cantor pen a USA Today op-ed, in which the GOP leaders draw another line in the sand against tax increases. “Over the last few months, we tried to persuade President Obama to do something significant to address our debt crisis, on the scale achieved in the House Republican budget. Yet time and again, he and his allies demanded tax increases on families and small businesses, tax increases that would destroy jobs. With nervous markets, unemployment at more than 9% and millions of Americans asking, ‘Where are the jobs?,’ the worst thing Washington can do for our economy is raise taxes on the people we need to start hiring again.”

More: “Of course, out-of-control spending isn't the only Washington-imposed roadblock to job creation. That's why we must dedicate ourselves to pro-growth policies that help create middle-class jobs, make it easier for existing businesses to thrive and allow more start-up companies to flourish. This means easing the tax burden on small businesses and removing burdensome, redundant regulations that impede private sector investment and job creation. It's past time to harness our abundant supply of natural resources in America, develop new sources of energy and create jobs here at home. And we should increase competitiveness for American manufacturers by passing job-creating free trade agreements that would open new markets for American-made goods. All told, at least 10 House-passed jobs bills reflecting some of these reforms are awaiting action in the Democratic-led Senate.”

Politico publishes a list of the top stops on the 2012 trail in the first three primary states: among them was the Beacon Drive In in Spartanburg, where Bachamnn held her first campaign stop yesterday.

BACHMANN: “Before we get started, let’s all say ‘Happy Birthday’ to Elvis Presley,” Bachmann told a cheering crowd of about 150 people in Spartanburg, SC, NBC’s Ali Weinberg reports. The problem: Yesterday was the anniversary of Elvis’ death, not birth. The trouble is, it was actually the anniversary of Elvis’ death – a fact picked up on by news organizations just minutes after she said the words.

Later, Bachmann paid another tribute to Elvis Presley -- this time, to the anniversary of his death - without acknowledging her mistake in saying it was his birthday. “Good to see you on the anniversary of Elvis’s passing,” Bachmann said, as if the same assembled press corps had not just heard, and reported on, her wishing Elvis a happy birthday. “As far as we’re concerned, he’s still alive, alive in our hearts.”

Bachmann also talked about Ben Bernanke differently than Rick Perry, though she accused the Fed of “stealing from you.” “Now Ben Bernanke is talking about another quantitative easing,” she said. “What does that mean? That’s when they fire up the printing press and they print money that doesn’t have any value behind it. All they’re doing is stealing from you,” she told a town-hall style crowd in a conference center at the TD Convention Center. Bachmann was also asked by NBC News after the event whether she believed President Obama loves America – an inquiry prompted by Perry’s telling a reporter, when asked that same question, that the reporter should “ask him,” referring to the president.  “I don’t question his patriotism,” was Bachmann’s answer – a stark contrast between the two candidates’ responses to the same question.

Bachmann said she didn’t consider Perry her top competition in South Carolina, but rather Barack Obama. “He is the one I am campaigning against,” she said. But he’s not going to be on Republican primary ballot in the state that has picked the GOP nominee every year since 1980.

“Presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann on Tuesday called for a wall on the border with Mexico and suggested that billionaire Warren Buffett should write a big check to the government if he's eager for higher taxes on the wealthy,” the AP wrote of Bachmann’s first South Carolina stop yesterday.

“During a brief Q&A with reporters, Bachmann avoided making clear distinctions between herself and Perry, but she was keen to point out that the next president should be someone who has started a business, which she’s done but which happens to be missing from the Texas governor’s resume,” CNN writes. 

PERRY: “Texas Gov. Rick Perry was hit with a firestorm of criticism from all political sides yesterday for saying Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's policies were ‘almost treasonous,’” the New York Daily News writes. “The explosive remark came just days after Perry joined the Republican presidential race and set off a firestorm from the White House, and even former Bush-administration officials.”

The Texas Tribune writes this morning on Perry's "complicated" relationship with stimulus funds.

NPR explores the 'Texas Miracle.'

The Washington Post on the relationship between Perry and Karl Rove: "While there’s little debate about the tension, there’s a more active debate about whether the two mens’ past will have any impact on Perry’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination next year."

