*** Thursday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: USA Today’s Susan Page and the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza with more on today’s Ohio outlook… NBC’s Richard Engel with the latest on Syria… Pew’s Andrew Kohut on how polarized our politics really are today compared to just 25 years ago… More 2012 headlines with NBC News Radio’s Bob Costantini, former DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney and Republican pollster Linda DiVall.

*** Thursday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews Pentagon spokesman George Little,  Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Washington Post’s Anne Kornblut, Hotline Editor Reid Wilson, NBCLatino’s Raul Reyes, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, former Bush EPA head Christine Todd Witman, and the AFL-CIO’s Arlene Holt Baker.

*** Thursday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks to Democratic strategist Jen Psaki, conservative commentator J.P. Freire, msnbc political analyst Richard Wolffe, Mesa AZ Mayor Scott Smith (R), DCCC Chairman Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), MD Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), and New York Magazine’s Jason Zengerle on  SCOTUS clerks who never tell..

*** Thursday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include Bloomberg Businessweek Editor Josh Tyrangiel, The Nation’s Ari Melber, Demos’s Heather McGhee, NY Daily News Columnist S.E. Cupp, VICE’s Suroosh Alvia, and HBO “41” filmmaker Jeffrey Roth.

*** Thursday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, NETWORK Exec. Director Sister Simone Campbell, and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). The program will also cover President Obama’s speech from Cleveland.

*** Thursday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall will have complete coverage and analysis of Obama’s and Romney’s dueling speeches in Ohio today. Joining Tamron: the Washington Post’s Anne Kornblut, Zachary Karabell, and Time contributor Jose Antonio Vargas.

The Associated Press: "Ohio again is earning its reputation as the ultimate toss-up state. The proof is in the spending. Last week, the two campaigns and their allies poured more money into TV ads in Ohio — about $1.3 million each — than in any other state, including Florida. Both Obama and Romney are campaigning in Ohio on Thursday, which marks Obama’s 22nd visit as president. And Romney will make an all-day, three-town trip through Ohio on Sunday, part of a five-day bus tour. As every campaign strategist knows, no Republican has won the presidency without carrying Ohio. Obama won it by 5 percentage points. Republicans hope 2010 is the best predictor of this year’s contest. Democrats hope it’s 2011."

According to a new Gallup poll, "Americans continue to place more blame for the nation's economic problems on George W. Bush than on Barack Obama, even though Bush left office more than three years ago. The relative economic blame given to Bush versus Obama today is virtually the same as it was last September."

At the U.S. Conference of Mayors conference in Orlando, presidential surrogates Kevin Madden (for Romney) and Donna Brazile (for Obama) will participate in a debate at 12:30 pm ET. The U.S. Conference of Mayors also will be considering a resolution to establish a DREAM Act-like program granting provisional status for some illegal immigrants.

"When he launched his re-election bid in Columbus last month, President Barack Obama introduced a one-word, bumper sticker sales pitch for a second term: ‘Forward.’ But when he returns to Ohio this afternoon for a campaign rally at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Obama is expected to sound like an incumbent who has one eye firmly fixed on 2008 in the rearview mirror. Better off today than you were four years ago? That's a tricky question for the president to answer. He has struggled recently to articulate an economic message that resonates with voters -- a dynamic amplified last week in the wake of disappointing employment numbers and Obama's maladroit declaration that the private sector is "doing fine,"" The Plain Dealer reports

Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Josh Green on Obama campaign manager Jim Messina and his selling of President Obama in 2012.

"Mr. Romney's message that the national economy remains sour is central to his core campaign argument that the president's policies have impeded the recovery, and that someone with deep business experience is better to set the U.S. right," The Wall Street Journal writes. "But Republican governors in states that will decide the election, such as Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Michigan and Iowa, have a rosier view. While Mr. Romney points to a feeble recovery, underscored by last month's grim jobs report, the governors—looking to their own political fortunes—cite job growth, higher corporate investment and the rebirth of domestic manufacturing in their states."

