A new viral video starring New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker (a potential future rival of Christie's) helps underscore the value for politicians in being able to navigate new media and contemporary culture.

The video, released on Tuesday night by Christie's office, shows Booker, the Democratic mayor popularized for his antics of shoveling snow or rushing into a burning building to save a neighbor, running to the rescue every time the Republican governor encounters a mishap. But when Booker is facetiously shown talking to Mitt Romney about a spot on the Republican ticket, Christie intervenes.

The skit was produced for a legislative correspondents' dinner along the line of the White House Correspondents' Association gathering hosted every year in Washington and was quickly passed around.

Humor has always been a part of the modern political campaign -- think Richard Nixon's appearance during his run for president on the television show "Laugh-In." But humor's role has been augmented in the age of social media and viral videos; candidates and politicians, at a bare minimum, now try to show that they’re at least conversational in the language of pop culture and sufficiently self-effacing.

“The Christie video gets the No. 1 rule of political humor: It’s an incredibly powerful weapon, but in order to be able to wield it against others, you have to be willing to turn it on yourself first,” said Jeff Nussbaum, a partner at West Wing Writers, who’s worked on political humor for Democratic candidates and officeholders.

“I think that, more and more, people not only want their elected officials to have policy positions, but they also want these people to be relatable,” he said. “And humor is an incredibly good way for elected officials to show they can relate, laugh and, more importantly, laugh at themselves.”

Humor falls along the continuum of reliability, a trait on which every political candidate hopes to trade.

That broader sense of cultural versatility explains why President Barack Obama drew wild cheers from the audience of ABC”s “The View” when he correctly named which of the Kardashian sisters had divorced her husband 72 days. And it’s why Obama, a few weeks earlier, chose to
participate in a “Slow-Jamming the News” skit on NBC’s “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.”

Sarah Palin’s 2008 appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” alongside parody-doppelganger Tina Fey, served many of the same purposes; it’s why Mitt Romney still might appear on the same show this fall.

Nussbaum suggested, too, that Obama’s use of humor has been most effective in deflecting his fiercest criticism, for instance, his jokes about the origin of his birth certificate in light of public scrutiny from Donald Trump.

But employing humor or trying to seem pop-culture savvy has its limits, and might not work the best for some candidates. It depends on the circumstances.

“When I first saw it, I asked myself, 'Hmm, I wonder if Mitt Romney should do something like that?'” said Republican ad man Fred Davis, who concluded that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee would be served better by a sober campaign emphasizing his competence versus Obama.

“I think most of Romney's attempts at humanizing himself have fallen a little flat,” Davis said. “Romney's path to victory is probably not being funnier than Obama on Letterman; his path to victory is being more competent than Obama.”

(“I’ll say this: I’m not eager to see Mitt Romney at an open mic night anytime soon,” Nussbaum said.)

The risk, though, always involves the humor hitting too close to home.

Some believe Al Gore’s frequent jokes about his stiffness as a candidate reinforced an existing public perception. And President George W. Bush’s jokes about being able to locate weapons of mass destruction in Iraq came against a backdrop of bloodshed in that war, which was heavily predicated on the purported existence of those weapons.

But if Christie has serious designs on getting a vice presidential nomination, the video may have hurt those chances as much as helped.  Christie’s video mentions -- twice -- his status as a favorite pick to round out Mitt Romney’s ticket, including the video’s biggest comedic payoff at the end.

“I think it maybe went one click too far in that direction, but I don’t think it crossed the more dangerous thresholds for humor,” Nussbaum said.

And Davis, whose ad firm has earned a reputation for its eyebrow-raising humor, said he far prefers to invoke laugh lines when going after other candidates.

“We're really big on humor. But where it plays the biggest role is in making an attack where that doesn’t blow back against the attacker,” he said.  “Emotion works in advertising, and humor is a very powerful emotion.”

WASHINGTON -- In a last-minute press conference outside the Capitol Hill Club here, Herman Cain made his third endorsement of this political cycle -- this time announcing his support for the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

Flanked by Tea Party Congress members Michele Bachmann and Steve King, the one-time presidential front-runner -- remember that? -- cited a need for unity as the reason he chose to back Romney today. 

After leaving the race on Dec. 3, 2011, he first endorsed "we the people"; then Newt Gingrich; and now Romney.

"Let's say my endorsement evolved. And if the president can use that word, I can too," Cain told NBC News after the press conference, a reference to President Obama last week saying his views on gay marriage have evolved. "It's a process, so you make different decisions as the process converges."

Cain said he spoke to members of Romney's staff, whom he described as "ecstatic" to learn of his endorsement. But there are no clear plans for how the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza could help Romney going forward.  "We had already been talking about the role that I could best play in his campaign. One is surrogate speaking, which I’ve already been doing," he said.

Cain left the presidential race under a cloud of controversy after reports that multiple women complained he had sexually harassed them when he was head of the National Restaurant Association. As his campaign continued, so did the number of women who claimed to have been harassed by Cain. The final straw came when an Atlanta woman went public to say she had an affair with Cain that lasted more than a decade. The former candidate said the spotlight had taken a toll on his family that caused him to exit the race one month before the Iowa caucus.

Since leaving the race, Cain has stumped for Gingrich and promoted his new advocacy group "Cain Solutions," which advocates for Tea Party candidates and legislation.

Cain was in Washington to participate in a Tea Party panel discussion on Capitol Hill. Bachmann, also a former presidential candidate and founder of the Tea Party caucus in the House of Representatives, recently endorsed Romney as a sign of support from the most conservative portion of the Republican Party.

It is the part of the base that Romney has had the most trouble with, because of concerns about his past views on the issues of spending and government-mandated health care.

"What Gov. Romney did in Massachusetts, I does [sic] not care," said Cain in response to a question over whether he is concerned that Romney's past positions conflict with Tea Party ideals.

Cain's sexual-harassment troubles would make a public appearance with Romney unlikely, but he did say he would be open to position in a possible Romney administration. And when it comes to a vice presidential pick, Rep. Allen West's straight-talking style and Rep. Paul Ryan's reputation as a "budget guru" top Cain's list, he said.

"It needs to be someone who brings some instant credibility and some instant excitement to the ticket... You don't have time to pick a candidate that you need to establish name ID, they need to have immediate name ID."

"Romney-Cain does have a ring to it...but I don't have stars in my eyes or this little voice in the back of my head saying 'You want to be vice president,'" he said. "No, I want to help save America, and I don't need to be president or vice president to do that."

Dennis Kucinich will call it quits after a long and high-profile career on Capitol Hill, the Ohio congressman announced Wednesday.

Kucinich, a liberal stalwart whose district was eliminated during Census-directed reapportionment, said that he had opted against running in a newly-created district in Washington state and would instead leave Congress.