The Statesman's take on Perry's "brashness": "... Perry, who has a knack for trucking right along after making comments that initially seem ill-advised, didn't walk away from his words. And it was unclear just how much they would slow the momentum his blossoming campaign has built."

“Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert's Super PAC had a setback Monday when its treasurer, Salvatore Purpura, jumped ship - to Rick Perry's campaign,” the New York Daily News reports. “Funnyman Colbert's Super PAC had run ads in Iowa urging people to write in Rick Parry, with an A, leading up to the Iowa Straw Poll.” NBC’s John Bailey reported Purpura also worked in the treasurer's division of John McCain’s 2008 campaign and President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election.

ROMNEY: “Mitt Romney’s plan for a no-news cruise toward a general election matchup with President Obama has been jolted by the ascent of Texas Governor Rick Perry, the latest entrant to the Republican presidential race,” the Boston Globe’s Johnson and Viser report. “Yet despite the strong record of job creation in Texas under Perry’s leadership and the new candidate’s formidable fund-raising skill, Romney says he plans to maintain the same strategy that has made him the front-runner so far. Privately, Romney’s advisers seem to revel in the raised expectations for Perry, a gifted campaigner and the darling of the Tea Party movement and social conservatives. They cite the example of Sarah Palin, who was met with great fanfare when John McCain picked the Alaska governor as his running mate in 2008, only to falter after several gaffes and high-profile interviews. Then there is Perry’s Texas swagger and penchant for brash statements, which may be too much for some voters still feeling Bush fatigue.”

The Globe: “[T]he retail side of politics is not something that always comes naturally, something that Perry with his folksy style seems ready to exploit.  ‘Ian. That’s kind of a British name,’ Romney said to a 7-year-old boy asking for an autograph [yesterday]. The boy, Ian Sandhage, responded with a question. ‘Are you going to take Obama’s house away from him?’ Later, he continued guessing the origins of people’s names. ‘I’m Lisa Dellisola,’ one woman said to Romney. ‘That’s a Spanish name? Italian?’ he responded. (It’s Italian, and she confirmed Romney had her vote.) As Romney began to leave the company after his hourlong visit, he looked at the owner’s girlfriend, Ellen Boss. ‘Nice,’ Romney said as she blushed. ‘Nice choice. Just like me.’”

Romney also said this: “This for me is not about the next step in my political career. I don’t have a political career. I spent 25 years in business. I don’t care whether I’m popular. I don’t care if I get reelected.” (Really? Whether it’s Romney, Obama or whoever, does anyone actually believe when a politician says these kinds of things?)

Romney called for ‘common ground’, but at the same time praised the Tea Party: “Leaders [are successful] not by attacking their opposition but by finding common ground where principles are shared,” Romney said [last night] at a town hall meeting in this North Country community [of Berlin, NH]. “You see, in our nation, Democrats love America, too. I’m a Republican, I love America. Democrats love America. We need to find places where we can agree and work together to help America.”

He praised the Tea Party and said attacks on them are a product of the media’s penchant for sensationalism: “The nature of the news is to show those things that are unusual,” he said. “If someone lights their hair on fire, that’s very exciting – I don’t mean literally, I mean figuratively – and we follow that person. If some congressperson says something really wacko, that’s what makes the evening news, because it’s really wacko. And in any group you’re going to have people who get pulled out and the opposition party says, ‘This is what they stand for.’ With the Tea Party, the Tea Party folks stand for government being too big and too intrusive and they want it smaller. And I agree with them.”

Today, Romney tours a steel fabrication plant in Berlin, then travels to Utah for a series of fundraisers later in the week, NBC’s Garrett Haake notes.

Michele Bachmann campaigns on her family roots in Waterloo, Iowa. And she used those roots and a family reunion as the reason she was late to Sunday night’s high-profile dinner and speeches featuring her, Rick Santorum, and new presidential candidate Rick Perry.

But a family source tells NBC News, Bachmann was not at the event.

"About 10 years ago was the last time I saw Michele at a reunion," Shirly Movick, 76, who said she is Bachmann’s first cousin, told NBC News. She added that she hadn't seen Bachmann, or her family, come to the reunion "since she's been involved in politics."

