RICHMOND, Va. — President Obama launched his bid for a second term Saturday by working to mobilize supporters with a forward-looking message in the face of challenges that include sluggish economic recovery.

The question facing voters, he told a boisterous crowd during the second stop on the official launch of his re-election campaign, isn't whether Americans are better off today than four years ago.  "The real question," he said, is "how we’ll be doing tomorrow."

Obama tried to accomplish this in two ways: Seeking to rekindle the enthusiasm surrounding his 2008 candidacy, and sending stark warnings about what it would mean if his presumptive Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, were elected.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wave at a campaign event May 5 in Richmond, Va.

The word ‘Forward’ printed on placards was held by the crowds at both rallies, a kind of 2.0 version of the ‘hope and change’ theme that propelled the Obama campaign in 2008. The crowds at each were loud and enthusiastic, though the Romney campaign was quick to note that the Columbus arena wasn't filled to capacity. Both crowds were heavy on students, and the Richmond rally had a number of African-Americans in attendance, reflecting the area's large black population.

Analysis: Obama re-election launch seeks to define stakes of campaign

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said Saturday: "No matter how many lofty campaign speeches President Obama gives, the fact remains that American families are struggling on his watch: to pay their bills, find a job and keep their homes.”

That statement came because the former Massachusetts governor found himself on the receiving end of a broadside by the president on Saturday, one that took aim at a cornerstone of Romney's campaign, his claim of economic competence.

"When a woman in Iowa shared the story of her financial struggles, he responded with economic theory," Obama said, painting Romney as out-of-touch.

"Corporations aren't people, people are people!" Obama later added, dredging up Romney's quote at the Iowa state fair, when he compared corporations to individuals.

The election may hinge on the economy, but Obama's first formal day of campaigning suggested he won't cede that issue to Romney. He and the first lady both played to broad middle class frustration about diminishing social mobility.

"It's that fundamental promise that no matter who you are or how you started out—if you work hard, you can build a decent life for yourself and yes, an even better life for your kids, and an even better life for your kids," First Lady Michelle Obama said in Columbus.

There was much about Obama's campaign launch that seemed familiar from his 2008 campaign.

He said he was still "fired up" and "ready to go," drawing on a campaign slogan from his last election. His two stops on Saturday were in Columbus, Ohio and Richmond, Va. — the state capitals of two crucial swing states Obama had won against Sen. John McCain. And two staple blocs of Obama's 2008 coalition, those young voters and black voters, showed up in throngs for this weekend's events.

He sought, in no uncertain terms, to draw a line from their effort that year to this fall's campaign, taking strides to remind them of the accomplishments in the meanwhile — his health care law, Wall Street reform, winding down the war in Iraq and killing Osama bin Laden, among other initiatives.

"I didn’t run, and you didn’t work your hearts out, just to win an election," Obama said in Richmond.

He added, toward the end of his remarks: "If people ask you ‘what’s this campaign about?’ you tell them it’s still about hope. You tell them it’s still about change."

But the heady optimism from 2008 has been tempered, namely by an anemic economic recovery. The April jobs report found the U.S. economy added 115,000 jobs last month, falling below expectations and suggesting that the pace of hiring has slowed.

Perhaps in recognition of the new political reality, Obama dropped the gloves versus Romney and sharply criticized the former Massachusetts governor, linking him also to a deeply unpopular Republican House of Representatives.

"For the last few years, the Republicans who run this Congress have insisted that we go right back to the policies that created this mess in the first place," Obama said. "And now, after a long and spirited primary, Republicans in Congress have found a champion — they have found a nominee for president who has promised to rubber-stamp this agenda if he has the chance."

It might not have been the lofty rhetoric that drew so many admirers to Obama in 2008, but these new, sharper themes in this campaign still resonate with the president's most ardent supporters.

"I'm just as enthusiastic as the last time, because I think it's going to be a race between an average joe and a multimillionaire," said Marc René of Richmond, an emigre from Haiti in 1994 who works at a local nonprofit.

"My wife and I work, we have great careers, but we still try to make end's meet. We don't have a net worth of $280 million dollars," he said.

Meaghan Mcinnis of Richmond, a relatively recent college graduate who lost one of her first jobs out of school before finding a new one, attended the rally with her friend Jamie Dalton. Both women said they feared the notion of Republican-led "war on women" aggressively messaged by Democrats.

"I feel like there are much bigger issues, and I don't appreciate that 50 and 60-year-old men are making decisions for my 20-something-year-old body," said Mcinnis.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama greet suporters after a campaign event Saturday at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio.

RICHMOND, Virginia -- In back-to-back speeches in two key swing states, the Obama campaign indicated how it wants to define the general election: as a choice between a tool of congressional Republicans who wants to undo the president’s first-term agenda and an incumbent looking to spend the next four years building on his achievements.

The president seemed to tie his presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney to Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan, which Democrats use to represent congressional Republicans’ entire agenda. Obama warned that in Romney, the House GOP had a candidate who would be willing to gut Medicare and end regulations on insurance companies and banks – policies “that created this mess,” the president said.

“After a long and spirited primary, Republicans in Congress have found a nominee for president who has promised to rubber-stamp this agenda if he gets the chance,” Obama said at Ohio State University, his first stop of the day, later adhering to the same script at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

“We cannot give him that chance,” Obama continued.

The president also sought to define himself in his two speeches Saturday, employing populist themes that touch on those of several past presidential campaigns while remaining entirely unique to the Obama campaign. Using a sort of “values play” evocative of the pitches used by the Clinton campaign, the president’s wife, Michelle, underscored that he grew up in an environment where everybody played by the rules, sometimes struggling to get by.

“He is the son of a single mother who struggled to put herself through school and pay the bills.  That’s who he is.  He’s the grandson of a woman who woke up before dawn every day to catch a bus to her job at the bank,” the first lady said of her husband in Columbus.

“So believe me, Barack knows what it means when a family struggles,” she continued.

Michelle Obama’s speech also employed a tactic from George W. Bush’s re-election campaign, in which the incumbent is portrayed as the familiar choice against an unknown risk.

“We all know what Barack Obama is -- who he is,” she said. “We all know what our president stands for, right?” she implored the audience.

There’s also a little bit of Harry Truman’s campaign evident in Obama’s pitch, as he warns supporters that they need to re-elect him in order to stop “those guys” in Congress who are threatening to pass items like the Ryan budget.

“As long as I’m president of the United States, I will never allow Medicare to be turned into a voucher that would end the program as we know it,” Obama said. “That’s what’s at stake in this election.”

And in preventing Republicans from accomplishing their agenda, Obama is arguing, the lives of average Americans will continue to improve – even as he acknowledges they are not where they need to be currently.

So in a twist of Ronald Reagan’s “are you better off than you were four years ago” trope, which Romney is using, the president is asking his supporters if they think they are on the right direction to being better off, say, four years from now.

The real question, he said, “is not just about how we’re doing today. It’s about how we’ll be doing tomorrow.”

Obama drops gloves vs Romney in campaign launch

“Will we better off if more Americans get a better education? That’s the question. Will we better off if we depend less on foreign oil and more on our own ingenuity? That's the question.”

The decision to re-ask a different question to the "are you better off" refrain is a tacit acknowledgment by the campaign that the "are you better off" question isn't an easy one for voters to answer in the affirmative for Obama.

While his stump speech did copy some pages from past playbooks, one aspect of most presidential re-election pitches was absent from the president’s opening salvo: the introduction of a clear second-term agenda.

Instead, the president’s stump speech was all about protecting his first-term achievements like the health care reform law and developing alternative energy sources. And while, historically, second terms are mostly about preserving such accomplishments, there is usually at least a vague nod to what the president wants to get done in a second term.

But that was missing in Saturday’s speeches. Perhaps by the convention, the president will have a more direct pitch about what another four years will look like.

All about field operations
This election will likely be decided on the two groups of swing voters in American politics: that tiny slice of independents who actually do vacillate between the two parties, making up maybe 8 to 10 percent of the entire electorate, and those swing voters who “swing” between voting and not voting.

And while the Obama campaign will hold rallies like the two Saturday to generate media buzz, their more immediate concern is that they connect with exactly these swing voters – especially the second subset – which both the president and first lady seemed to make clear.

“We are going to win this thing the old-fashioned way,” the president said, emphasizing the need to go door to door and establish neighborhood-by-neighborhood teams of volunteers.

The first lady made a pitch directly to college students who, along with African-Americans, are the two groups who came out in the strongest numbers for the president but also run high risk of staying home in 2012.

“To all of the college students out there, all of you -- if you're going to be moving over the summer, remember to register at your new address in the fall. You got that? Get that done,” she urged.

Lost energy?
The crowds at Ohio State University’s Schottenstein Center were screaming enthusiastically, waving signs and chanting “Four more years! Four more years!”