Reuters: "Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, riding a burst of momentum, predicted a major economic speech by President Barack Obama this week will have soaring rhetoric but little substance. "My own view is that he will speak eloquently but that words are cheap," said Romney."

POLITICO's Maggie Haberman on the Republicans surrogate problem: "When Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels and Scott Walker all lobbed rhetorical explosive devices of varying sizes in Mitt Romney’s direction, Democrats were gleeful that Republicans now had their own version of a Bain family feud. But unlike Bill Clinton — who has caused the Obama campaign major headaches — those close to these Republican heavyweights say that they are simply telling the truth about what they see as weaknesses in the modern-day GOP and with its standard-bearer’s message. Bush’s and Daniels’s supporters — who decry the party’s hard ideological edges along with Washington’s partisanship on both sides and want to see a bold GOP campaign — say they are just calling things as they see them, and have the stature to do so."

CHRISTIE: "Assembly Democrats are balking at Gov. Chris Christie’s plan to borrow an additional $260 million for transportation projects in the upcoming fiscal year, putting up a roadblock as his administration scrambles to plug revenue gaps, strike a tax-cut deal and get a state budget passed," The Star-Ledger reports.

RUBIO: "Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on Tuesday defended controversial efforts by Florida Gov. Rick Scott to purge the Sunshine State's voter rolls, denying it has targeted Hispanics. "I wouldn't characterize it as an effort to purge Latinos from the voting rolls," Rubio told reporters at a breakfast hosted by Bloomberg News. "I think there's the goal of ensuring that everyone who votes in Florida is qualified to vote. If you're not a citizen of the United States, you shouldn't be voting. That's the law," USA Today writes.

THUNE: "Sen. John Thune doesn't buy the recent buzz that he may be Mitt Romney's "dark horse" vice presidential pick. "'Dark horse' usually means you are way back in the pack somewhere. I'm not sure that's a good thing," he said during an interview Wednesday in his Capitol Hill office. "Very few dark horses actually win the race," USA Today reports. "The South Dakota senator is little-known nationwide but is a well-respected power player in Washington and a hero of conservatives, having won his Senate seat eight years ago by knocking off the most powerful Democrat in the chamber."

The New York Times on campaign spending and why Sheldon Adelson stands alone.

FLORIDA: "Sheldon Adelson, the gambling magnate who pretty much kept Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign in business, wrote a $250,000 check to Gov. Rick Scott's "Let's Get to Work" political action committee last week, records show," The Tampa Bay Times reports.

MASSACHUSETTS: "Sen. Scott Brown hit Elizabeth Warren where it hurts Thursday by questioning his Democratic challenger’s integrity and accusing the Harvard professor of lying about her Native American heritage. Asked about Warren’s recent claim that Brown is cozying up to Wall Street executives by trying to weaken financial regulations and create loopholes, the Massachusetts Republican charged that Warren has failed to demonstrate to voters that she is an honest candidate. “It’s funny, when you’re running for elective office, especially high elective office, you really — you have to pass a test. And the test is about truthfulness, credibility and honesty,” Brown said on “Fox & Friends.” “And quite frankly, she’s failed that test as evidenced by her claiming to be a Native American and checking the box and making misrepresentations to not only Harvard but Penn.” The first-term senator added, “It’s no different here. She can rewrite her own history but she can’t rewrite mine,”" POLITICO writes.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Mitt Romney set the stage on Wednesday for a showdown tomorrow that pit the presumptive GOP nominee and President Obama against each other at public campaign events in the same state for the first time in the general election.

Romney, appearing at a lunch meeting of the Business Roundtable, a group of executives that has also previously hosted Obama, fired a shot across the bow of the president's campaign. The former Massachusetts governor warned that Obama's words on Thursday at a campaign event in Cleveland are "cheap," and make for no substitute for actual action to improve the economy.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney addresses the quarterly meeting of the Business Roundtable at the Newseum June 13, 2012 in Washington, DC.