Movick confirmed that Bachmann’s husband, Marcus, and the couple's three daughters, did attend the event, however. The reunion, in Lake Mills, IA, is held annually on the second Sunday of August. Movick said she has been going all her life. 

The revelation, first reported by Politico, raises questions about a response Bachmann gave a reporter Sunday evening. While taking questions from reporters following her appearance at the Black Hawk County GOP dinner, Bachmann was asked why she had not arrived earlier to the dinner, in time to see Perry's speech.

"We had a full day today," Bachmann responded. "I was doing a number of things down in Ames. And we had a big family reunion just north of Waterloo."

The Bachmann campaign maintained she was with family.

"There were a few family reunion events that weekend,” campaign spokeswoman Alice Stewart told NBC. “She attended one on Friday. Marcus and the kids went to one on Sunday, and Michele met with family members on her own."

Asked to clarify why Bachmann missed Perry's speech, and why she did not mix-and-mingle before her own speech, Stewart said, "Like I said -- she was with family members before AND she mixed with the crowd for half an hour after she spoke."

But how Bachmann comported herself at this event -- and others -- also raises questions about her level of dedication to real retail campaigning. This one, like others, have been more rally than retail. Unlike Perry and Santorum, she did not sit and chat at tables before the speeches during the dinner portion. Instead, she signed autographs on stage for about 30 minutes, as music blared from speakers.

That rankled organizer Judd Saul, spokesman for the Black Hawk County GOP and the self-proclaimed leader of the area’s Tea Party.

"If you claim Waterloo,” he said, “come and dine with Waterloo.” (Bachmann was born in Waterloo.)

Saul was also irked that the party wasn’t able to capitalize on having two big-name speakers and raise the kind of money they could have because of Bachmann.

"We had a couple speakers scheduled to speak after her,” he said, “and we were going to do our big ask for our fundraiser, but as soon as she was done, the music blasted up; she started signing autographs, and … people just started leaving. So two speakers missed their chance to speak, and we missed our ask to the Republicans here for our fundraising -- extra money that we needed to carry for the caucus."

At her speech at the Des Moines Register’s “Soap Box” at the Iowa State Fair this weekend, she was half an hour late, gave just a 2-minute, 45-second speech -- far shorter than other candidates, some of whom took up their full 20 minutes of allotted time and also took questions. Bachmann did not. Toward the end of the speech, she said, "I'm coming out to shake your hand.” She shook some hands, but made a beeline about 50 feet to a waiting golf cart and was driven off.

There have also been examples of reporters being manhandled by her security staff – at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans in June, at a South Carolina event in July, and then again at the State Fair.

Sunday's Republican dinner was closely watched, because it marked the first time Bachmann, fresh from her win Saturday at the Ames Straw Poll, would share an event with Perry, who is likely to compete for many of the same kinds of voters. And with Perry’s entrance into the race, how Bachmann does retail -- in states where it matters like Iowa and New Hampshire -- is likely to get more scrutiny.

*** UPDATE *** Stewart contacted NBC to emphasize that security at the RLC, when the incident occured with a reporter, was provided by the hotel.

*** UPDATE 2 *** On security, Stewart says: "Michele Bachmann is a high-profile congresswoman. On the heels of the Gabby Giffords shooting, security is of the utmost concern to our campaign. We have a former Secret Service officer who's protected presidents and vice presidents, and if someone gets too close to the candidate, he warns them."

DUBUQUE, IA -- Meeting with Iowa business leaders, Texas Gov. Rick Perry continued to lambaste the Obama administration for using a "regulatory hammer" that he says prevents job growth.

"I am an unabashedly pro-business governor," Perry told a group of about 30 Iowans at a luncheon at the Star Brewery here. "I don't make any apologies for that."

He added that he's criticized for focusing too much on business, but that without job creation "we're finished"
 
The Texas governor heard grievances from the audience of business owners about taxation, the health-care law, and the Dodd-Frank banking reform passed last year.

Perry, who last night characterized the actions of Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve as "treasonous," dinged President Obama's appointees in the agencies that oversee the business world.

Presidents should "hav[e] people as your appointees that are philosophically attune and courageous enough to make the decisions, to clearly say to the bureaucrats, 'This is not what we're going to do. This is not what we're about,'" he said.