But the arena did not reach its full capacity of 18,300, with about 4,000 of those seats remaining unfilled. Observers of the 2008 race know that the first Obama campaign would have been able to fill every seat.

But the crowds at both OSU and VCU were more enthusiastic than any so far at a Romney rally. And while the Republican Party has joyfully pointed out that the Obama campaign isn’t generating the same excitement that it did in 2008, the only campaign that has gotten more than 5,000 folks to show up is Ron Paul's, not Romney's.

And while the GOP has fun pointing out that Obama 12 isn't inspiring the response that Obama 08 is, it's worse for the party out of power. The real reason? This is going to be a negative campaign. And negative campaigns involving incumbents are simply different beasts.

It's a campaign in which both sides are painting a pessimistic view of life if the other side wins.

The Obama campaign did flex muscle the Romney campaign has yet to show: It can throw a big rally with supporters who are still gaga for their candidate. The little things that win close elections are something Team Obama is proving fairly adept at. Can Team Romney keep up on this front? It's an open question.

WASHINGTON -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday urged Washington lawmakers to speak honestly with the American people, warning the public may not like the solutions necessary to fix the country's economic woes, but "they know in their heart they have to accept it."

"Don't tell me the American people aren't ready to hear the truth.  They know our government is out of control," Christie said at the CATO Institute's Milton Friedman Awards dinner.  "They know our debt and our deficit is out of control.  And don't confuse them liking the solution to them accepting it.  They don't have to like it, but they know in their heart they have to accept it."

The Garden State governor has found himself in the midst of speculation that he could be a top contender to be chosen as presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney's running mate.  Since endorsing Romney in the fall, he has been one of the former Massachusetts governor's top surrogates, and his speech here to the conservative think tank sounded like a politician on the national stage.

Christie said his leadership in New Jersey should be an example for the country, telling the story of how his state is battling back from some of the bleakest of economic times.  He used an executive order to overcome the $2.2 billion budget shortfall he faced shortly after taking office in 2010.

The tough talking governor recalled for the crowd his options in overcoming the deficit.  "I could sit down and negotiate with the Democratic leadership and the Democratically controlled legislature to try to come to an agreement on these cuts, or, thanks to New Jersey's unique Constitutional structure, cut spending through executive order," he said.

"Now, for those of you who watched me over the past two and a half years, if you believe I chose the former, then it is now time for you to leave.  You are note smart enough to be here at the Milton Friedman Dinner."

The popular conservative, who mulled over his own presidential run, is often talked about in vice-presidential speculation because of his ability to excite the party base and record as a cost cutter in his home state.  But he also is a lightening rod who could alienating independent voters with his in your face approach to politics.

"The great thing about operating by executive order is, first, that I didn't have to tell anybody," Christie said.

Christie has at times been a polarizing figure in New Jersey, but he maintains his way of doing business is something the federal government can learn from.

"Leaders have an obligation to make those tough choices. In New Jersey that is what we're trying to do.  And in the process hopefully set an example for the rest of the country," he said.

"Believe me, if you can do this in New Jersey, you can do it anywhere."

WASHINGTON — Amid a political fight over women's issues, Vice President Biden on Friday pushed for reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, warning the GOP against blocking renewal of the landmark law.

A leader in pushing for the creation of the initial Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Biden said that the effort by some House Republicans to prevent a renewal of the 1994 law would send a negative message about the "respect" and protection offered to women by the federal government. 

"What would it say to our daughters, our wives, our mothers about whether or not they're entitled to respect and whether or not their government believes they're entitled to be free of violence?" said Biden, an original architect of the law, at the annual conference of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA).

The reauthorization passed the Senate last month (with 31 Republicans voting against it), but has yet to be approved by the House. Biden urged about 400 YWCA conference attendees Friday to lobby for the lower chamber to adopt an unchanged — "Real McCoy" — version of the legislation. 

Citing the strides made in changing attitudes about domestic abuse and sexual assault, Biden asked with characteristic incredulity why the "other team" was resisting passage. 

"If it's based on results, why are we even talking about this?"  he said to applause from the crowd. 

Some Republicans have opposed what they call the "big government" implications of VAWA, which includes new add-ons like increased protections for victims of domestic violence in the LGBT community. 

The debate over the VAWA legislation comes as both political parties fight for support from female voters, with Republicans frequently citing the particular impact of the sluggish economy on women and mothers. 

The vice president alluded to that argument Friday, with a nod to the "godawful recession" plaguing the nation's workforce. 

"Notice how some who are bleating over how women are the most damaged by this godawful recession we're in here?" he said. "Well there's something we can do about that because guess what? Three quarters of all the teachers that got laid off are women. And they have families." 

Repeating a line from his past stump speeches, Biden slammed the GOP for having strayed from its own values. "This is not your father's Republican party," he said, adding that he hoped that many of the women in the audience were Republicans — implying that they could inject the "other team" with more moderate views on women's issues.

"We need a real Republication Party," he said. 

"These folks aren't bad people," he added. "They are good decent people but they have a very different value set right now."

Rick Santorum had three main topics to hit on when he met with presumptive nominee Mitt Romney in Pittsburgh on Friday, a senior adviser to the former Pennsylvania senator told NBC News.

John Brabender, who served as Santorum’s senior strategist during the campaign, said that when the former Pennsylvania senator sat down one-on-one with Romney, he wanted:

• To discuss Santorum’s manufacturing plan, the keystone to the former candidate’s economic platform
• Assurances that Romney would work to repeal President Obama’s health care law and that it would not be replaced with a plan containing a mandate
• A commitment from the former Massachusetts governor to pursue “economic solutions that are pro-family"

The meeting, which took place in Brabender’s office, lasted longer than expected -– almost 90 minutes -– which Brabender said was a good sign.  But it ended with no endorsement from Santorum and no clear plans for how the underdog candidate might help the presumptive Republican nominee in the future. Brabender said there will be “further discussions” between Santorum and Romney staffers about an endorsement. Combined, the two candidates have won all but two primaries.

But it has been more than three weeks since Santorum has left the race, and he has repeatedly punted when faced with questions about when he will back Romney. Santorum continues to say he will support the GOP nominee and is committed to electing a Republican to the White House. Still, despite that commitment, Santorum aides said before the meeting that it would not result in an immediate endorsement, and Santorum would not accept any offer from Romney to help pay down his campaign debt.

“From the standpoint of the senator, he wanted to talk about issues important to his blue collar, working class, conservative roots,” Brabender said.

Friday’s meeting was the first opportunity the former rivals have had to speak at length, and Brabender, who spoke to Santorum briefly after the meeting, said the dialogue was “very friendly.”

“The main focus of both of them is to defeat Barack Obama in the fall,” said Brabender.

Mitt Romney’s campaign was weathering a minor controversy by week’s end related to the resignation of a foreign policy aide who was gay, forcing the campaign to deny it had caved to fringe social conservatives who’d pressured Romney to fire the aide.

“We wanted him to stay with our team. He's a very accomplished spokesperson, and we select people not based upon their ethnicity or sexual preference or gender, but their capability,” Romney said Friday on Fox News of the aide, Richard Grenell, who stepped down from the Romney campaign on Tuesday.

Grenell was hired to act as Romney's spokesman on foreign policy and was, in fact, a veteran Republican aide, having served as U.N. Ambassador John Bolton's spokesman. He’d also built up a reputation over time for being especially combative with reporters.

But his resignation, announced on Tuesday after just two short weeks with the Romney campaign, has become ensnared by gay rights politics. In a statement Tuesday to the Washington Post, Grenell suggested that his sexual orientation had prompted social conservatives to sructinize the Romney campaign. In order to avoid causing a headache for his employer, Grenell said he had decided to step down, despite never having begun in earnest.

“I want to thank Governor Romney for his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team,” he told the Post.

There was a degree of dyspepsia from the Family Research Council and Gary Bauer surrounding Grenell’s hiring, but the conservative outrage at the hiring was far from widespread.

Rather, voices on the right and press accounts of Grenell's ouster describe a more mixed set of variables that contributed to his resignation. After receiving blowback associated with Grenell’s combative reputation and controversial tweets on his account (which have since been scrubbed), Grenell was kept under wraps. That period overlapped with a fairly active cycle of foreign policy news, which, reportedly, drove Grenell’s frustration.

Complicating matters was the Romney campaign’s short leash with social conservatives, who have been stubborn in rallying around the presumptive Republican nominee.

“I don't think this has unfolded the way [the Romney campaign] wanted it to unfold. But I also think the initial reaction and initial assumptions people made weren't particularly surprising,” said Liz Mair, a Republican strategist who serves on the board of GOProud, a Republican group that advocates for gay rights.