"I will complete my service in the U.S. House on January 2, 2013, with the same passion and devotion to duty with which I began it on January 3, 1997," he said in a statement. "And when I do, I shall think of you and all those who have given me encouragement to continue to be of service, and I will smile, knowing that we shall meet again in our celebration of the potential of citizen activists to change the world."

Kucinich twice sought the Democratic presidential nomination on a platform well to the left of most of his rivals, but fell short both times. His work in Congress fueled Kucinich's reputation as one of the Capitol's more eccentric figures. The Democrat had also pushed for the impeachment of President George W. Bush.

A former mayor of Cleveland, Kucinich's political fortunes turned after the Ohio legislature, controlled by Republicans, drew his district together with Toledo Rep. Marcy Kaptur's. Kaptur won the resulting primary this spring after a campaign that had turned surprisingly bitter.

Former Kerry campaign manager and longtime head of EMILY’s List, Mary Beth Cahill, is joining Priorities USA, the Obama-endorsed SuperPAC.

The first time outside groups played an outsized role in a presidential campaign was in 2004, the year Cahill ran Kerry’s campaign. Kerry got a big assist that year from a slew of outside Democratic groups, including the largest one known as Americans Coming Together (ACT).

It is that experience, knowing what outside groups do well and not so well, that is supposed to make her a valuable asset to the SuperPAC that is still struggling to match the power of the big Republican SuperPACs.

“Mary Beth brings an enormous wealth of experience in national campaigns and we couldn’t be happier that she’s joining us," said Priorities USA co-founder Bill Burton. "As the election draws closer, her expertise in strategy and targeting will be invaluable in ensuring the President’s reelection.”

President Obama warned leaders in Congress that he wouldn't tolerate another "self-inflicted political crisis" associated with the need to raise the nation's debt limit.

Over lunch Wednesday at the White House, Obama cautioned House Speaker John Boehner, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell against another standoff that plagued Washington last summer.

“We're not going to recreate the debt ceiling debacle of last August,” Press Secretary Jay Carney recounted the president saying during his lunch meeting with House and Senate leaders.

Boehner’s office released its own account of the meeting shortly after Carney began the White House daily briefing, saying that the House speaker had asked the president whether he would aim for a debt limit increase that didn’t include any spending cuts, to which the president responded, “Yes.”

According to Boehner’s office, the speaker responded, "As long as I'm around here, I'm not going to allow a debt ceiling increase without doing something serious about the debt."

Carney said Boehner asked whether the president was advocating “the clean debt ceiling,” which Carney argued was “a little different” than asking whether or not it would include spending cuts.

But, Carney continued, “The essence is the same. And the president's point was, we should not hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage to one party's political agenda.”

Obama and the four leaders in Congress dined on hoagies fetched earlier in the day by the president during a stop at Washington's Taylor Gourmet sandwich shop.

President Obama’s spiritual adviser, Rev. Joel Hunter, said he disagrees with the president’s support for gay marriage. “I can’t find this in scripture.” Hunter said on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" today.

Hunter said that the president’s announcement was likely prompted by Vice President Biden’s endorsement on "Meet the Press." When asked if he thought Obama’s announcement was personal or politically driven, the pastor said, “When you’re in that office it’s always political. But that doesn't mean it's devoid from a sense of personal responsibility and personal morality.”

When Hunter spoke with the president after last week’s announcement, Hunter said that the president told him he changed his views based on personal anecdotes, gay friends, and servicemen. Hunter said, “He wants to do the right thing. But for him, that doesn't come straight just from scripture.”

Hunter said he did not discuss politics, policy, or even gay marriage with the president before last week. “We had not talked about this specific subject.” Hunter said. “I just talk about his personal life and his understanding of the scripture.”

When NBC's Andrea Mitchell asked if the pastor would preach against gay marriage and what the president said, Hunter said, “I don't preach political matters. I preach scriptural standards. And so, when I preach about marriage, I will say that it's between a man and a woman. And give scriptural references for that. But I simply stay away from politics when it comes to preaching, because the word of God is too important on its own to communicate. And I can't really get detoured from that.”

Hunter’s admiration of Obama has not been changed by his announcement, “The president's a man. You know? And I love him. He's a friend. But with the rest of my congregation -- I never know how much of my counsel they're going to take or not take."

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Vice President Joe Biden launched a deeply populist argument for the president's re-election on Wednesday, deriding Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital and countering the GOP argument that Democrats hope to sow "envy" between the middle class and the wealthy.

Tony Dejak / AP

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at M-7 Technologies May 16 in Youngstown, Ohio.

"I resent when they talk about families like mine that I grew up in. I resent the fact that they think we're talking about envy, that's it's job envy, it's wealth envy. That we don't dream," he told a crowd of about 600 at a Youngstown manufacturing facility, deep in the nation's Rust Belt.

"My mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams!" he said to mounting applause. "They don't get us! They don't get who we are."

Echoing the campaign's new TV ad hitting Romney's record as the head of Bain Capital, Biden accused the GOP nominee of gutting companies without regard for hundreds of employees who lost their jobs and benefits when they were shuttered.

"Romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts, and the middle class lost," he  "And folks, he thinks this experience will help our economy? Where I come from, past is prologue, man. So what do you think he’ll do as president?"

The facility where Biden spoke, M-7 Technologies, conducts high-tech manufacturing as well as research and development. It was originally founded in 1918 as a producer of castings for the steel industry.

Biden argued that jobs in eastern Ohio are returning, highlighting the campaign's focus on revitalizing the manufacturing industry. "You know the difference between an economy that's built on making things rather than on collateralized debt, creative credit default-swaps, financial instruments subprime mortgages," he said. "That's not how you grow an economy."

Before his repeated criticisms of Romney's business record and a philosophy of letting workers "fend for themselves," Biden praised the Republican's character, including a reference to Romney's charitable giving to his church. (A Romney spokesman present at the event said he did not view the comment as a swipe as Romney's faith. Romney is a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints.)

"He's a patriot, a generous man, he gives to his church, he has a beautiful family," Biden said of Romney. "But he doesn't get it."

Speaking to reporters after the event, Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland was more blunt about Romney's ability to relate to the middle class.

"I sometimes feel sorry for Mitt Romney because I think he desperately tries to relate to ordinary people and he simply does not have the capacity to do so," he said of Romney's place among the "1 percent."

"He does not understand people who have to worry about putting gas in the car, or food on the table, or helping care for their families," he said. "Those aren't challenges that he has ever had to face. And consequently I think he is incapable of really showing empathy to average people.

Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams told reporters that Biden and Strickland's criticisms would fall on deaf ears, particularly in light of Obama's attempts to raise cash from wealthy Wall Street types.