(Worth noting: Perry has been frequently criticized by his hometown press for appointing donors and allies to posts in the state.)

The president may not officially be on a political tour through Iowa, but politics is encroaching on his economic message. 

On the press bus in Iowa, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney answered questions stemming from Gov. Rick Perry’s (R-TX) comments yesterday about the Federal Reserve and Ben Bernanke.

According to pool reports, this was Carney’s response:

"When you're president or you're running for president you have to think about what you're saying, because your words have greater impact.”  He continued, “We take the independence of the Federal Reserve quite seriously and certainly think threatening the Fed chairman is probably not a good idea.”

The president himself stayed above the fray, choosing to stick to what is quickly becoming his economic stump speech at the start of the White House’s Rural Economic Forum in Peosta, IA.  

*** UPDATED WITH FULLER QUOTES ***

MERRIMACK, N.H. -- Mitt Romney toured an elevator parts company here this morning before speaking to a small gathering of employees and taking questions from the media.

He gave his standard stump speech, and took questions from employees on education (give it back to states -- testing is good, other parts of No Child Left Behind not-so-good) and tax policy (low taxes are good).

But the first three questions in the news conference weren’t about his event or policy, but about Rick Perry, the Texas governor who has bounded onto the 2012 presidential scene.

Romney repeated the line that he was a fine governor, and there would be time to contrast their records in debates.

"Gov. Perry and I are going to have plenty of opportunities to contrast our experience and our vision for the nation when we have our debates," Romney said. "There's going to be a lot of those. My guess is 10 or 15 before this is over. But, at this stage, all I've got to say about Gov. Perry is he's a fine guy, a fine governor, respect him. I look forward to seeing him on the trail and at the debates."

By the third question, he responded only: "I may have mentioned that I think he's a fine guy, and a fine governor," laughing slightly.

Asked by NBC if he was of the Tea Party, he said his small-government positions were very much in line with Tea Party beliefs, and that he would look forward to Tea Party support as they got to know him better.

“One of the great things about the Tea Party, in my view, is the Tea Party has exactly in almost every respect the same priorities as the rest of Republicans, many, many Independents, and many Democrats,” Romney said. “And that is government is too big, it's taxing us too much; we need to put in place, growth policies that get the country going again. That's what I believe, and there may be some people in the Tea Party who have differing views on different issues. That's the nature of any large group. But at the heart of the Tea Party effort is a belief that politicians have led us down the wrong road by spending too much money over time, that we should shrink the scale of government, and they're absolutely right.

“I look forward to having great support from Tea Partiers here in New Hampshire and across the country, and I believe that as they get to know me and my vision for the country, recognize that I'm not a lifelong pol, that I've spent four years in government, I tried  to do more than that, but I wasn't successful, but as they get to know me better and understand how it is that I'm devoted to shrinking the size of government and encouraging the growth of the free economy, I think I'll get great support from the Tea Party.”

He also noted the strength of the Tea Party in Washington.

“The Tea Party has helped change the agenda in Washington,” he said, referring to the conversation being about spending cuts instead of taxes. “That's a good thing. You have to stand up and be heard for people to recognize the significance of the movement that the Tea Party represents -- government's too big, too intrusive in our lives and it should pull back.”

He also again repeated that he knows President Obama knows and Democrats love America.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to beat him. A child, who asked him sign an autograph, asked if he was going to take Obama's house.

Romney responded, “I'd like to.”

NBC investigative reporter Michael Isikoff reports on The Daily Rundown on Super PACs aiding campaigns that are likely to have as much of an impact on the 2012 race as the candidates themselves. They are collecting millions of dollars, in some cases from anonymous donors, and are aligned with Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and Barack Obama.

A report out today from the Weekly Standard notes that Congressman Paul Ryan is considering a run for the presidency.

AP

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

In response to the story, Ryan's spokesman acknowledges that the congressman -- who has taken criticism for his budget plan that would partially privatize Medicare -- has been encouraged to run.

"While grateful for the continued support and encouragement, Congressman Ryan has not changed his mind," spokesman Kevin Seifert told NBC by email.

Seifert also points to Ryan's appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, in which he said, "I'm not running for president," but that "You never know what opportunities present themselves way down the road."