She suggested that even if the Romney campaign hadn’t parted ways with Grenell because of his sexuality, the haphazard way in which the former Massachusetts governor had previously courted conservatives fed into a storyline that the Romney campaign caved to social conservatives.

“The ‘pander-bear’ narrative is a problem, because it led to people concluding he did something for reasons I don't think he did,” she suggested.

Moreover, the whole issue has put the Romney campaign on its heels when it comes to gay rights, forcing them to walk a fine line between allaying social conservatives’ concerns and not appearing to be intolerant to the general electorate.

That’s reflective of the evolving public views on same-sex marriage. A March Gallup poll found that a 53 percent of Americans said marriages among same-sex couples deserve recognition – the first time a majority had expressed support for legal gay marriage. (That same poll found that 28 percent of Republicans favor same-sex marriage.)

“Let me say this about Mitt Romney: when it comes to hiring, he strictly looks at the qualifications of the applicants. He does not consider extraneous factors like the race, ethnicity or sexual orientation,” Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said Friday morning on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown.”

Fehrnstrom referenced “voices of intolerance” that had come forth during the debate over Grenell, and described his boss, Romney, as someone who’s “confronted” those voices.

Romney has been relatively unambiguous about his support for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution intended to define marriage as limited to one man and one woman. And he hasn't shied away from using that to his political advantage.

"On my watch, we fought hard and prevented Massachusetts from becoming the Las Vegas of gay marriage," he said at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in reference to his state supreme court's decision during the Romney governorship allowing same-sex marraiges. "When I am president, I will preserve the Defense of Marriage Act and I will fight for a federal amendment defining marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman."

But in other instances, Romney has sought to be a moderating influence within the GOP.

"Poisonous language does not advance our cause. It has never softened a single heart nor changed a single mind," he said at the Values Voters Summit last fall. (This line was the instance Fehrnstrom had cited as an example of Romney confronting intolerance. However, that remark was directed toward another speaker who had called Romney's Mormon faith a "cult," and wasn't specifically referencing same-sex marriage.)

But well before the Grenell flap emerged, Romney also described himself as an opponent of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

"I am in favor of gay rights, but I believe marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman," he said last summer on CNN. In that same interview, he declined to say whether he thought homosexuality was a sin.

And at the "Meet the Press"/Facebook GOP debate in New Hampshire, Romney made this declaration: "If people are looking for someone who -- who will discriminate against gays or will in any way try and suggest that people -- that have different sexual orientation don’t have full rights in this country, they won’t find that in me."

O'HARA TOWNSHIP, PA -- Mitt Romney incorporated April's less-than-stellar jobs report into his assault on the president's economic policies, which he said reflected a "sad time in America."

"Just this morning, there was some news that came across the wire that said the unemployment rate has dropped 8.1 percent.  And normally that would be cause for celebration, but in fact anything over 8 percent, anything near 7 percent, anything over 4 percent is not cause for celebration. But in fact the reason it dropped from 8.2 to 8.1 was not because we created a lot of jobs. As a matter of fact, only 115,000 net new jobs were created. That was well beneath what it was expected to be. It should have been in the hundreds of thousands but it wasn't. The reason the rate came down was because about 340,000 people dropped out of the workforce," Romney said.

Four percent unemployment, a number lower than that sometimes considered by economists as "full employment," is a high bar. The lowest unemployment rate recorded in the last decade was 4.4 percent, in May 2007.

The former Massachusetts governor also hit the president over the growing scale of the federal government, and issued a dire warning about what the future may hold under a second Obama administration.

"Government will control directly or indirectly over half the economy if this president is re-elected, and we will cease being a free economy," Romney said. "We have to ask ourselves, is that what America is? An economy governed by government, an economy run by government? In my view, we must be an economy, a people run by free people pursuing happiness in the way they believe is best for them and their families."

In a statement, the Obama campaign responded.

“From start to finish, Mitt Romney’s speech today was filled with dishonesty and distortions about both President Obama’s record and his own," Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith said in a statement. "Mitt Romney’s empty promises on job creation do not square with his record in either the private or public sector."

Romney, who declared succinctly that in regards to the economy, "liberal policies don't work," used today's campaign event outside Pittsburgh to not only attack president Obama's policies on the economy, but to highlight what he said was his own outreach to regular folks to better understand their struggles and successes.

"One of the great things I've had a chance to do over the last, oh, couple of years, is go across the country and meet everyday Americans. And it's made me both more optimistic and enthusiastic about our future, and also more sad as I've seen how tough times are for so many Americans," Romney said.

"The numbers don't really tell you what's going on in people's lives as much as actually talking to people and hearing their stories. And so before I begin an event like this, I typically am able to sit down with a few people on an off the record kinda basis. I agree not to say who they are to the members of my media -- my media, I don't have my media, I wish I had my media -- to members of the media. And I listen to them to hear their experiences. I'm amazed by the hard work and the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people," Romney said.

With media not allowed to attend, and no further information offered by the campaign, such meetings are impossible to verify independently.

The Romney campaign did confirm a meeting between the presumptive GOP nominee and one private citizen today: former Senator Rick Santorum, who suspended his cash-strapped campaign in April. The two erstwhile rivals spoke privately for some 90 minutes in the Pittsburgh office of former Santorum strategist John Brabender, according to sources briefed on the meeting.

Romney did not mention the meeting this morning, and Santorum has yet to offer his endorsement.

NBC's Andrew Rafferty contributed reporting.

ARLINGTON, VA -- President Obama noted the lackluster April jobs report pegging the nation's unemployment rate at 8.1 percent at a high school here in suburban Washignton before pivoting to speak about student loan interest rates.

He characterized as “good news” the fact that the unemployment “ticked down again” from 8.2 to 8.1 percent, but added that his administration still has more work to do.

“After the worst economic crisis since the great depression our businesses have now created more than 4.2 million new jobs over the last 26 months. More than 1 million jobs in the last 6 months alone. So that's the good news, but there's still a lot of folks out of work, which means we have to do more," Obama said.

He said that one of the things the government could do to help the economy was keep interest rates on federal Stafford student college loans from spiking from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent in July.

“Congress also has to do its part. Right now that means preventing the interest of student loans from doubling which would make it harder for you to pay for college next year.”

He also criticized House Republicans who passed a bill last week that would have paid for an extension of the low student loan rates by taking money out of a women’s preventive care fund established through the health care reform law.

“House Republicans are saying they’re only going to prevent these rates from doubling if they can cut things like preventive health for women instead,” he said. 

Obama encouraged the students to take to social networks like Facebook and Twitter to pressure their members of Congress to vote to keep rates down.

“I want you to send a message to Congress. Tell them don’t double my rate. You should call them, you should email them, write on their Facebook page, Tweet them… teach your parents how to tweet,” he joked.

The president’s visit to the Washington-Lee High School in the D.C. suburbs was his first of two trips to the crucial swing state of Virginia in as many days.

Mitt Romney set some high standards for himself in reaction to Friday's lackluster jobs report from April.

The economy added 115,000 jobs in April, a number that fell below expectations and prompted worries of a slowdown in hiring. While the unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent, that was driven in part by people leaving the workforce.

Those numbers carry political significance, with only six months left until the election. In separate reactions to the April figures, Romney set standards that he thought represented what's acceptable.

The Romney standard, in short, would see the economy add 500,000 jobs per month. The former Massachusetts governor said that an unemployment rate above 4 percent is unacceptable.

"We should be seeing numbers in the 500,000 jobs created-per-month. This is way, way, way off from what should happen in a normal recovery," Romney said this morning on Fox News.

At an afternoon event in Pittsburgh, Romney said of the news that the unemployment rate had fallen to 8.1 percent: "Normally, that would be cause for celebration, but anything near 8 percent or over 4 percent is not cause for celebration."

The lowest the unemployment rate hit over the last decade was 4.4 percent, last achieved in May of 2007.

The high point of jobs added in the last decade came in May 2010, when the economy added 516,000 nonfarm payroll positions.

Gene J. Puskar / AP

Surrounded by members of his family, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum announces he is suspending his candidacy for the presidency effective today, Tuesday, April 10, 2012, in Gettysburg, Pa.

It was September when Elizabeth Santorum began making cold calls for her dad.
 
The eldest child of former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was not dialing potential voters or donors; Elizabeth Santorum, then 20-years-old, was trying to figure out how to get her father on the ballot in the contests following Iowa’s Jan. 3 caucus.
 
"I would call from my cell phone and my house phone, just call the secretary of state's office or the party's office and say, 'Hi, this is Elizabeth with Sen. Santorum's campaign, and I was wondering if you had your guidelines for getting on your ballot there," she remembers.
 
Her inquiry was often met with the same response: "Ballot guidelines for president? Of the United States?"
 