"They're attacking industries that are creating jobs, that he himself is raising money from," he said. "So people can see the dishonesty of the attack."

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has opened up a 6-point lead over Democratic challenger Tom Barrett ahead of a closely-watched June 5 recall election.

Fifty percent of Wisconsin's likely voters said in a Marquette Law School Poll that they would support retaining Walker versus 44 percent of likely voters who said they would instead elect Barrett, Walker's challenger in the 2010 general election who will again face Walker after having won last week's Democratic primary.

The poll would seem to reflect what had been an anecdotal sense that Walker has opened up an advantage in the few weeks before the recall election.

A target of Democrats and organized labor since pushing a dramatic reform of collective bargaining rights for public employees through the Wisconsin state legislature, Walker has raised millions more than his challengers in order to fend off the recall effort.

If Walker were to win, it would be a symbolic victory not only for his efforts to curb labor rights, but also for a series of other Republican governors who have embarked upon the same path. It would also be a disappointing setback for organized labor.

It could also help put Wisconsin in play for this fall's general election between Mitt Romney and President Obama.

Among likely Wisconsin voters, Obama and Romney were tied at 46 percent in a hypothetical November matchup.

A poll preceding the Democratic primary in Wisconsin had showed Barrett and Walker virtually tied in the gubernatorial recall, suggesting that the tide might have turned back toward Walker in the weeks since then.

The Republican governor had a 50 percent approval rating, according to the most recent Marquette poll, versus 46 percent of Wisconsinites who disapporove of the way he is handling his job.

The remainder of the recall campaign is still expected to be a hard-fought campaign, with millions in ads sponsored by outside groups on both sides. But reflecting the stakes of the race, and prevailing sentiment in Washington, state Democrats had to complain publicly about a lack of support from the Democratic National Committee before eliciting a promise to help raise funds.

The Marquette Law School poll, conducted May 9-12, has a 4.1 percent margin of error for the sample of likely voters.

Video edited by NBC's Matt Loffman.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Mitt Romney continued to drive a debt-oriented message here on Wednesday morning, extending his "prairie fire" of debt metaphor with the assistance of a prop.

In a nod to the independent voters who pushed the Sunshine State into the Democratic column in 2008, Romney noted that both parties were responsible for pushing the debt to the "incomprehensible" levels – which were represented on a giant prop debt clock behind him.

Mary Altaffer / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign stop May 16 in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"There was another area during [President Obama's] campaign, he said he would focus on. You see, he was very critical of his predecessor for the debts his predecessor put in place. And sure it's true you can't blame one party or the other for all the debts this country has, because both parties in my opinion have spent too much and borrowed too much when they were in power," Romney said in this key swing state.

(Interestingly, Romney danced around the actual name of that predecessor, George W. Bush, who on Tuesday endorsed the former Massachusetts Governor when asked a question by an ABC News reporter.)

"[President Obama] was very critical of his predecessor because the predecessor put together $4 trillion of debt over eight years," Romney continued. "This president however - oh by the way, he said that doing that was unpatriotic, irresponsible and unpatriotic. And he said he would cut the debt in half if he became president. Instead he doubled it, alright, he doubled it."

Democrats answered those charges quickly.

“In Florida today, Mitt Romney continued to make dishonest claims- both about President Obama’s record and his own," Obama spokesperson Lis Smith said in a statement. “While President Obama has put forward a plan to reduce the deficit by more than $4 trillion by making responsible spending cuts and asking every American to pay their share, Mitt Romney refuses to say what spending cuts or tax increases he’d make to cover the cost of giving $5 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. Mitt Romney simply wants to return to the same policies that caused the economic crisis and weakened the middle class."

Meanwhile, Romney used his prop clock like a battering ram against the president.

"Gosh, when we put that clock up, we made that clock back in the New Hampshire primary days and it began with 14 back then. Now its fifteen, six eighty five, it'll be sixteen coming soon. It is not at all what he promised," Romney said. "This presidency has been a disappointment, and the people who have been hurt by this disappointment are the American people."

The presumptive Republican nominee did not mention his plan to reform entitlements here in senior-heavy Florida, but repeat his plans to increase military spending -- a portion of Romney's fiscal vision not easily squared with his plans to cut spending broadly.

"I'd like to take shipbuilding from 9 to 15 a year, by the way that will help put people to work. And I want to buy more aircraft and I want to have more active duty personnel and I want to make sure we give our veterans the care they richly deserve," Romney said.

House Speaker John Boehner today denied he was threatening default when he called yesterday for equal or greater spending cuts to accompany a future increase in the debt ceiling.

"I'm not threatening default," he said in response to a question by NBC News. "What I'm trying to do is encourage people on both sides of the aisle on both sides of the Capitol and on both ends of Pennsylvania Ave to be honest with the American people and to be honest with ourselves to begin to tackle this problem in an adult manner."

NBC News: Speaker Boehner? Why are you threatening default on the debt limit in May of 2012?

BOEHNER: "I'm not threatening default."

NBC NEWS: But you said yesterday cuts must match debt limit increase no matter what...

BOEHNER: "Let's remember something, the issue here is the debt, almost $16 trillion dollars worth of debt, $1.3 trillion dollar budget deficit this year, one only has to read the publications that many of you write for to realize that the situation in Europe is becoming grimmer every day. We have time to deal with our problems and what I'm trying to do is encourage people on both sides of the aisle on both sides of the Capitol and on both ends of Pennsylvania Ave to be honest with the American people and to be honest with ourselves to begin to tackle this problem in an adult manner."

Here we go again: Boehner raises prospect of another debt-ceiling showdown… That carries potential risks and rewards for Boehner and the GOP… Romney focuses on cutting spending, but where’s the beef?... Bain Capital story chases Romney as he campaigns in Florida… Biden to blast Bain, too, in remarks in Youngstown, OH… Crossroads GPS goes up with anti-Obama ad… Obama camp raises $43.6 million in April (down from February and March)… And Fischer pulls off the upset in Nebraska.

Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, speaks at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's 2012 Fiscal Summit, Tuesday, May 15, 2012, in Washington.

*** Here we go again: Last summer’s debt-ceiling fight ended like a typical Tarantino flick -- with casualties and blood everywhere and no real winners. President Obama’s approval ratings sunk to the low 40s, from which he’s somewhat recovered. Congress’ number fell much more, and they remain at historic lows. Standard & Poor’s lowered its credit rating for the United States. Economic activity stalled, and economic confidence tanked. And guess what: House Speaker John Boehner is now vowing for a sequel. Call it “Kill Bill (and Everyone Else), Vol. 2.” In remarks he delivered yesterday in DC, Boehner demanded that the next debt-ceiling increase -- slated for early 2013 -- have commensurate spending cuts and no tax increases. “I will again insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase," Boehner said, per NBC’s Mike O’Brien. "This is the only avenue I see right now to force the elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal imbalance."