"He said, as you know, just a few days ago that the private sector is doing fine," Romney said, again dredging up the president's gaffe at a press conference on Friday. "But the incredulity that came screaming back from the American people, I think, has caused him to rethink that, and I think you’re gonna see him change course when he speaks tomorrow, where he will acknowledge that it isn’t going so well, and he’ll be asking for four more years."

"My own view is that he will speak eloquently, but that words are cheap, and that the record of an individual is the basis upon which you determine whether they should continue to hold on to their job," Romney continued. "The record is that we have 23 million Americans that are out of work or stopped looking for work or underemployed. That is a compelling and a sad statistic."

Both Romney and Obama will court voters in the pivotal swing state of Ohio during separate events scheduled roughly for the same time of day. The president will speak in Cleveland, while Romney will appear in the Cincinnati area.

Today, Romney emphasized his pro-business agenda in front of the group of like-minded executives, hitting Obama for tax and regulatory policies he said were averse to business.

"I happen to believe that if you look at his record over the last three and a half years, you will conclude as I have that it is the most anti-investment, anti-business, anti-jobs series of policies in modern American history. The reason that it has taken so long for this recovery to gain traction and to put people back to work is in large measure because of the policy choices the president made," Romney said. "He is not responsible for whatever improvement we might be seeing. Instead, he’s responsible for the fact that it’s taken so long to see this recovery and the recovery’s been so tepid.”

The Obama campaign quickly responded, calling Romney's characterization of the president's record "dishonest."

“In another in a long line of ‘major’ economic speeches, Mitt Romney made dishonest after dishonest claim about the President’s record and failed to offer any new ideas of his own on how to improve the economy and strengthen the middle class," Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said in a statement. "Contrary to Romney’s rhetoric, the President took our nation from losing 750,000 jobs a month to adding 4.3 million private sector jobs over the last 27 months, worked to reduce burdensome business regulations, and has put forward a plan to create more jobs and reduce the deficit while asking every American to pay their fair share."

After delivering remarks in the Newseum, a museum in the nation's capital dedicated to the preservation of the free press and the First Amendment, Romney took questions during a closed-press question-and-answer session. During his visit with the same group in May, President Obama also took questions after the press was escorted out of the room.

Edited by NBC's Matt Loffman.

Steve Nesius / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney addresses supporters during a campaign rally at Con-Air Industries Inc., in Orlando, Florida, June 12, 2012.

Romney and running out the clock… Dems begin to press the panic button… Greenberg’s and Carville’s advice… Dems win AZ-8 special election… After primaries in ME, NV, ND, and VA, Senate races finally take shape… Eric Holder, political punching bag… Jamie Dimon testifies on Capitol Hill… And Romney addresses Business Roundtable meeting at 11:45 am ET. 

*** Running out the clock: With less than five months until Election Day, Mitt Romney and his team are running a campaign that would make Dean Smith (and his Four Corners offense) or Jim Tressel (and his grind-it-out gameplan) proud. If you're ahead -- or within striking distance -- against a talented opponent, you start running out the clock. Take, for instance, Romney's reply yesterday to a reporter’s ropeline question about whether he thought Democrats were taking his recent remark firefighter and police jobs out of context. "I'm not going to talk about that," he said. (Romney also has ducked reporters’ ropeline questions on Syria, JP Morgan, and even Wisconsin.) Or consider all the interviews he does with FOX (especially its cherry-picked programs vs. its newsier anchors) compared with other news outlets. Or think about the fact that the Romney camp isn't planning (for now) on delivering any new policy speeches. The message Team Romney is essentially giving: “We're going to talk about what we want to talk about -- and to whom we want -- and not talk about the rest.” 