Rick Santorum ran a campaign drastically different than his Republican rivals.  He had to.  His campaign brought in a meager $6,000-7,000 a day before his surprise win in Iowa.  It meant that vital tasks like getting on state ballots were left to his daughter and a handful of staff with no experience running a presidential campaign.  His cash-strapped candidacy was made up of countless instances where the former Pennsylvania senator needed to find innovative ways to save a buck.
 
Santorum often joked that he ran his campaign on a shoestring "would be an insult to shoe strings."  Still, despite the tremendous disadvantages, he was somehow able to mount the most serious threat to the presumptive Republican nominee -- and did it with only a fraction of the resources.   In 2011, the campaign brought in just over $2 million, the least amount of any GOP candidate.
 
"I don't think anybody understood how little money we had," said campaign manager Mike Biundo.
 
It meant Santorum was cheap.  He had to be.  Staffers would grin and bear it when they found themselves sharing rooms at inexpensive hotels.  The candidate only had one standard that all lodging needed to meet: wherever they stayed, it had to provide a free breakfast.
 
There was no campaign headquarters until the late stages of his candidacy.  The Verona, PA address on mailers and press releases was nothing more than a PO Box in the Keystone State.  When they finally rented a space in northern Virginia, the few staffers who migrated there stayed with friends to save the cost of paying for a hotel.
 
When Biundo was promoted from national political director to campaign manager in October 2011, he served in dual capacities until his old job was finally filled on January 23, 2012.  The campaign didn't hire a delegate strategist until after the February 28 Michigan primary.
 
When an intern helping the campaign in Ohio revealed he was from Idaho and had a family involved in state politics there, he was put on a plane and sent west with the new title of "Idaho State Director."

 
Perhaps more so than any other candidate, Santorum ran nearly every aspect of his campaign.  He kept a watchful eye over finances and used the little money he had to build a candidacy perfectly fit for the grassroots-style politics of Iowa.  But after winning the first-in-the-nation caucus, the difficulties associated with running for president without money or much of an organization became apparent. He wasn't able to get on the ballot in Virginia, couldn't go on air with ads in some of the states he hoped to compete in and his three-person press shop found themselves drowned each day by negative ads and opposition research from Mitt Romney's team.
 
Even with all the disadvantages and disorganization of his campaign, the former Pennsylvania senator who lost his home state by 18 points in his 2006 re-election bid was able to solidify himself as the sole Romney alternative and has now established himself as a leading conservative voice in the Republican Party.
 
*****
 
When Mike Biundo climbed into the rented RV, he knew there was a chance the 23-hour drive would be even less comfortable on the way back then it would be on the way there. It was August, and, not having the money to fly, Biundo packed the camper full of staffers and volunteers to drive to Ames, IA for the straw poll.
 
Biundo remembers it as one of the most difficult times during his boss's run.  At $30 a pop, they feared they had promised to give out more free tickets to the straw poll than they could afford.  While their GOP competitors were advertising free concerts and all-you-can-eat barbecue, Santorum staffers were scaling back everywhere they could to save a dime.  They tried to entice voters with "Presidential Peach Preserve" from peaches picked from the Santorum's home.
 
Senior advisers knew that anything worse than a fourth-place finish on August 13 would likely mean an end to the short-lived candidacy. While the underdog candidate narrowly defeated Herman Cain to take fourth and keep his campaign afloat, his financial troubles never went away.
 
Citing momentum coming off their straw poll finish, Santorum moved his Iowa headquarters.  The only catch was that their new space was actually smaller than the office from which they had moved.  Under the direction of Iowa State Director Cody Brown, the campaign began plugging away in the Hawkeye State.  Brown had only one field staffer until July, and added just a handful throughout the entire campaign.

"One of our competitive advantages was our candidate's time," said Brown.  It was an advantage that can in part be attributed to having few fundraisers.  In the fall, candidates would leave the state to collect checks from big donors -- a time management issue Santorum did not have to deal with.  So, instead of flying out Texas to collect checks, he drove to places like Sioux City, IA to hold town halls where he would talk and take questions for more than an hour.
 
"We had heavy competition in these metro areas because that's where all the candidates were spending their time because that's where the votes are," Brown said.  "So what we did is, we looked at the map, and said, 'Where can we go and pick some fruit that no other candidate's going to be able to pick?'  And so that's when we went out to those rural counties.  That's why we did the 99-county tour."
 
On Nov. 2, more than two months before the Iowa caucus, Santorum had completed the tour and visited all of Iowa's 99 counties.  No other candidates were close to completing the milestone at that time. Twenty caucusgoers showed up to the event Maquoketa, IA, along with NBC News embed Alex Moe, a still photographer and a local print reporter.
 
“[Iowa] Gov.Terry Branstad said if you really want to win Iowa, you gotta get out and go to all 99 counties and meet people,” Santorum said. “He's had a pretty good track record of winning here in Iowa so we're trying to follow his advice and I think it will pay off in the end.”
 
At that time, Santorum sat at just 5 percent in the Des Moines Register poll, behind every candidate except former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.  There was no such thing as a "99 county bump."
 
*****
 
That's what made it a gutsy decision in early December, when Santorum decided to spend money on filing fees to get on the ballot in upcoming primary states. It would mean he could not make the final advertising push in Iowa like nearly everyone else.

It was in the final month of 2012 when Biundo asked Elizabeth Santorum and senior aide Greg Rothman to get on ballots everywhere they could scrap together the signatures and the money.  It was late in the game, and they missed important deadlines, most notably in Virginia, a state where campaign advisers felt they could do well in but ultimately did not make it onto the ballot.
 
"Sitting at 5 percent, we decided not to spend money in Iowa, but to spend money to help us get on ballots across this country. Now you want to talk about hubris, and confidence, people were saying we should get out of the race and we were spending money to get on ballots in March and April instead of trying to survive in Iowa," Santorum said in March when asked why his campaign was unable to file the necessary paper work to be eligible for all of the delegates in Illinois.
 
It was true. For a campaign still running on fumes and sitting at the bottom of the polls, they had enough faith in themselves to look ahead.  And Santorum was not the only one that had electoral issues. Neither Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry nor Jon Huntsman were able to get their names on the Virginia ballot.  But in important primary states like Illinois and Ohio, Santorum's disorganization meant he was not eligible to win all the state's delegates.
 
Santorum's ballot problems could easily have been a non-issue if something didn't happen in Iowa.
 
There was no one moment that things started to shift in the campaign's favor. (That said, many on Santorum’s staff point to the Mike Huckabee's pro-life forum in Des Moines on Dec. 14, when the candidate took the stage wearing a sweater vest as a turning point.  He drew attention and acclaim for his speech that night, and the motto "Fear Rick's Vest" was born.)
 
But Santorum's momentum did not seem to have a single origin.
 
"People who hadn't decided were overwhelmingly deciding in favor of us.  This was the up-and-coming thing, and it came out of nowhere," Elizabeth Santorum said.  "And it wasn't media-created; it wasn't an event or a particular moment that had caused the speculation and interest.  It was just Iowans started deciding."
 
The GOP hopeful took a few days off the trail to be with his family for Christmas.  It was the real first break he had taken in months, and when he returned to the Hawkeye State to go pheasant hunting with Iowa Congressman Steve King, things were different -- in a good way.
 
For the first time in his candidacy, polls showed Santorum on the rise.  Earlier in the month, tea party favorite Herman Cain had exited the race, and caucusegoers showing up at Santorum rallies would frequently say they were giving the former senator a second look after the pizza magnate dropped out.
 
"I felt that, from the standpoint of my family, we were being protected from the spotlight, from the scrutiny, until it really mattered, which was caucus time," said Elizabeth Santorum, who was by her father's side through much of the campaign as her mother cared for their 3-year-old special needs daughter.
 
Jan. 3, 2012, when Iowans finally went to caucus, was the highlight of the campaign for the Santorums and their team.
 
Brown, who was tracking results in a room with a representative from each campaign and members of the Iowa Republican Party, remembers a Romney staffer congratulating him when it looked like Santorum would win.  However, Romney would be declared the initial winner of the Iowa caucus, a blunder that would take nearly 3 weeks to correct and that Santorum advisers feel cost them upwards of $1 million in fundraising.
 
Still, it marked the first time in the campaign that Santorum’s largely ignored candidacy was the headline.
 
*****
 
It was two days later when Santorum got booed off the stage in Concord, NH.
 
Speaking at the 2012 "College Convention," he engaged in a debate -- not with his rival candidates, but with college students.  They pushed him on his views on gay marriage, and he pushed back.
 
Speaking to a crowd of 200 mostly young people, Santorum compared gay marriage to polygamy when crowd members pressed him on his steadfast defense of traditional marriage.  "How about the idea that all men are created [with] equal rights to happiness and liberty?" a woman in the audience asked him.
 