*** Risky Business: Given what took place last year, Boehner’s call for a sequel is risky. On the one hand, this could give the Republican Party some leverage in the lame-duck session, with President Obama and the Democrats holding the cards on the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the defense-spending sequester. In addition, attention on another debt-ceiling fight could help Mitt Romney, because it would force Obama to have to engage Congress, which is never pretty for an incumbent president. And another round of self-inflicted economic uncertainty could hurt the U.S. recovery and thus Obama’s re-election chances. (We remind you that job creation pretty much stalled last summer.) But on the other hand, another debt showdown could spotlight all the negative feelings the public has toward Congress and the Republican Party. What’s more, while the debt-ceiling fight hurt Obama in the short term, it arguably made him stronger by giving him someone to run against. After all, he’s campaigning as much against House Republicans as he is Mitt Romney.

*** Romney also focuses on cutting spending, but where’s the beef? On the same day that Boehner made his remarks about the debt ceiling, Romney was also talking about deficits and debt while campaigning in Iowa. (One thing is clear this week: The GOP is coordinating as well as they have in years. The entire GOP message machine has turned toward the debt issue, from Boehner to Romney to Crossroads.) "This debt is America's nightmare mortgage… This is not just bad economics; it is morally wrong and we must stop it," Romney said, per NBC’s Garrett Haake. "The people of Iowa and America have watched President Obama nearly four years now. Much of that time, with Congress controlled by his own party. And rather than putting out that spending fire, he’s been feeding it… The time has come for a president, a leader, who will lead. I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno.” It was a strong speech by Romney. But he still hasn’t provided details how his promises -- like reducing tax rates for the wealthy, keeping the Bush tax cuts, and increasing defense spending -- will actually reduce the deficit and debt. He’s been clear about his plans for entitlements (like Medicare and Social Security), but the details are lacking elsewhere. Romney wants to avoid filling in the blanks because to make his numbers work, it’s going to take some real massive cuts into domestic programs. By the way, as the jobs picture improves slightly, and even more so in many of the key battleground states (see OH, VA, and IA in particular), it’s not surprising that the economic pitch of the GOP has moved from “where are the jobs?” to “the debt.”

*** The Bain story continues to chase Romney: Romney today campaigns in Florida today, holding an event in St. Petersburg and two fundraisers in Tampa and Miami. And the problem for him with all the attention on Bain is that the story chases him from state to state. Here’s the Tampa Bay Times: “In advance of Mitt Romney's fundraising swing through Florida tomorrow Democrats are highlighting one of the business ventures of Bain Capital while Romney was in charge: Dade Behring, which, saddled with debt, wound up shuttering two medical technologies facilities in Miami. Some 850 jobs were lost, while Bain walked away with $242-million - an 800 percent return on its investment. The Dade Behring case has been well-documented, but here's a new wrinkle: The company under Bain's leadership sought and received millions of dollars in tax breaks for creating jobs in Puerto Rico - shortly before closing its facilities, costing nearly 300 jobs.”

*** Biden to blast Bain, too: In remarks he’ll deliver at noon ET in Youngstown, OH, Vice President Biden will also bring up Romney’s record at Bain. “He thinks that because he spent his career as a ‘businessman,’ he has the experience to run the economy. So let’s take a look at a couple of things he did,” Biden is expected to say, according to excerpts of his speech. “In the 1990s, there was a steel mill in Kansas City, Missouri.  It had been in business since 1888. Then Romney and his partners bought the company. Eight years later, it went bankrupt.” More Biden: “Romney’s management team added debt on the company. When they bought the company it had only $13 million of debt.  By the time it filed for bankruptcy, its debt had increased 40 fold to over $533 million… And when the company finally filed for bankruptcy, they reneged on their contract with the workers. No health care, lower pensions. Everyone lost their jobs. But not everyone got hurt. The top 30 executives walked away with $9 million. And Romney and his partners walked away with at least $12 million. Romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts, and the middle class lost.  And folks, he thinks this experience will help our economy?”

*** Crossroads goes up: After the Obama campaign unveiled its massive ad buy, the Karl Rove-backed Crossroads GPS (the 501c4 that doesn’t have to disclose its donors) is up with a very large buy hitting Obama. And here’s the ad. As we noted above, it’s on the GOP message theme of the week: the debt. Again, we ask: Is this a subtle shift from jobs, because of the facts on the ground in many of the battleground states? Note the themes in this ad: debt and housing; more powerful arguments perhaps in places like Florida and Nevada. The states where the ad is running: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

*** Obama camp raises $43.6 million in April: NBC’s Carrie Dann reports that the Obama campaign announced it raised $43.6 million in April -- for the campaign, DNC, and other committees. That amount, however, is down from the campaign’s $45 million combined haul in February and $53 million haul in March. In February, the Obama campaign raised $21 million, with the DNC/OFA/other committees raking in the rest. And in March, the campaign brought in $35 million, with the committees raising the rest. Also in March, Romney's campaign raised $13 million. The FEC filing deadline for last month’s numbers is May 20.

*** Romney’s 155 delegates away from 1144: As expected, Romney easily won last night’s GOP presidential primaries in Nebraska and Oregon. The latest delegate count, per NBC’s Katie Primm: Romney 989, Santorum 265, Gingrich 130, Paul 106.

*** Fischer pulls off the upset in Nebraska: As we alluded to yesterday, there was an upset in last night’s Nebraska Senate GOP primary. The Lincoln Journal Star: State Sen. Deb Fischer’s “late surge, perhaps unprecedented in modern-day Nebraska political history, upended a Senate race that appeared to be settled as recently as 10 days ago with the GOP prize within the grasp of Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning.” More: “Fischer suddenly gained momentum with late endorsements from 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Lincoln, then rode the momentum of a weekend TV ad blitz mounted by Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts and his political action committee. The super PAC ads purchased by Ending Spending supported Fischer and roughed up Bruning with attacks on his character and ethical behavior as attorney general. Within days, his support collapsed and the race was scrambled.”

*** Did the NRSC back into its strongest candidate? While we and others have cast Fischer’s surprise win as an outsider victory against an establishment insider (Bruning), the Cook Political Report’s Jennifer Duffy has a different take: “Bruning’s problem [wasn’t] necessarily that he is the establishment candidate; it’s that there are all these questions about his finances and ethics,” she told First Read. “It’s about the only story about the primary race the World Herald has written.” So Senate Republicans may very well have backed into their strongest candidate. We’ll know in a week or so if Fischer is for real or whether Democrats (and Bob Kerrey) will have a true shot in this red state in November. More times than not, the candidate who comes out on top in a three-way race sails to victory in the general election (see Feingold/Mosely-Braun/Palin/Gray Davis). Yet the question mark surrounding Fischer is that she isn’t well known. But barring something unknown, Democratic hopes of keeping this seat may actually be fading faster than they would have had the GOP nominated either of the two men.