*** But does a president get to control what he talks about? It’s impressive message discipline. And as Smith and Tressel proved, you can win tons of games -- and the ultimate prize every once in a while (especially if your opponent makes mistakes) -- by running out the clock. But here’s something about sitting in the White House: A president often doesn’t get to pick and choose the issues he has to deal with. Think of many of the events in the past five years: the financial industry’s collapse, the European debt crisis, the BP oil spill, the Arab Spring, the violence in Libya and Syria, and the list goes on. While a president gets to pick his domestic priorities (tax cuts, education, and Social Security for George W. Bush; health care and financial reform for Barack Obama), so much of the job is reacting to unplanned events. Ironically, the very issue Romney wants to talk about -- the state of the U.S. economy -- is something that presidents have little control over, especially compared with foreign policy (which they have A LOT of control over). And yet how long can Romney go without going into more detail about how he would handle the various unplanned issues that he would have to deal with if he wins. Take Syria. We know he doesn’t like how the president has handled this situation but how would a President Romney deal with Putin and Assad? He’s provided no clues and his campaign appears to be making sure there’s little opportunity (for now) to find out.

*** Dems press the panic button: While Team Romney appears to be running out the clock and displaying an impressive ability at message discipline, the Obama White House and campaign are dealing with Democratic Party that’s beginning to panic after a rough last two weeks. “Is it time for Democrats to panic?” the Washington Post’s Tumulty asks. “That’s what a growing number of party loyalists are wondering, amid a rough couple of weeks in which President Obama and his political operation have been buffeted by bad economic news, their own gaffes and signs that the presumed Republican nominee is gaining strength.” One criticism from the Democrats cited in the piece is how insular Team Obama is, a criticism that has dogged the Obama political team beginning Feb. 10, 2007 (the day Obama announced). This story illustrates two of the Democratic Party’s and Obama White House’s worst traits -- pressing the panic button (especially when nothing fundamental about the race has changed in the past two weeks) and ignoring outside voices (which is a criticism we continually hear about the Obama team). Former Bush strategist Mark McKinnon puts it well in the piece: “[The Obama campaign folks] are not any more or less smart than they were four years ago. The dynamics are just different. This time, the wind is in their face instead of at their back.”

*** Greenberg’s and Carville’s advice: The Tumulty article also mentions the advice from Democrats Stan Greenberg and James Carville after conducting focus groups in Pennsylvania and Ohio: The Obama folks need to change their economic message. “We will face an impossible headwind in November if we do not move to a new narrative, one that contextualizes the recovery but, more importantly, focuses on what we will do to make a better future for the middle class... It is elites who are creating a conventional wisdom that an incumbent president must run on his economic performance – and therefore must convince voters that things are moving in the right direction. They are wrong, and that will fail... overwhelmingly, these voters want to know that he understands the struggle of working families and has plans to make things better.“ This memo gets at the conundrum this White House faces, how to balance optimism and realism when it comes to messaging the economy. The fact of the matter is whichever candidate – Obama or Romney – offers hope for an improved economic future will win. It’s as simple as that. Romney doesn’t have to talk about anything positive with the economy today and can simply focus on post-Obama. But Obama has the challenge of both making the case his policies are working but at the same time, feeling the pain of the economically anxious middle class.

*** Dems win in AZ-8: But Democrats did get some good news out of Arizona last night. Ron Barber (D) beat Jesse Kelly (R) in the special election to fill the congressional seat vacated by Gabby Giffords (D). Make no mistake: Democrats needed that win after what’s been a rough couple of weeks, especially the loss last week in Wisconsin. And we should say this about the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: They don’t lose many special elections, and won a race that wasn’t easy. That said, the NRCC kept it close despite the fact that in their heart of hearts, they know they had a VERY flawed candidate. It will be interesting to see if they are able to swap Kelly out for a more preferred nominee who has, um, less “edge” shall we say.