"So anyone can marry can marry anybody else, so, if that’s the case, then everyone can marry several people," Santorum responded.
 
The occasionally contentious exchange dominated the headlines.  The evangelical voters of Iowa were well in the rearview mirror, and Santorum’s campaign in the Granite State was marked by cantankerous young people, Occupy Wall Streeters and fire marshals at nearly every stop, taking head counts and kicking out overflow crowds.
 
"We were not ready as a campaign for prime time," Biundo said.  They spent a lot of time in New Hampshire, but little money.  "It was almost the worst of both worlds," he recalled.
 
The narrative of a campaign stuck on social issues was building.  They were off message in New Hampshire, and it paved the way for losses in South Carolina, Florida and Nevada.  It seemed as though Santorum would go out like a one-hit wonder in the vein of Mike Huckabee in 2008.
 
*****
 
But as the Santorum campaign was losing, it was also building.
 
After the South Carolina primary, they hired someone with the title of national political director, Andrew Boucher.  He began building beyond the carve-out states.  The Northeast Iowa Director became the Colorado State Director and then the Washington State Director.  In many cases, they had no paid staff on the ground until a couple weeks before a primary.  In Georgia, where Santorum finished third behind Gingrich and Romney, the campaign relied on an all-volunteer staff.
 
Though fundraising had picked up after Iowa, the money was still tight.  Their solution was to pay one or two people in a state who would help guide the volunteer efforts.
 
"Instead of the infantry model, it's the special forces model of going in, working with the people that are already there on the ground, organizing them, helping them achieve goals," said Boucher.
 
Flying so low under the radar is a large reason why Santorum was able to sweep Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri on February 7.  The three victories would be the second biggest night of the Santorum campaign, but also would make them the Romney campaign's No.1 target, something that their money and organizational deficiencies could not overcome.
 
*****
 
Santorum's hands-on approach kept his campaign in the black for much of his run, but it also caused some avoidable headaches.
 
"I don't want someone trying to tell me what to say," he told staffers during a meeting.  It meant he rarely traveled with anyone from his communications team. There was no one from his team to explain the candidate's statement that President Obama is "a snob" for wanting “everybody in America to go to college,” a statement he made in Michigan in the days leading up to the state's all-important primary.
 
There was no press secretary on the ground to help deflect the repeated questions he faced about contraception and other hot button social issues that frequently drove the campaign off message and painted Santorum as a candidate on the wrong side of women's issues.
 
"We're about to go nuclear with Iran, we have a trillion dollar deficit and we're talking about this.  Are you kidding?" recalled Elizabeth Santorum.  "That was something I got asked all the time: 'You're a woman, how do you support your dad?' That's so insulting."
 
One of the most striking differences between Santorum and his GOP rivals was that he took nearly every question posed to him from reporters following him on the road.  It meant he would find himself answering repeated questions about social issues when he wanted to talk about the economy.  Toward the end of his run, his frustration became more visible.
 
In Wisconsin, after suggesting in a speech that Romney was the worst Republican to run against President Obama, he infamously called a question from the New York Times' Jeff Zeleny "bulls***."
 
(After the blowup, aides said Santorum turned to them and said, "I hope that wasn't a local reporter."  He soon found that Zeleny worked for The Times, and called senior strategist John Brabender to say they were going to "own it."  Shortly after, a fundraising email was shot off to supporters that said he was "aggressively attacked by a New York Times reporter".)
 
Despite the campaign's efforts, Santorum was never able to make the narrative about his economic plan.
 
*****
 
Wisconsin proved to be the final blow.  On April 3, Santorum delivered his concession speech at the Four Points Sheraton in Mars, PA, where staff met for hours discussing Pennsylvania primary strategy.  Though everything the candidate said seemed to indicate he would continue in the race, his inner circle knew the money had dried up.
 
And on Good Friday, as the Santorum family was taking time off for Easter, three-year-old Bella Santorum needed to be rushed to the hospital due to complications stemming from a rare genetic disorder she suffers from, called Trisomy 18.
 
"It was the first three days we had off together since Christmas, and the first day we were in the emergency room.  And you just kind of wonder, can someone cut us a break?" Elizabeth Santorum said.
 
It brought clarity to the decision.  Even the "shoestring campaign" had gone into debt by April, and the all-out blitz it would take to win Santorum's home state would only further put him in the hole.  So around 2 am on April 10, the campaign sent out a press release announcing an event in Gettysburg, PA that afternoon.
 
It was in the town, where the bloodiest battle of the Civil War took place, that the candidate who had once been branded a long-shot ended his run.
 
"People say, 'How did this happen, how did we come from nowhere?' It's because I was smart enough to figure out that if I understood and felt at a very deep level what you were experiencing across America and tried to be a witness to that, tried to be an interpreter of that, that your voice could be heard and miracles could happen, and it did," Santorum told reporters on the last day of his campaign.
 
In all, he won 11 states, the same number Ronald Reagan won in 1976. It's a fact he liked to point out often, and has fueled plenty of speculation the 53-year-old has plans to run again --  just like Reagan.
 
"I walked out after the Iowa caucus victory and said 'Game on.' I know a lot of folks are going to write, maybe those even in the White House, 'Game over,'" Santorum said in the final lines of his drop out speech.  "But this game is long, long, long way from over."

Another weak jobs report helps Romney get back on message … But Obama leads in Virginia and two words – gender gap. It’s tough to see a great path to 270 for Romney without winning Virginia. … Is McDonnell veep possibility hurt by good VA economy? … The 17 “Swing Markets” – Obama’s going to two of them this weekend … China became the political story yesterday … Romney and religion, the need to coalesce but reach out to swing voters … Santorum, Romney meet, but no endorsement expected today … Romney addresses Grennell … and Lugar’s last chance: the last big weekend of campaigning in Indiana. It’s statesmanship vs. the Tea Party (and the Tea Party’s winning).

NBC’s Chuck Todd, Domenico Montanaro, Natalie Cucchiara, and Brooke Brower

Jewel Samad / AFP - Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign event in Chantilly, Virginia, on May 2, 2012.

*** Another weak jobs report helps Romney get back on message: The bin Laden anniversary, a secret trip to Afghanistan to announce staying in that country for 10 more years and simultaneously the ending of the war as we know it, a diplomatic crisis, a presidential candidate drops out, and the latest report on the most important number this election – unemployment. All in a week’s work. It was another weak jobs report. Just 115,000 jobs were added, though the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent,” and CNBC notes that the rate dropped because there were fewer people in the workforce. It was clear in the last NBC/WSJ poll that economic optimism had flat-lined. These jobs reports do have an impact on how people view the economy. We noted earlier in the week that Romney was having a tough week because of all the national security news that dominated. This will allow him to get back on message for a month. “This is not progress. This is very, very disappointing,” Romney said this morning. The upside inside the report was the fact that job gains were revised UPWARD for BOTH February and March, accounting for SOME of the drop in unemployment. But again, the shrinking workforce is the story.

*** Obama leads in Virginia: With Romney in Virginia yesterday, the Washington Post is out with a poll poll in Virginia, where Obama leads 51%-44% over Romney. It’s the fifth swing state poll in two days – WI, FL, OH, PA, VA. What have we learned from those? Romney’s got a lot of work to do. The common denominator on all these – we thought he might get a bump after being the de facto nominee, and while he showed improvement in some places, particularly Florida, he didn’t get much of a bump out of becoming the nominee. Virginia may very well be the scariest state for Romney. If Obama wins Virginia, he could win the White House without FL or OH. If Romney loses Virginia, he doesn’t have a path if he also doesn’t win any of the swing states out West.

*** Virginia, not just for lovers, but also for candidates – but two words – gender gap: Assuming the West becomes out of reach due to the GOP’s problems with Hispanics, then Romney HAS to win one of the following four: PA, VA, WI, or MI. And of those four, Virginia is clearly the most winnable. And of all the swing states, Virginia’s was closest to the national number in 2008. And it has moved with where the country has moved from 2005 forward. “I think most would say it's a very tough path for a Republican to win the presidency without winning Virginia,” said Gov. Bob McDonnell, who appeared with Romney yesterday. “So that's why you see Mitt here last night, today and he'll be here next week a couple times. This is clearly on the top of his list. The president's here today and the president's here on Saturday, so everybody knows Virginia's in play.” Digging deeper into the Washington Post poll and one result stands out above all others: the gender gap. If you didn’t think before that the fight over transvaginal ultrasounds hurt the GOP, then simply look at this gender gap in this poll. That fight did damage to the GOP’s brand with suburban women.