*** Veepstakes watch: And here’s the Chris Christie-Cory Booker web video everyone is talking about today. 

Countdown to WI recall: 20 days
Countdown to GOP convention: 103 days
Countdown to Dem convention: 110 days
Countdown to Election Day: 174 days

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*** Wednesday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) on the renewed debt fight, California’s budget breakdown and more… U.S. Senate candidate Craig James on whether the GOP primary race in Texas will have surprises like Nebraska and Indiana… More 2012 headlines with former Clinton 2008 Campaign Manager Patti Solis Doyle, former Gingrich 2012 and Perry 2012 Campaign Manager Rob Johnson and Financial Times’ Anna Fifield.

*** Wednesday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru, MSNBC Contributor Richard Wolffe,  former CBO Director Doug Holtz-Eakin, former Biden economic adviser Jared Bernstein, Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), attorney Hampton Dellinger, and NBC News Chief Legal Analyst Savannah Guthrie.

*** Wednesday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up:  MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks with USA Today’s Jackie Kucinich, Doug Thornell, J.P. Friere, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), CNBC Contributor Ron Insana and Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s Andrew Romano.

*** Wednesday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include former New York Gov. George Pataki, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, NBCLatino.com’s Alicia Menendez, Pulitzer Prize-winning Author David Wood of The Huffington Post, and James Wright, author, “Those Who Have Borne the Battle”

*** Wednesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews NBC’s Chuck Todd, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), President Obama’s faith advisor Rev. Joel Hunter, Obama campaign co-chair and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, NBC’s Stephanie Gosk, the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart and author and journalist Gayle Lemmon.

*** Wednesday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall interviews Rep. James Clyburn on the President’s lunch with congressional leaders, Michael Smerconish, AB Stoddard and Jimmy Williams.

Crossroads GPS says it’s going up with a $25 million ad buy on broken Obama promises. The ad focuses on housing, taxes, health care, the deficit. “We need solutions not just promises,” an announcer says.

“When the head of JPMorgan Chase met with shareholders to answer for a trading loss of more than $2 billion Tuesday, it was against an evolving political backdrop: Donors from big banks are betting on Mitt Romney to defeat President Obama and repeal new restraints on risky, large-scale investments,” the Boston Globe reports.

“President Barack Obama pushes his legislative ‘to-do list’ on Wednesday,” the AP reports. “He'll start with a visit to a company in the Washington area where he'll stress the need to invest in small business and increase new hiring. He wants Congress to pass a bill that would give a 10 percent tax credit to companies that create new jobs or increase wages this year. The president also will press the list when he has lunch with the congressional leadership.”

“President Obama’s total assets in 2011 were as high as $8.3 million in 2011, according to an annual financial disclosure filing released by the White House Tuesday,” the Boston Globe reports, adding, “Much of the president’s wealth is in the form of US Treasury bills and notes, which total between $1.6 million and $6.25 million… The Obamas also have $500,001 to $1 million in a checking account at JPMorgan Chase, the bank currently under FBI scrutiny for a $2 billion trading loss.”

NBC’s Carrie Dann reports Biden today in Ohio will say: "Romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts, and the middle class lost. And folks, he thinks this experience will help our economy? Where I come from, past is prologue.” And he'll define "Romney economics" as "as long as the government helps the guys at the very top do well, workers and small businesses and communities can be left to fend for themselves."

A Super PAC ad out on Romney’s record at Bain “relies, in part, on the dubious assertion that Bain Capital always turned a profit, no matter what happened to the businesses in which it invested,” the Boston Globe writes.

“Mitt Romney won the Nebraska and Oregon Republican primaries on Tuesday, adding to his delegate haul in his march toward the GOP presidential nomination,” MSNBC.com’s Mike O’Brien writes.

The Des Moines Register: “Warning of a ‘prairie fire of debt,’ Mitt Romney chose swing state Iowa on Tuesday to accuse President Barack Obama of failing to tame federal deficits. ’I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno,’ the presumptive Republican nominee said during a speech in Des Moines, with a banner stretched behind him that blared ‘CUT THE SPENDING.’”

CHRISTIE: The New Jersey governor (R) and Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) made a video for the Press Association Legislative Correspondents Club, making light of Booker’s heroics and Christie’s potential to be veep. In the end, Booker takes a call from (supposedly) Mitt Romney, who’s asking him to be VP. Christie, looking serious, takes the phone from Booker and says, “I got this.”

New Jersey voters don’t think Christie would be happy as VP, per Quinnipiac. Voters say that by a 52%-36% margin. Republicans, though, think he would.

But here’s really the key from the poll: “Christie gives no measurable boost to the Republican presidential effort in the Garden State as a ticket of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with Gov. Christie running for vice president trails President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden 50 - 42 percent. In an Obama-Romney matchup, with no running mates named, the Democrat wins 49 - 39 percent…”

JINDAL: He went on the attack (which is what a veep is supposed to do) for Romney on FOX: "President Obama simply cannot run on his record. The reality is 23 million Americans [are] unemployed, underemployed, or simply have left the workforce. President Obama cannot ask the American people 'Are you better off than you were four years ago'? He's going to have to savagely attack Mitt Romney. We've seen the start of that this week." (h/t: GOP 12.)

MARTINEZ: Despite her denials, the Deseret News notes that the veep buzz continues around the New Mexico governor. Her PAC raised $77,800. 

In Santa Fe, “New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez's administration said it suspended two finance officials this week in an embattled city where a state audit found public money had paid for prostitutes for two other city officials,” Reuters writes.

PORTMAN: Margaret Carlson dubs him, “The Best of the Boring White Guys.”

RUBIO: On what’s really behind Obama’s support of gay marriage, per GOP 12: "I think it’s part of a broader effort by the president to distract from his record on the economy. I think every week he tries to come up with something else he can talk about that keeps the issue off of how the economy has done under the years of his presidency."

RYAN: “Asked what he would be willing to give up to address the U.S. debt crisis, Rep. Paul Ryan stood his ground Tuesday and insisted it was Democrats who needed to cede ground,” CNBC writes. Ryan said on Kudlow: “I’m not interested in negotiating with myself on television. It’s futile, in my opinion… The Senate has chosen not to pass a budget in three years,” he said. “The president has chosen to disavow the fiscal commission, to not put a budget that attempts to deal with any of these issues. We have passed solutions.”

It should be noted that Ryan himself voted against the fiscal commission’s recommendations.

“Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wisc.), who is chairman of the House Budget Committee and is a Republican pointman on fiscal policy, downplayed the idea that a comprehensive fiscal plan could be ironed out after November's high-stakes presidential and congressional elections. Instead, he said House Republicans plan to use the coming months to lay out their vision on issues such as tax overhaul,” the Wall Street Journal writes. “‘I don't think you'll see some long-term massive solution,’ Ryan said of the prospects for the pre-Christmas legislative session.”

NEBRASKA: State Sen. Deb Fischer’s “late surge, perhaps unprecedented in modern-day Nebraska political history, upended a Senate race that appeared to be settled as recently as 10 days ago with the GOP prize within the grasp of Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning,” the Lincoln Journal Star writes. “Fischer suddenly gained momentum with late endorsements from 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Lincoln, then rode the momentum of a weekend TV ad blitz mounted by Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts and his political action committee. The super PAC ads purchased by Ending Spending supported Fischer and roughed up Bruning with attacks on his character and ethical behavior as attorney general. Within days, his support collapsed and the race was scrambled.”

VIRGINIA: “A prosecutor's bid to become the first openly gay judge in Virginia was stymied by state conservatives on Tuesday,” the New York Daily News writes. “The state's General Assembly voted 33-31 to make Tracy Thorne-Begland a district court judge in Richmond. Thorne-Begland needed 51 votes to nab the appointment. Republicans cast all 31 votes against him. Conservatives argued that Thorne-Begland's outspoken support of gay rights would have prevented him from being impartial on the bench.”

DES MOINES -- Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney returned to Iowa on Tuesday, hammering President Obama for feeding a "debt and spending inferno," and warning of the dangers of a "nightmare mortgage" of debt that could swamp generations of Americans if tough decisions can't be made to cut government spending.

"This debt is America's nightmare mortgage. It's adjustable, no-money down, and assigned to our children," Romney said. "And politicians have been trying to hide the truth about this nightmare mortgage for years -- just like liar-loans. This is not just bad economics; it is morally wrong and we must stop it."

Appearing in the Hawkeye state for the first time since the Jan. 3 caucuses -- where Romney was briefly declared the winner before revised results showed Rick Santorum had won -- Romney stood in the very same ballroom in which he held his caucus night party and used stark imagery to warn of a debt and spending crisis he claimed was sweeping across the country like a prairie fire.

"The people of Iowa and America have watched President Obama nearly four years now. Much of that time, with Congress controlled by his own party. And rather than putting out that spending fire, he’s been feeding it. He has spent more and borrowed more," Romney said. "The time has come for a president, a leader, who will lead. I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno. We will stop borrowing unfathomable sums of money we can’t even imagine from foreign countries we’re never even going to visit. I will work with you to make sure we put out this spending and borrowing fire."

The former Massachusetts governor's speech was directed toward driving a wedge between President Obama and independent voters by labeling the president yet again as an "old liberal," to the left of more centrist "new Democrats" like former President Clinton.

"Even a former McGovern campaign worker like President Clinton was signaling to his own party that Democrats should no longer try to govern by proposing a new program for every problem. President Obama tucked away the Clinton doctrine in his large drawer of discarded ideas, along with transparency and bipartisanship," Romney said in prepared remarks. (In his actual speech, Romney inadvertently said "McCain" instead of McGovern.). "It’s enough to make you wonder if maybe it was a personal beef with the Clintons. But probably that -– it runs much deeper than that."

"What President Obama is doing is not bold; it's old. As president, I will make the federal government simpler, smaller, smarter," Romney said, summing up his arguments.

But while Romney's speech today touched on entitlement reform and his oft-repeated pledge to cut programs, it glossed over how Romney would pay for his 20 percent across-the-board tax cuts, or his plans to expand military spending without creating even more debt, upon which President Obama's campaign quickly seized.

"While President Obama has put forward a plan to reduce the national debt by more than $4 trillion over the next decade, Mitt Romney refuses to say what spending cuts or tax increases he’d make to cover the cost of giving $5 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans," Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said in a statement. "Mitt Romney simply wants to return to the same policies that caused the crisis and weakened the middle class: budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and letting Wall Street write its own rules. Loading the country up with debt while giving tax breaks to the wealthy—America can’t afford Romney Economics.”

The focus on debt and spending -- not job-creating and economic growth more broadly -- was notable here in a state with an unemployment rate of 5.2 percent, nearly three percentage points better than the national average and near full employment. For Romney to return Iowa to the Republican column in November, he'll have to overcome not just an economy that has comparatively thrived in the last four years, but also a significant organizational advantage to the Obama campaign, which boasts eight offices in the state -- including one here in Des Moines in the same location Romney used as his Iowa campaign headquarters during the caucuses.

"The Romney campaign will aggressively compete across Iowa and together with the Republican Party, we will have a bigger presence in Iowa than any previous Republican candidate for President," Romney spokesperson Rick Gorka said in a statement.

Despite the apocalyptic imagery of flames and nightmares, there was some levity in Romney's speech. Employing a metaphor for the inefficiencies and cronyism he sees in Washington DC, Romney, who once said President Obama was employing a "pay phone strategy" in a "smart phone world" described an imaginary scenario in which the federal government was the sole provider of cell phones in America.

"First of all, they'd still be under review, alright, you'd be listening to hearings in Congress on cell phones. When they were finally approved, the contract to make them would go to an Obama donor.  And of course they'd come out looking about the size of a shoe, with a collapsible solar panel attached to power it," Romney joked. "And of course campaign donors would be lining up see who could get appointed to be the App-Czar, alright."

Nati Harnik / Associated Press

Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer applauds her supporters with her husband Bruce Fischer, left, at her election party May 15 in Lincoln, Neb.

Updated 11:20 p.m. — Insurgent Republican candidate Deb Fischer bested two rivals with superior financing and organizations to win the Republican Senate nomination in Nebraska on Tuesday. 

Fischer earned the right to face former Sen. Bob Kerrey in a Senate race seen as crucial to Republicans' chances of retaking the Senate next year. She and Kerrey will battle to succeed the retiring centrist Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson. 

Fischer bested her two Republican rivals, state Attorney General Jon Bruning and Don Stenberg, according to Associated Press projections. Bruning had enjoyed establishment support and had raised the most money, while Stenberg, who'd previously run for the Senate three times before, had worked to consolidate support from conservatives. 

A state senator who heads the Nebraska legislature's transportation committee, Fischer made a late charge for the nomination aided by a nearly yearlong fight between Bruning and Stenberg. 

Adding to that momentum was former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who on Monday released a letter in support of Fischer.

Romney wins Nebraska primary

“We admire your conservative principles and know that you will not go to Washington to amass great wealth or power. You will go to Washington to serve the people of Nebraska, protect our Constitution and work for common sense solutions to help restore America,” wrote Palin, who made a habit of backing insurgent and Tea Party Senate candidates in 2010, often shortly before Election Day.