Here's that full question and answer:

Meet the Press, May 22, 2011:

MR. GREGORY: Understood. There's a little bit of door opening there, though, the door's a bit ajar. And you know how, you know how this works.

Rep. Ryan: It's not door opening, it's just--I do know how this works, and I'm not going to get into all these hypotheticals in the future. My point is I'm not running for president. You never know what opportunities present themselves way down the road. I'm not talking about right now. And I want to focus on fixing the fiscal problems of this country. And I really believe, David, where I am as chairman of the House Budget Committee puts me in a great position to, to be a great contributor to this debate.

AP

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), left, speaking at the State Fair in Des Moines, IA, yesterday and President Barack Obama, right, speaks in Decorah, IA.

Did Perry go too far in criticizing Obama and the Fed?... The essential question: Did his remarks hurt him -- or help him?... Perry also comfortably jabs Romney… Obama (41% approval in Gallup) makes Congress (13% approval) his opponent… Lots of pressure on Obama’s economic/deficit plan to deliver… GOP members of Congress are charging the public to attend some town hall-style meetings (really?)... The final Wisconsin recall races… And Perry’s in Iowa, Romney’s in New Hampshire, and Bachmann’s in South Carolina.

*** Did Perry go too far? A day after appearing to outshine Michele Bachmann on her home turf in Waterloo, albeit with some tough rhetoric aimed at President Obama, Rick Perry might have gone a bit too far in criticizing Obama and even the Federal Reserve while campaigning in Iowa yesterday. For Texans, this is typical Perry. But for Americans who do not know him, it's eyebrow-raising rhetoric. In fact, he sounded more like Trump or Gingrich. "I think the greatest threat to our country right now is this president trying to spend his way out of this debt," Perry said last night in Cedar Rapids, per NBC’s Carrie Dann. (A greater threat than international terrorism?) When reporters asked if he believes Obama doesn’t love America, Perry responded: “You need to ask him.” And then he upped the ante in remarks directed at the Fed. "Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous or treasonous in my opinion," Perry said, per Dann. He went on to say that promoters of such an idea -- hinting but not naming Ben Bernanke specifically -- would get an "ugly" treatment in his home state of Texas.

*** And did his remarks hurt him -- or help him? Those comments -- especially those regarding the Fed -- must be making some folks on Wall Street and in the GOP establishment very nervous right now. Bernanke, after all, was an original Bush appointee. The question becomes: Do Perry’s remarks disqualify him among some in the GOP establishment? Or is this where the Republican primary voters are right now? Perry supporters will argue that he was joking and simply Perry being Perry. The importance of getting establishment money and support will be known later today if somehow we hear the slightest walk-back of the Bernanke comments. Bottom line: We got a glimpse of the Perry that some Romney supporters believe will be the Texan's undoing. It also won't quiet the Ryan-Christie speculation.

*** Perry vs. Romney: But Perry didn’t criticize only Obama and the Fed yesterday. He took some jabs at GOP front-runner Mitt Romney. When asked yesterday about Romney’s claims about his business experience, Perry replied, “Running a state is different than running a business." He added, “What I would say is go take a look at his record when he was governor. Look at my record when I was governor. Romney might not be ready to engage Perry right now, but Perry is ready to engage Romney… Romney did fight back a bit, but stayed on the same script he's used for the last week on Perry: I've been in the private sector (he reminds folks), noting Perry has not.

*** Obama vs. Congress: Our biggest takeaway from President Obama’s two events in Minnesota and Iowa yesterday was that he made Congress his opponent. “We’ve got a politics in which some folks in Congress -- not the folks who are here -- but some in Congress would rather see their opponents lose than America win,” he said. Also: “Congress right now could start putting folks to work rebuilding America.” More: “There’s a bill sitting in Congress right now that would set up an infrastructure bank to get that moving, attracting private sector dollars, not just public dollars. Congress needs to move.” And: “What is needed is action on the part of Congress, a willingness to put the partisan games aside.” Why is Obama targeting Congress? Consider that Gallup -- which had Obama’s approval rating at 39% (it’s now at 41%) -- shows Congress’ approval at just 13%, which ties the poll’s all-time low.