*** The Swing Markets: There are swing states and then there are swing MARKETS inside those swing states. And it’s these swing markets, where you’ll not just see TV ad spending but the candidates themselves. Our ad-tracking partners, SMG Delta crunched the numbers to break down the 17 “swing markets” within the broader group of battleground states. These are the ONLY media markets in these 12 battleground states where Bush won in 2004 and Obama won in 2008. We break down the list of those places here. Interestingly, Virginia sports three of the 17 markets (including Richmond) and Ohio sports two of the 17 (including Columbus). And where’s the president going for his first two official campaign events on Saturday? Richmond, VA, and Columbus, OH. By the way, margins in media markets matter as much as whether a candidate carries it. For instance, Colorado does not have a “swing” market. Kerry and Obama BOTH won the Denver-market. Obama just won it by a MUCH larger margin.

*** China rising: We noted yesterday that the story of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng would become a political story, and did it ever – with Chen himself even calling into a Capitol Hill hearing. Romney criticized the Obama administration, charging that yesterday was “a day of shame for the Obama administration." Romney wasn’t very specific about would he’d do if he were president, but an aide indicated to NBCPolitics.com’s Mike O’Brien that Romney would have offered him asylum. State Department spokesman Mark Toner contended, however, “You cannot achieve political asylum unless you are outside of the country you are trying to flee.” This morning China says Chen can apply to study abroad, which seems like a way for everyone to save face. We can’t imagine Secretary Clinton leaving China without a firm deal in place.

*** Quick on the trigger: Romney rolled the dice a tad by deciding to jump on the Chen story. Yes he couched his comments with “If the media reports are true” but what if they aren’t. There’s a backstory here that no one is quite sure of. Why not wait a day? Why not wait two days until all the facts are known and the Secretary of State is back in the country? Of course, Republicans might argue that they put pressure on the administration to fight for Chen. This morning, Clinton, by the way, said, “All of our efforts with Mr. Chen have been guided by his choices and our values,” per NBC’s Sarah Blackwill. “And I'm pleased that today our ambassador has spoken with him, our embassy staff and our doctor had a chance to meet with him and he confirms he and his family now want to go the United States, so he can pursue his studies. In that regard, we are also encouraged by the official statement issued today by the Chinese government confirming that he can apply to travel abroad for this purpose.”

*** Close up: Romney was asked by local NBC Virginia affiliate WAVY if he believed his religion was part of the reason conservatives were slow to embrace him. Romney replied, “I've got great support from evangelical voters - a number of states that we had primaries in I was the leading contender.” Evangelicals were not a strength for Romney; it’s a big reason he lost South Carolina and didn’t win a single culturally Southern state. He won evangelicals in NH, MA, FL, NV, VT, MD, VA (where only he and Paul were on the ballot). He acknowledged, though, “I know there will be a narrative perhaps to that degree….” But he said, “I want all elements of our party to come together and support me, but I also have to get those folks that are the undecideds, the independent voters, women voters, Hispanic voters, young people, I've got to get them, too.” How tough has this pivot been for Romney? AP notes today that members of the Mormon Church are nervous about the church coming into the spotlight, having again to defend the church amidst “vetting” that “will take place amid the emotion of what may well be a nasty general election.”

*** McDonnell hurt by good VA economy ironically? McDonnell noted yesterday that Virginia has the lowest unemployment rate in the Southeast, and he’s running sunny ads about the state of the Virginia economy. If you’re wondering how he did in the audition, he might not make as much sense now, because he throws Romney off his “bad economy” message a bit. McDonnell would argue that it’s because of his pro-business policies that have helped create jobs in the state. But it’s hard to have it both ways. "Remember three and a half years ago, we heard that tune about hope and change?" McDonnell said. "Now what do we have? We have recession, division and malaise. It’s time for a change, don't you think?" But when you peel back the onion of the Virginia economy, you realize just how much the federal government is such a vital part of the economy. Two words: defense contractors.

*** Santorum, Romney meeting but not expected to appear together publicly: Romney will appear with Rick Santorum on his home turf in Pittsburgh today, but there isn’t expected to be an endorsement and, NBC’s Andrew Rafferty reports, the two aren’t even expected to appear together PUBLICLY. Santorum is really running out of political capital here – whatever’s left of it. Even Michele Bachmann, who once said Romney couldn’t beat Barack Obama, endorsed him yesterday. As AP’s Phil Elliott pointed out, Santorum endorsed Jon Bruning yesterday in the Nebraska Senate primary, but still hadn’t yet endorsed Romney. Romney holds an event at noon ET. The last time Pittsburgh hosted one of these meetings was for Bush-McCain.

*** Romney addresses Grennell – ‘wanted him to stay’: Mitt Romney address the Richard Grennell controversy for the first time this morning on FOX. “We wanted him to stay with our team,” he said, per NBC’s Garrett Haake. “He's a very accomplished spokesperson. We select people not based on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation... We select based on ability.”

*** Big weekend of campaigning in IN and WI: It’s the last chance for Richard Lugar to turn the tide in his bid to retain his Senate seat against upstart Tea Party challenger Richard Mourdock, the state treasurer. Bloomberg today sums it up – pitting Lugar’s “statesmanship” against Mourdock’s fight for conservative purity. In Wisconsin, two Democrats – Kathleen Falk and Tom Barrett have their last chances to sell Democrats on why they would be best to take on the well-funded Gov. Scott Walker, in the recall fight. Barrett is favored by double-digits, according to a poll out Wednesday.

*** Get the NBC Politics app:  Get the power of our political reporting and analysis where and when you want it with the new NBC Politics app. Get the latest stories and video from First Read, The Daily Rundown,  Meet the Press, and more. Read our daily Tip Sheet to stay in-the-know with Decision 2012 and check out our national and state contest results. The app features an exclusive battleground map game that allows readers to carve out each candidate’s path to 270. Share those maps with us via Facebook or NBCPolitics.com and we might feature them online on air. Download it now for your iPad or iPhone. In this week’s Press Pass, David Gregory interviews actor Robert DeNiro from near Ground Zero. And check the blog this afternoon for The Week Ahead and The Week That Was.

*** The schedule: President Obama speaks against about student loan interest rates, this time at a high school in Arlington, VA, at 11:50 am ET. Then he hosts the 2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball champion Kentucky Wildcats at the White House at 4:50 pm ET. … Vice President Biden speaks about women’s issues at the YWCA Annual Conference in DC at 1:15 pm ET.

Countdown to Indiana Senate/Wisconsin recall primaries: 4
Countdown to Wisconsin recall election: 32
Countdown to Election Day: 186 days

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***Friday’s “The Daily Rundown” lineup: Reaction to the jobs report with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), President Obama’s CEA Chairman Alan Krueger, Romney 2012 Senior Advisor Eric Fehrnstrom and Moody’s Mark Zandi… Latest 2012 news with AP’s Liz Sidoti, NBC’s John Yang and Roll Call/The Rothenberg Report’s Nathan Gonzales.

*** Friday’s “Jansing & Co.”: New York Times’ Nicholas Confessore; fmr Bush/Cheney Sr. Advisor Juleanna Glover; fmr Clinton/Gore Communications advisor Chris Lehane; NBC News Legal Analyst Hampton Dellinger; Advertising executive Howard Bragman, & GOP Strategist Ron Christie.

*** Friday’s Andrea Mitchell Reports: The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Fmr. Ambassador Chris Hill, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Fmr National Security Advisor and Romney Advisor Stephen Hadley and Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan.

*** Friday’s Live with Thomas Roberts: MSNBC’S Thomas Roberts talks jobs with Ron Insana & Jared Bernstein. Today’s Power panel is Jen Psaki, J.P. Friere & Nia Malika Henderson.  Alice Stewart (Santorum Press Secy.), MSNBC’s Melissa Harris Perry, TheGrio.com’s Joy-Ann Reid, & Heather Smith of Rock the Vote also join the program.

*** Friday’s News Nation with Tamron Hall: John Harwood, Zachary Karabell, Nia Malika Henderson and Jimmy Williams.

The Los Angeles Times writes: "If Barack Obama's first presidential campaign was part cultural phenomenon, part national movement, his second may look a bit more modest — like a series of well-run Senate campaigns. Facing the reality of running as a bruised incumbent in a politically divided country, Obama's advisors say they are plotting a strategy that doesn't depend on a wave of support to lift the president's chances across the country. And it won't hinge on a single theme based on ideas such as "hope" and "change" that defined the campaign and captured the zeitgeist in 2008. Instead, the Obama campaign is prepping for a block-by-block, hard-slog approach. The campaign, which the president kicks off this weekend, will be tailored to swing states and key voters in those states."

"The refrain sounded by his aides is accurate: Barack Obama has done more for the cause of gay rights than any president before him. Nonetheless, gay-rights activists and organizations are on the president's case these days, pressing him for further steps on two fronts and suggesting that political timidity is holding him back," AP writes.