Fischer won't face a cakewalk on her way to Washington, though. Democrats tapped former Sen. Bob Kerrey, who served two terms representing Nebraska before becoming president of The New School in New York City, to succeed Nelson.

But Republicans are optimistic that they can paint Kerrey, a Vietnam War hero who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992, as an out-of-touch liberal. Kerrey, for instance, said last week that he also supports same-sex marriage in light of President Barack Obama’s similar pronouncement – a position that might not prove popular with Nebraskans come November.

Fischer has been the least well-funded of the candidates, and her small organization relative to her two primary challengers could prompt more assistance from the national Republican Party.

Moreover, were Fischer to become Republicans’ candidate, she would be facing statewide exposure for the first time, and against a seasoned political figure like Kerrey.

Republicans' chances of winning the Senate could be diminished, though, if they fail to win over Nebraska. While Democrats will play defense this fall in more Senate seats than the GOP, Republican candidates have struggled to catch fire in some states that had been previously seen as opportunities, narrowing the party's pathway to a majority.

While Fischer's victory would seem at first glance to fall along the fault lines in 2010 Senate primaries, which pitted less-experienced conservative insurgents against establishment-backed Republicans, the three-way primary in Nebraska made for a more complex breakdown in political loyalties. 

Bruning had raised the most money and developed the most extensive organization. Both Rick Santorum, the erstwhile presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania senator, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee had endorsed Bruning, giving him particular heft among the state’s social conservatives.

Stenberg, who had hoping the fourth time was a charm in his bid to win a Senate seat, won the backing of Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., a conservative kingmaker in primary races, along with the fiscally conservative Club for Growth.

Both Bruning and Stenberg had been fighting intensely in the GOP primary for much of the past year, aided in part by outside groups who have assisted each candidate.

A stone's throw away from the White House, former President George W. Bush said today the world is in an "extraordinary" time for freedom and that the changes of the Arab Spring should be embraced despite the uncertain future that comes with them.

Bush said those who say the dangers of democratic change are too great and that America should be in favor of stability over change are unrealistic.

"In the long run, this foreign-policy approach is not realistic," Bush argued, "It is not realistic to presume that so-called stability enhances our national security. Nor is it within the power of America to indefinitely preserve the old order, which is inherently unstable."

Bush advocated a clear stand. "American's message should ring clear and strong," Bush said. "We stand for freedom -- and for the institutions and habit that make freedom work for everyone."

Bush's stance puts him at odds with some hard-liners in his party, who have considered Israel's interests in the region first. They have been critical of Hosni Mubarak's ouster and the political process that has followed, including the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The U.S., led by Obama, has walked a fine line on intervention during the Arab spring. America was reticent at first to get involved in Egypt, because of the "stability," from an American perspective, that Mubarak represented. But eventually Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embraced the changes.

The U.S. intervened in Libya, but only after building a multilateral approach and letting NATO take the lead. Some Republican presidential candidates knocked Obama for not intervening, and then others criticized him for getting involved at all. Newt Gingrich did both. The U.S. has not intervened in Syria, something Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been critical of Obama for not doing more on Syria.

Romney on a radio program in October called the Arab Spring "out of control." “We’re facing an Arab Spring which is out of control in some respects," he said, "because the president was not as strong as he needed to be in encouraging our friends to move toward representative forms of government."

He says on his website that what's happening in the Arab Spring is "doubled edged." And: "To protect our enduring national interests and to promote our ideals, a Romney administration will pursue a strategy of supporting groups and governments across the Middle East to advance the values of representative government, economic opportunity, and human rights, and opposing any extension of Iranian or jihadist influence. The Romney administration will strive to ensure that the Arab Spring is not followed by an Arab Winter."

Bush acknowledged that once these movements succeed in overthrowing a regime the hard work is not behind them. "After the euphoria, nations must deal with questions of tremendous complexity," he said, adding, "Problems once kept submerged by force must now be resolved by politics and consensus."

Bush and the former first lady were in town for the Washington launch of The Bush Center's Freedom Collection, which is an initiative to document the stories of dissidents. They were joined by Pastor Bob Fu the founder of ChinaAid and an advocate for Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng and the newly elected member of parliament Daw Aung San Suu Kyi appeared from Myanmar via Skype. Pastor Fu said he hopes to see Mr. Chen and his family in the U.S. soon.

President Bush quipped at the top of his remarks that he found his freedom by leaving Washington.

House Speaker John Boehner offered a rare glimpse Tuesday into his summer 2011 negotiations with President Obama on a "grand bargain" to rein in spending and address mounting debt.

The Ohio Republican reflected on how the spending fight that plagued Washington last year would affect his legacy, and hinted that he would make another attempt at extracting reforms by using the nation's borrowing limit as a bargaining chip.

In a speech at a Washington conference at fiscal issues, Boehner called the time span between Election Day and the end of the year, during which Congress must address expiring tax cuts and a looming hike in the debt limit, an "action-forcing event."

Boehner spoke of himself in historical terms and seemed to recognize a far-reaching debt deal could cement his legacy as an effective speaker.

“I’m ready, and I’ve been ready. I’m not angling for higher office. This is the last position in government I will hold. I haven’t come this far to walk away," he said. "All my life, I’ve operated by a simple code: if you do the right thing for the reasons, good things will happen. Well, NOW is the time to do the right thing."

Achieving the "right thing" might involve a bipartisan deal along the lines Boehner and President Obama had negotiated during the height of the debt ceiling showdown. But gridlock in Congress, driven by hard-charging conservatives and a deep chasm between the Republican House and the Democratic Senate, has shown that such a deal would be easier said than done.

Boehner's pronouncement that he's seeking no further office, combined with Obama's sentiment that this election is his last, could open the door to a new agreement between the two leaders.

But Boehner also decried the way in which Obama had allegedly "moved the goalposts" during their 2011 talks.

“We were on the verge of an agreement that would have reduced the deficit by trillions, by strengthening entitlement programs and reforming the tax code with permanently lower rates for all, laying the foundation for lasting growth," he said. "But when the president saw his former colleagues in the Senate getting ready to press for tax hikes, he lost his nerve.  The political temptation was too great.  He moved the goalposts, changed his stance, and demanded tax hikes.”

The White House has contended that Boehner never had the GOP votes to achieve a true bipartisan compromise because House Republicans would be reluctant to accept any increase in taxes.

WASHINGTON -- Two potential Republican vice presidential contenders had the same warning Tuesday afternoon: it is time to fix the country’s fiscal problems now.

Addressing the 2012 Fiscal Summit, both Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan said the economy is likely to slip back into a recession if action isn’t taken soon.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., participates in an onstage interview during the Peterson Foundation 2012 Fiscal Summit May 15 in Washington.