*** That’s the plan: President Obama also said this in Iowa yesterday: “I'll be putting forward, when they come back in September, a very specific plan to boost the economy, to create jobs, and to control our deficit.” Why didn’t Obama and his team introduce this kind of plan earlier? There will be a lot of pressure on this plan to be specific. Obama has raised the expectations bar… A final point on Obama yesterday: For a White House that is often criticized for its stagecraft, yesterday’s backdrops – the river in Minnesota and the barn in Iowa – were stunning visually.

*** Pay-per-view representatives? If members of Congress’ approval ratings weren’t low enough, how’s this going to go over? Several members of Congress are charging constituents to ask questions, Politico reports. For Paul Ryan (R-WI), who took lots of criticism for his budget which would partially privatize Medicare, it’ll cost you $15; Chip Cravaack (R-MN) $10; Ben Quayle (R-AZ) $35. They’re not holding face-to-face town halls during their August recess. “By outsourcing the events to third parties that charge an entry fee to raise money, members of Congress can eliminate most of the riffraff while still – in some cases – allowing in reporters and TV cameras for a positive local news story,” Politico writes. The fees go to event organizers, who provide refreshments. Sure, they say they’re holding “office hours,” but seriously, this is democracy? Running from questions from the people who put you in office, unless they pay a fee?

*** The final Wisconsin recalls: After deciding the fate of six Republican state senators facing recall last week (with four keeping their jobs and two losing them), Wisconsin voters today head to the polls to cast judgment on the final two state senators facing recall -- this time Democrats who fled the state during the showdown over collective bargaining. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Democrats will find out if they'll hold onto the gains they made last week in the Wisconsin Senate. Republicans will learn if they can reclaim some of the political momentum they grabbed in last November's midterm elections.” Polls close at 9:00 pm ET.

*** On the 2012 trail: Perry remains in Iowa, making stops in Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, and Walcott… Romney is still in New Hampshire, where he hits Merrimack, Littleton, and Berlin… Bachmann campaigns in South Carolina, visiting Spartanburg and Greenville… And Gingrich, at the Heritage Foundation in DC, delivers a speech on his alternative to the “Super Committee.” 

***Tuesday’s “The Daily Rundown” line-up (live from Dubuque, IA!): Former Gov. Chet Culver (D-IA) on President Obama’s road trip and the economy… NBC’s Michael Isikoff on the super-PACs shaping the 2012 presidential race… New York Times/CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on the markets… NBC News campaign reporters Garrett Haake (covering the Romney campaign in New Hampshire) and Carrie Dann (covering the Perry campaign in Iowa)… Plus more 2012 with National Journal’s Ron Fournier, USA Today’s Susan Page and syndicated columnist Cynthia Tucker.

*** Tuesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (the newly minted chairman of the Republican Governors Association), Texans for Fiscal Responsibility’s Michael Quinn Sullivan (on Perry’s job-creation record), and Dem Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (on the Congressional Black Caucus’ job tour in Detroit).

Countdown to NBC-Politico debate at Reagan Library: 22 days
Countdown to NV-2 and NY-9 special elections: 28 days
Countdown to Election Day 2011: 84 days
Countdown to the Iowa caucuses: 174 days
* Note: When the IA caucuses take place depends on whether other states move up

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"For most of the summer, President Obama has been under siege in the White House. On Monday, he became a road warrior, kicking off a three-day bus tour of the Midwest that provided him campaign-style opportunities to strike back at Republicans in a region vital to his re-election," the New York Times says. "Traveling in a black bus with dark tinted windows and flashing red and blue lights that looked like something out of a 'Mad Max” movie, the president urged audiences in Minnesota and Iowa to tell their elected officials they would no longer tolerate the partisan gridlock on display in the recent debt-ceiling talks."

Here’s the local coverage: The front page of the Cedar Rapids Gazette has a three-column photo of President Obama speaking - with hay bales in the background - with the headline, “‘Moving in right direction’.” The second photo is President Obama with one leg up, in a similar stance to Rick Perry, who also had one leg up on a hay bale in Iowa yesterday.

The (Burlington) Hawkeye’s front page’s lower right headline over a photo of Obama (also leg up) with a barn behind him: “Obama attacks GOP field on bus tour.”