The Hill writes: "President Obama’s Saturday rally in Ohio brings him to one of the hottest swing states in the country, where competitive races up and down the ballot could change the balance of power in Washington come November. The symbolism of taking the fight to the home state of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is not lost on Obama, who’s brought his political battles to Ohio before. When Obama wanted to make the case for infrastructure spending and his jobs bill in September, he chose a bridge just outside of Boehner’s southwestern Ohio district to give his speech.Ohio will be a major battleground in the general election. It hasn’t voted for the losing candidate in a presidential election since 1960 (Obama carried it with 51 percent in 2008). Republicans made large gains there in the 1990s, and held every statewide office for much of the first decade of the millennium. But recent years have seen Democrats regain their footing, with many of the Reagan Democrats who turned away from the party beginning to come home. And a public spat between the Republican governor and the state GOP chairman that led to the latter’s ouster in April has left the state party in disarray."

The New York Times headline: "4 Years Later, Race Is Still Issue for Some Voters"

"Mitt Romney faces a narrow path to the presidency, one that requires winning back states that President Obama took from Republicans in 2008 and that has few apparent opportunities for Romney to steal away traditionally Democratic states. Months ago, Obama’s campaign advisers laid out five distinct ways for the president to clear the threshold of 270 electoral college votes and win reelection. As Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and his advisers chart their strategy, they plan to target a dozen to 15 states and say that they, too, have more routes than their opponents claim. But Romney’s team acknowledges that any realistic course to 270 starts with winning back three historically Republican states that Obama won in 2008 — Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia — and believes that changing demographics in Virginia present a challenge," The Washington Post's Dan Balz and Philip Rucker report.

Battle for the swing-state begins: An op-ed by Mitt Romney in today's The Plain Dealer issues Ohio challenge to President Obama: "Dear Mr. President, Welcome to Ohio. I have a simple question for you: Where are the jobs?"

AYOTTE: "U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte is calling for the United States to grant asylum to a Chinese dissident involved in a growing international controversy, WMUR reports. "Fearing for the safety of his family and himself, Chen Guangcheng told ABC News on Thursday that he wants to come to the United States and even went so far as to ask for a seat aboard Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's plane when she visited China on a diplomacy mission."

CHRISTIE: ‘D’ on environment report card: AP writes:  “Leaders of an environmental group that endorsed Gov. Chris Christie in 2009 have released a report card giving the Republican a grade of "D'' on environmental policy issues. The New Jersey Environmental Federation on Thursday also said the governor may have adjusted his views on issues like climate change because of his rising stature on the national political stage. David Pringle, the group's campaign director, said it's unclear whether Christie has made a political calculation, had a change of heart or simply misled the group on his environmental views.”

JINDAL: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) became the latest target in vice presidential speculation Thursday, after conservative columnist David Frum published an opinion piece praising the idea of a Romney-Jindal ticket, The Hill writes. In an interview on MSNBC's The Daily Rundown, Jindal told Chuck Todd he would support Romney regardless of his choice for running mate. Jindal maintained that he was satisfied in his current role, but he didn't altogether reject the idea of accepting an offer to be presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's running mate.

MARTINEZ: “The New Mexico Republican Party has formally complained to the Federal Election Commission about an Albuquerque-based political organization that has produced ads and reports critical of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez,” the Santa Fe New Mexican writes.

MCDONNELL: "Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell sought to downplay characterization of his campaign events with Mitt Romney this week as an "audition" for the vice presidential spot, saying speculation was "good media drama, but not what has happened," The Hill reports. "But McDonnell did say he would "consider" the job if it was offered by the presumptive Republican nominee."

PORTMAN: No fundraising rookie: The Cincinnati Enquirer reports: "Sen. Rob Portman is not up for re-election until 2016. But the Ohio Republican is raising big bucks this election cycle anyway – including a haul of more than $1 million through one of his political committees that puts him well ahead of most of the GOP leaders in the Senate. That committee, Promoting Our Republican Team PAC, or PORTPAC, is known as a leadership committee – and as of April 1, Portman was sitting on more cash than all but three of 86 senators who have leadership PACS. Portman’s early fundraising success – which totaled more than $1.5 million when his Senate campaign account is included – will likely help cement his reputation as a skilled political player with national ambitions, perhaps even as a vice presidential candidate. It could also elevate his power inside the Senate and inside the party."

“Democratic challengers raised more money than Republican incumbents in 20 competitive House races from California to Virginia during the first three months of the year, and President Barack Obama's party has the upper-hand in eight other districts where congressmen are retiring,” AP writes.

MASSACHUSETTS: "Elizabeth Warren’s stumbling efforts to douse the firestorm surrounding her claims of being a Native American minority have raised concerns among local and national Democrats who are questioning her campaign’s competence. “There’s nobody watching this that doesn’t think she’s in big trouble,” one well-known Massachusetts Democrat said. Joe Trippi, a prominent national Democratic consultant, told the Herald that while Warren has time to recover, the campaign should have anticipated this issue would surface," The Boston Herald reports.

NORTH CAROLINA: The Charlotte Observer (via Political Wire) yanks endorsement of Republican Jim Pendergraph for 9th Congressional District seat. The Observer writes: "After winning the Observer’s endorsement in his bid for Congress, he has done nothing but embarrass us and himself. By buddying up to one of America’s more hateful egomaniacs and then joining with fringe “birthers” to question President Obama’s citizenship, Pendergraph has contradicted much of what he told the Observer’s editorial board in his endorsement interview last month. As a result, we have lost faith in him, and urge voters to consider Edwin Peacock or Ric Killian in the 9th Congressional District race."

VIRGINIA: “President Obama leads former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in Virginia, but voters in the commonwealth are evenly divided on the White House’s major policies,” a new Washington Post poll shows. “Obama is ahead of the presumed Republican presidential nominee by 51 percent to 44 percent among registered voters. And Romney does no better against Obama than he did in a Post poll a year ago, despite his emergence as the GOP standard-bearer.”

The Atlanta Journal Constitution: Virginia profile rises in presidential contest: "Move over Ohio and Florida. Virginia is becoming the hottest new battleground in this year's race for the White House.Shifting demographics have President Barack Obama fighting for another win in this Southern state four years after he became the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry Virginia in more than four decades. Republican rival Mitt Romney is banking on buyers' remorse as he works to prove that Obama's unlikely 2008 victory was a fluke. Six months before Election Day, both sides concede that Virginia is truly up for grabs. And the outcome here could have dramatic consequences — for Romney especially. "This may well be the state that decides who the next president is," Romney told supporters Thursday in coastal Portsmouth, Va. "You're going to hear it all, right here in Virginia."

PORTSMOUTH, VA -- Looking to preempt President Obama's first official campaign rally in the state this weekend, Mitt Romney hammered the president's record and rhetoric today, accusing him of pushing energy prices up, weakening the military and casting blame for a tepid economic recovery elsewhere.

“The president is going to be here on Saturday,” Romney said to boos from a crowd of several hundred at a marine construction company in Portsmouth. “He’s going to be kicking off his campaign here. And you know there are two things you can expect from him, at least: Number one is a lot of blame. Alright, he’ll be pointing around because he doesn’t want to talk about his own record and his own failures. He’ll instead be trying to find other people to blame."

Romney renewed his attack on President Obama's energy policy today, saying the president's policies have made it harder for Americans to take advantage of home-grown energy sources, and accusing the administration of dragging it's feet in approving exploration permits for oil and gas drilling off Virginia's coast, while quickly funding pet projects like failed solar company Solyndra.

"The Department of Interior says they’re studying it. Studying it. Didn’t study very long to get the money, $500 million, to Solyndra, did they? They got that out in a big hurry.” Romney said.

The Obama campaign responded to the swipe, accusing Romney of looking to steamroll environmental review processes for the benefit of his supporters in energy industry, and of deploying rhetoric "as reckless as it was dishonest."

In attacking the president's stewardship of the economy, Romney mocked the new advertising slogan "Forward," rolled out by the Obama campaign earlier this week.

"This president says he wants to lead [the country] forward. If the last three and a half years are his definition of forward I'd hate to see what backward looks like," Romney said.

Romney also tried to appeal to Virginia's large military and veteran populations, accusing the president of gutting military spending, while promising to increase naval shipbuilding and military spending (a goal some analysts have said may be incompatible with his tax cut and balanced-budget plans).

"This president," Romney said, "is intent on reducing our commitment to our military, cutting our military spending." 

Romney brought two Republican heavyweights out from his corner today to help in pummeling the president, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, and Rep. Michele Bachmann, who formally endorsed Romney's candidacy just today.

Bachmann, who battered Romney for his support for a health care mandate in Massachusetts during the primary season, today praised her former presidential rival, and vigorously worked the crowd on his behalf after vowing to "lend my voice and my endorsement" to the cause of electing the former Massachusetts Governor.