“I think we know enough to know it's going to be devastating to the economy if we don't deal with these issues before year end,” Portman said, referring to looming work on expiring Bush tax cuts and raising the nation's debt ceiling. Portman said that while it's difficult to finish work on those issues during an election year, it is necessary.

Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget committee, said his goal is to help get the trajectory of the debt back on a downward slope.

While neither prominent Republican addressed VP speculation or their support of Gov. Mitt Romney, both took aim, at times, at the same target -- President Barack Obama.

“There are Democrats and Republicans who largely agree with each other on how best to tackle these challenges.  Unfortunately, it's not the current president and it's not the Senate leadership that we're dealing with right now,” Ryan said.

Democrats and Republicans have been struggling to deal with the debt crisis for years, most recently during a protracted 2011 fight over cutting spending and raising the nation's borrowing limit. But Congress has made little progress since the collapse of last year's "supercommittee" established in the debt ceiling agreement. Portman was a member of that supercommittee.

“I will say that Democrats needed a little help in terms of the supercommittee. We didn't have that. In fact what we had was a veto threat if it wasn't done just the way President Obama wanted it done. That's not leadership,” Portman admitted, saying presidential leadership is needed to help figure out problems as a country.

And, it seems unlikely the economic issues will be resolved prior to November’s presidential election. And Ryan doubts the lame-duck session will bring any resolutions either.

“I don't think you'll see a permanent resolution to our problems in a lame duck session. I'm not sure that's the appropriate place to do that,” the chairman said, adding: “I personally believe if we can remove these partisan roadblocks, that we can get to a moment where we're going to have a solution once and for all for this problem and hopefully in time to prevent an austeritylike debt crisis.”

Former President Bill Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and House Speaker John Boehner also addressed the summit, sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) presaged another developing moment of brinksmanship on taxes and spending, vowing that House Republicans would vote to extend expiring tax cuts before the election, and insist on further cuts in spending to accompany another increase in the debt limit.

Boehner said that the House would vote this fall "before the election" to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of this calendar year. Income taxes would spike upward on Jan. 1 barring action to either extend the tax cuts or reform taxes on a permanent basis.

The Republican speaker said the extension on which the House will vote, which comes on top of the two-year extension approved by Congress and President Obama in late 2010, would give lawmakers a chance to work on broad-based tax reform next year.

"This will give Congress time to work on broad-based tax reform that lowers rates for individuals and businesses while closing deductions, credits, and special carveouts," Boehner said in advance excerpts of his speech to a fiscal summit Tuesday in Washington. "Our bill to stop the New Year’s Day tax increase will also establish an expedited process by which Congress would enact real tax reform in 2013."

Boehner's warning, though, reflects the uncertain political terrain facing lawmakers after Election Day. Republicans have hopes of winning the Senate as well as the presidency, though their odds of accomplishing both have been tempered in recent months. Boehner himself warned that the GOP has a one-in-three chance of losing the House.

If Congress were to fail to address taxes and a looming vote to increase the nation's borrowing authority -- Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner suggested that wouldn't be necessary until 2013 -- it would force a reckoning with those two difficult issues during a lame-duck Congress. But either party could conceivably claim a mandate for its prescriptions as a result of the election results, and find an incentive in punting on either issue until the new Congress convenes in January, and the president -- either the same one, or a new one -- is inaugurated.

"I don't think you'll see a permanent resolution to our problems in a lame duck session. I'm not sure that's the appropriate place to do that," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) said at the same summit.

To that end, Boehner also laid down markers for the parameters on which House Republicans would insist in order to again raise the debt limit. "I think in the lame duck you'll see something to make sure that we don't have a train wreck. Does that mean we'll have permanent entitlement reform, a grand bargain that will fix every fiscal problem once and for all? I don't see that happening."

"When the time comes, I will again insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase," Boehner said in prepared remarks. "This is the only avenue I see right now to force the elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal imbalance."

The speaker said that while stopgap measures weren't "ideal," he would accept them in order to insist upon the bigger cuts and reforms.

"It is pretty galling for Speaker Boehner to be laying down demands for another debt ceiling agreement when he won't even abide by the last one," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) in response to Boehner's remarks, referring to GOP efforts to undo the mandatory defense cuts in the debt-ceiling deal. "The last thing the country needs is a rerun of last summer's debacle that nearly brought down our economy."

Indeed, the debt ceiling fight took a political toll on nearly all of the political actors involved, especially Congress, which saw its approval ratings tumble to an all-time low. Even some Republicans have conceded their party risked seeming intransigent as a result of the fight.

That might offer encouragement for Democrats to hold out against an agreement; if their numbers in Congress are improved next year, and President Obama is re-elected, they might be in a stronger bargaining position to insist on their proposals that the wealthy shoulder a larger portion of the tax burden.

Frank Thorp contributed.

With an eye on the critical women’s vote, President Obama started his appearance on The View by saying, “I like hanging out with women. What can I tell you?” The president also touched on gay marriage, JP Morgan, smoking, and how he’s just the “right amount of embarrassing.”

Obama also provided  a little more insight into the conversation he and Vice President Joe Biden had after Biden said he was “absolutely comfortable” with gay marriage on Meet the Press. When asked if Biden jumped the gun the president gave his VP some cover.

“I was okay with it,” Obama said, adding, “I’m never going to blame anybody for telling what they believe, because I think it, it’s important, you know, for everybody in my administration to feel like, you know, we want to be disciplined, we want to make sure we’re getting the message out there. But, at the same time, on issues of principle, you know, I always admire people who – who go ahead and speak their minds.”

He once against invoked his daughters, who basketball team he helps coach, on how they inform his views on politics, especially women’s issues, including the hot-button Title IX.

“Watching these girls grow … watching them progress and get better as a team, and seeing the confidence that they get it’s a reminder,” he said. “You know, we’re celebrating four years of, of Title IX. And it shows when girls are given the opportunity and they’re competing and they’re working as a team, it makes them strong, it makes them more confident. One of the great things that’s happened during the course of my lifetime, is women’s sports becoming just as important.”

And the president didn’t hesitate to remind everyone that it’s the First Lady and his daughters that keep him in check. The president recounted that for his 50th birthday, his daughters put together a list of why he is such a wonderful Dad, “and they had this list. It was so sweet. And one of the items on Malia’s list was, ‘You are just the right amount of embarrassing.’”

He also joked about how the First Lady teases him about his ears and nose and his habits “mercilessly.” “She just is relentless,” he said. “But it is good for you … especially in the White House.”

And the one habit she apparently doesn’t have to tease him about is smoking. The president was asked whether he sneaked a smoke after the capture of Osama bin Laden.  His answer: “I did not. I did not because…Michelle will catch me.”