It’s a two-deck, three-column headline from the Quad-City Times: “Obama launches rural tour with Iowa swing.” (And again, the photo of him with one leg up.) Subhead: “President defends compromises.”

The Des Moines Register: “In Iowa, Obama defends his compromises, slams opposition.”

“Almost one in every 10 Barack Obama fundraisers for the 2012 presidential campaign worked four years ago generating cash for former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton,” Bloomberg reports. “Of the 244 individuals identified by the Obama campaign as bringing in at least $50,000 for his re-election, 23 were “Hillraisers,” collecting at least $100,000 for Clinton, now U.S. secretary of state, during her unsuccessful 2008 Democratic primary campaign. Just four of the 23 raised at least $50,000 for Obama after he defeated Clinton and won the nomination, according to a Bloomberg News analysis.”

“A U.S. diplomat's remarks calling Indian Tamils "dark" and "dirty" has national leaders calling for her to be expelled from the country,” the New York Daily News reports.

BACHMANN: Bachmann begins a tour of South Carolina this week with events Tuesday in Spartanburg and Greenville, NBC’s Jamie Novogrod reports. But the congresswoman is not visiting the Palmetto State only to hold rallies and town halls. This week marks the beginning of Bachmann's fundraising drive. A fundraising team is now in place -- some of it drawn from the group of staffers who left Newt Gingrich several weeks ago, according to the Bachmann campaign -- and its objective is to find what the campaign calls "high dollar donors." Bachmann will be meeting privately with donors, and the choice to travel to South Carolina after the Ames Straw Poll was guided, in part, by fundraising opportunities in the state, according to the campaign. The campaign says it remains proud of its grassroots outreach, which has yielded about $50 dollars a donor, but, spokeswoman Alice Stewart says, "It's important to have a mix."

“Fresh from a first-place finish in the Iowa Presidential Straw Poll, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann will bring her campaign to the Upstate on Tuesday,” the Greenville News writes. “Bachmann has been in Iowa for the past few days, but plans to turn her attention south, recognizing South Carolina's importance as the first in the South primary.” 

“Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann has assets worth up to $2.8 million, the largest of which are the building housing her husband’s psychotherapy clinic and a family farm, according to disclosure forms she filed late Friday,” Roll Call reports.

CAIN: “His campaign might be limping along nationally, but Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain got a warm reception from an Indianapolis crowd that had its first chance Monday to root on someone who hopes to defeat President Barack Obama in 2012,” the Evansville Courier & Press reports. “Cain, the former Godfather's Pizza executive, repeatedly lambasted Obama during a 48-minute speech in front of 200 people at the swank Columbia Club, on the city's inner circle.’

At the same event last night, Herman Cain said he supports Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s challenge to Sen. Richard Lugar, the AP writes. 

PAWLENTY: The Boston Globe’s editorial page laments that Pawlenty was beholden to the Ames Straw Poll: “Pawlenty was a credible contender. Unlike those who are showcasing their values and economic theories, Pawlenty built his campaign around people, working-class voters he called ‘Sam’s Club Republicans.’ In a field that is light in governing experience, he had spent eight years wrestling with a more liberal legislature in a state whose varied political passions mirror those of the country. Pawlenty wasn’t a perfect candidate - or even, necessarily, the best option for the GOP. That’s an assessment voters should make. Instead, he felt compelled to prove himself in a bogus forum and, when he lost, looked like a chump. It’s too bad, because he had more to offer.”

PERRY: Per NBC’s Carrie Dann, Gov. Rick Perry broadly attacked the Federal Reserve last night, accusing the agency of manipulating currency for political gain. "Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous or treasonous in my opinion," Perry said. He went on to say that promoters of such an idea -- hinting but not naming Ben Bernanke specifically -- would get an "ugly" treatment in his home state of Texas. "We have tried to print the money and it didn't work. All it has done is devalue the American dollar," he told reporters after the event. Perry also declined earlier to say whether or not he believes the current president loves America. "You need to ask him," he said.

The Washington Post's Dan Balz: “Texas Gov. Rick Perry turned his rhetorical fire on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke here Monday night, saying that the chairman would be committing a ‘treasonous’ act by ordering the printing of more money. Doing so, Perry said, would amount to a political decision to help President Obama win reelection in 2012.”