McDonnell, who campaigned with Romney earlier this year in South Carolina and Virginia, and who attended a fundraiser with him last night in Arlington, also stepped up his attacks against President Obama in what many political observers said was yet another audition for a possible Romney vice president.

"Remember three and a half years ago we heard that tune about hope and change?" McDonnell asked the crowd during his introduction to Romney. "Now what do we have? We have recession, division and malaise. Its time for a change, don't you think?"

Despite declaring himself more than happy with his current job (which he is prevented by term limit laws from seeking again in 2014), McDonnell has remained high on the speculative Romney shortlist due to his popularity in a prominent swing state, his military background and his early and strong support for Romney.

"I think they would be an excellent, excellent pair," Martha Stevens, and administrative manager from Newport news said.

Asked if she thought McDonnell's support for a controversial bill limiting abortion rights might hurt McDonnell's appeal to women, Stevens conceded it might, but on the question of whether McDonnell would bring enough punch to the GOP ticket, she was bullish.

"We don't need to be entertained. We need to have someone there that knows the facts and has a plan and can help us get back to the America that is working and can feel good about itself," she said.

Kevin Walker, a defense contractor and registered independent who said he planned to support Romney this fall, was less impressed with the idea of his governor as Romney's running mate.

"I don't know what he brings to the party," Walker shrugged.

In his drop-out speech Wednesday, Newt Gingrich singled out one of the two primary states he won: South Carolina, whose 30-year streak of picking the eventual nominee Gingrich acknowledged he had officially ended.

“I have to thank the voters of South Carolina, and I have to apologize to them,” Gingrich said. “We will have broken their tradition of always picking the nominee. This will make me feel slightly guilty every time we go through South Carolina.”

But Palmetto State experts insist that the first-in-the-south primary state’s importance as an early presidential bellwether remains unchanged – even if the current Republican Party slogan -- “We Pick Presidents” -- is no longer completely accurate.

“Think of it as, if you’re a marketing director for a product, and you have all these slogans to sell your product,” Winthrop University political science professor Scott Huffmon pointed out. “You’ll drop that from your advertising but you’ll still stress everything else.”

He noted that South Carolina would remain the first test of candidates’ strength in the delegate-rich South.

“At last count we have something like 160 Electoral College votes, and you need 270 to win,” Huffmon said. “If you can find a Republican who can appeal to the entire South, and they’ve got almost 60 percent of all the Electoral College votes that they need to become president.”

South Carolina can still sell its primary, Huffmon added, as the place “where the presidential mettle gets tested… where you have to face the first fiery brands of Southern conservatism and see if candidates can stand up.”

State Republican Party Chairman Chad Connelly also said he didn’t think the state’s reputation would suffer as a result of its picking a candidate other than the party nominee.

“We might not have our same branding motto or whatever, but the fact that we’re an important part of the process, that hasn’t changed a bit,” Connelly said, noting that the state’s small size and relatively inexpensive media markets allow campaigns with varying amounts of resources to be competitive – something he suggested strengthens the eventual nominee.

“I think Gov. Romney will tell you that he’s a better candidate, he’s a better debater, he’s better with the people than he was before because of this whole process,” Connelly said. Romney lost South Carolina 40-28 percent to Gingrich. 

Connelly stressed that he’s not considering changing the state party’s motto any time soon, focusing more on raising money to send South Carolina volunteers to other swing states to help with Republican get-out-the-vote efforts.

And as far as Gingrich’s apology to the voters of South Carolina, at least one of his supporters says there are no hard feelings.

“He owes no one an apology,” said Allen Olsen, a former Columbia Tea Party leader and one of Gingrich’s earliest proponents in the state. “He just got beat, and I don’t think he owes South Carolina an apology. I’m just proud to support him.”

But, Olsen added, now that Romney has prevailed, he said he wished Gingrich “hadn’t come off sounding like a sore loser” in his speech Wednesday.

“I wish he would have come off and endorsed Romney and offered to work with Romney more,” Olsen said.

There's a lot of talk about swing states, swing areas, and swing districts in presidential politics -- places that voted for one party and then the other in the next election. They just about always seem like either party has about a 50-50 chance of winning.

Well, we take a look below at the swing markets in swing states. That's important because no one buys ads in a state, they buy them in markets. And we're seeing the media saturation and booking starting earlier this year than ever.

Our friends at SMG Delta put together this helpful list of markets Bush won in 2004 and Obama won in 2008 in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico. 

Note there are NO markets in Colorado listed - even though the STATE flipped from Bush to Obama. That's because the margins in the states changed but not the party.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
Charlottesville
Norfolk
Richmond
Raleigh-Durham
Orlando
Tampa
Columbus
Toledo
Grand Rapids
Lansing
Marquette, MI
Green Bay
Milwaukee
Wausau
Des Moines
Reno

If you live in one of those cities, and are a political junkie, congratulations, or maybe, our sympathies.

After the shock to Democrats of Scott Brown’s victory in the special Massachusetts Senate election in January 2010 it would be sweet revenge for Democrats if Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren could re-take the seat once held by Ted Kennedy this November.

Brown’s victory seemed a flat rejection of President Obama and his health care bill just 12 months after he’d taken the oath of office.

Warren is a heroine to progressive Democrats due to her work as an expert on consumer bankruptcy and her role as an advisor to Obama on consumer protection policies. But Warren’s crusade against Brown was sidetracked for a few days this week as she grappled with questions about why she’d listed herself as an American Indian in the American Association of Law Schools directory and then dropped that designation at some point after getting her Harvard job.

Steven Senne / AP

Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate Elizabeth Warren talks with reporters during a news conference May 2 at Liberty Bay Credit Union headquarters.

“I listed myself in the directory in the hopes that it might mean that I would be invited to a luncheon, a group something that might happen with people who are like I am,” she said Wednesday.

She added that she was “a little shocked to hear anybody raise a question about whether or not I’m qualified to hold a job teaching.” Referring to Brown, she said, “What does he think it takes for a woman to be qualified?”

In her response to the controversy Warren told reporters that one of her aunts had remarked that Warren’s grandfather “had high cheekbones, like all of the Indians do, because that’s how she saw it.”

The Indian heritage and cheekbone discussion consumed campaign time that Warren might have spent in making the case against Brown. But the good news for her is that it’s only May and a lot of voters are not paying close attention.

For his part Brown – the first Republican to serve as a senator from Massachusetts since 1979 --was happy to encourage reporters to keep the focus on Warren’s Indian ancestry. “You guys are asking a lot of questions and I’m learning about it as you are. You’ve asked a lot of questions and she should answer them,” Brown told reporters.

If this Senate race is this tightly focused on Warren’s ancestry and whether Brown was sexist for allegedly thinking her unqualified, one can only imagine how immersed in detail it will be by the October homestretch.

Both on Capitol Hill and in Massachusetts, Brown has been trying hard to make the case that’s he’s getting legislation enacted in a fully bipartisan fashion. He points to his co-sponsorship of a bill to ban members of Congress and congressional staffers from using knowledge gained as part of their job to trade in stocks and commodities trading – a ban that some legal scholars felt was redundant.

Last week the Senate passed another bill cosponsored by Brown, one to keep the U.S. Postal Service in operation and postponing closing of post offices and processing facilities for two years, most of Brown’s Republican colleagues voted against the bill, preferring a quicker, more radical downsizing for the Postal Service.

“We do need to work together in a bipartisan, bicameral manner,” Brown said on the Senate floor as he and his colleagues debated the postal bill. “This is not about Democrats and Republicans or Independents. It is about us as a body showing once again--trying to reestablish that trust with the American people--that, my goodness, the Senate can do things together”

In an appeal to potential ticket-splitters who will support President Obama this November, Brown ran a radio ad this week in which he said “standing with President Obama” on the day he signed it into law a veteran jobs bill “was another one of those great experiences" that he has had a senator.

Brown won the special election in 2010 with 52 percent, defeating Democrat Martha Coakley by more than 107,000 votes.

Coakley was hobbled by a gender gap. In the final pre-election poll from Suffolk University, Brown won 55 percent of male voters to 40 percent for Coakley; among women Coakley won 50 to 45 percent. Brown also won nearly two out of three independents and 17 percent of Democrats.

The most recent poll from Suffolk University in February showed Brown ahead of Warren among men, 55 percent to 38 percent and essentially tied with her among female poll respondents.

“Her strategy is very simple: all she needs to do is to win among women by what she loses men by,” said David Paleologos, director of the Political Research Center at Suffolk University.

Despite the image of Massachusetts being a Democratic bastion, 52 percent of the state’s voters are independents. Paleologos said that Warren “doesn’t need to win among independents to win the election – all she needs to do is keep it close among independents.”