The New York Times gives A1 treatment to the Texas miracle... lucky or leadership?

We missed this yesterday, but the Boston Globe’s Johnson has a good run down of Rick Perry’s stances on policy, including having called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and wanting to use Predator drones, used to kill terrorists in hard-to-get-to places like Northwest Pakistan and Yemen, to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

Liberal Catherine Poe, writing in The Washington Times: “So what’s not to love about Perry? He sounds like Perry the Perfect. His sumptuous mansion, the one he chose to live in while the Governor’s house is repaired and renovated, also sounds perfect. Do you want to see taxpayers seethe? Then ask Texans about the rental bill they’ve been footing for the past four years. Rick Perry and his family currently reside in a $1 million plus residence with all expenses paid, including new window treatments by Neiman Marcus, all financed by Texans to the tune of  $700,000. So far.” Here’s a link to a video made by the Texas Democratic Party, hitting Perry on the house. Poe also takes aim at Texas’ job creation record, its economy, that it’s the country’s biggest polluter, a poor health record, and his emergency management.

“Newly-declared Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is a ‘good-looking rascal,’ former President Bill Clinton said Monday,” the New York Daily News writes. “But Perry's anti-Washington posturing is ‘crazy,’ Clinton said.”

Perry told FOX, per the New York Daily News: "I hope I'm President Obama's worst nightmare. He's the real problem. It's his policies."

The LA Times: "Perry has received a total of $37 million over the last decade from just 150 individuals and couples, who are likely to form the backbone of his new effort to win the Republican presidential nomination ... Nearly half of those mega-donors received hefty business contracts, tax breaks or appointments under Perry, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis."

Good question from the Texas Tribune: While Perry campaigns, who's in charge in Texas?

Perry is holding a conference call with Republican donors in California today.

He’ll headline a fundraiser Friday in Columbia, SC, for the state GOP.

PAUL: NBC’s Anthony Terrell reports that Ron Paul 2012 campaign releases a new ad today, going after "failed leadership," "smooth talking politicians" -- while split screening images of Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. The ad continues about "games of 'he said, she said rhetoric and division" --  while split screening images of Harry Reid with Rick Perry, then pictures of Nancy Pelosi with Michele Bachman during those lines. Near the end, the ad declares that Paul is "the one who will stop the spending, save the dollar, create jobs, bring peace, the one who will restore liberty. Ron Paul, the one who can beat Obama and restore America now.” Politico reports the ad will air in Iowa and New Hampshire.

ROMNEY: So Mitt Romney used his private-sector experience against Rick Perry and, in a twist, his government experience against Herman Cain, per the Boston Globe: “I think understanding how the economy works by having worked in the real economy is finally essential for the White House, and I hope people recognize that. I respect the other people in this race, but I think the only other person that has that kind of extensive private-sector experience, besides me, in the Republican race is Herman Cain. And I respect Herman Cain, but I also think it’s helpful to have had that government experience that I’ve had.”

In New Hampshire, “responding to a question of C. Lynn Graton of Holderness about buying American-made products, Romney said ‘we need to bring back manufacturing,’ and the way to do that he said is to hold down the burdens created by government,” the New Hampshire Union Leader reports. "‘We must make sure that when we make (foreign trade) agreements they are being honored and they work for us not just the other guy,’ Romney said.”

Romney is out with a second Web video hitting Obama on his bus tour.

Today, per NBC’s Garrett Haake, Romney holds three events across New Hampshire today, and an undisclosed number of Granite State events tomorrow. On Friday, he heads to Utah for two fundraisers.

NBC’s Ali Weinberg contributed.

“It will cost $15 to ask Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) a question in person during the August congressional recess,” Politico reports. “The House Budget Committee chairman isn’t holding any face-to-face open-to-the-public town hall meetings during the recess, but like several of his colleagues he will speak only for residents willing to open their wallets. Ryan, who took substantial criticism from his southeast Wisconsin constituents in April after he introduced the Republicans’ budget proposal, isn’t the only member of congress whose August recess town hall-style meetings are strictly pay-per-view.”