*** Senate races come into shape: Also last night, primary results formalized some of this fall’s most competitive Senate races. In Virginia, George Allen (R) won his primary and will face off against Tim Kaine (D) in the fall; in Nevada, Shelly Berkley won her primary, and she’ll compete against Sen. Dean Heller (R); and in North Dakota, Rep. Rick Berg (R) easily won his primary, and he’ll run against Heidi Heitkamp in November. And in Maine, Democrat Cynthia Dill and Republican Charles Summer won their respective Senate primaries, but the favorite in that race will be Angus King (I). Interestingly, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee made no mistake that King is their guy when it DIDN’T release a statement congratulating Dill’s primary win. By the way, it’s possible that Danny Tarkanian (who won his primary last night in Nevada) and Andre Bauer (who qualified for a run off in South Carolina) could be coming to Congress…

*** Eric Holder, political punching bag: Is there any doubt that Attorney General Eric Holder is going to go down as Barack Obama’s presidential punching bag? The New York Times on yesterday’s Hill hearing: “Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday strongly criticized the recent decision by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to appoint two United States attorneys to investigate recent disclosures of classified national security information, saying that the move was not enough and that he should appoint a special prosecutor.” The Republicans on the committee also used their time to beat them up on a pet issue of the NRA and the base: fast and furious, the bungled Mexican-gun operation that now has many Republicans jumping at the chance to embarrass the NRA’s most feared government agency, the ATF. Whether you believe the best or the worst of Holder, you have to give the guy his due on this front:  It’s amazing the political heat he’s had to absorb -- and that’s he’s survived so far. Many would have cracked by now…

*** Jamie Dimon’s day on the Hill: And speaking of punching bags, Democrats will get their crack when JP Morgan Chase head Jamie Dimon testifies before the Senate Banking Committee beginning at 10:00 am ET.

*** On the trail: Romney’s in DC, where he addresses the Business Roundtable’s quarterly meeting at 11:45 am ET, and then he heads to a fundraiser in Cincinnati, OH later in the day.

Countdown to GOP convention: 75 days
Countdown to Dem convention: 82 days
Countdown to Election Day: 146 days

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*** Wednesday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) on the increase in military suicides… Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) on what Republicans plan to do about health care wants SCOTUS makes its move… One of us (!!!) on the Arizona results and more… NBC’s Richard Engel with the latest on Syria… More 2012 headlines with AP’s Liz Sidoti, Priorities USA Action’s Bill Burton and former Gov. Bob Ehrlich (R-MD).

*** Wednesday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL); the Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus, Salon.com’s Steve Kornacki, financial analyst Henry Blodget; personal finance advisor Jean Chatzky, GOP strategist Joe Watkins, Dem strategist Karen Finney, and Forbes’ Meghan Casserly.

*** Wednesday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks to the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, GOP strategist Susan Del Percio, and Dem strategist Keith Boykin on 2012; Richard Engel on Hillary Clinton calling out Syria; the Boston Globe’s Glen Johnson on Romney’s record in Massachusetts; Jimmy Salvia on GOP and LGBT issues; and Michael Hadani/Long Island University on study showing inverse relationship between companies political donations and their financial success.

*** Wednesday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include former Bush Communications Director Nicolle Wallace, the Daily Beast’s Patricia Murphy, MSNBC Political Analyst Richard Wolffe, New York Times Magazine Editor Hugo Lindgren, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, and Vanity Fair Contributing Editor Sarah Ellison

*** Wednesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, Billie Jean King, and author Frances Osbourne.

*** Wednesday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall interviews Time magazine’s Rana Farohaar on Dimon’s testimony on the Hill,  the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet, Michael Smerconish, and PA attorney general candidate and former Lachawanna prosecutor Kathleen Kane on Sandusky.

The New York Times: “With the primary season over, the presidential campaign has entered a new phase, one dictated by the competitive realities of the deregulated campaign finance system. Having decided not to take public financing for the general election, both Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney need to devote much of their time to banking the money necessary to fuel their campaigns through Election Day. This election cycle marks the completion of a gradual shift away from the days when candidates would be able to wrap up fund-raising on their own behalf ahead of their conventions in the middle of the summer and rely on public financing — which limits candidates to a preset expenditure level — for the general election.”

“Primary voters went to the polls Tuesday to finalize general-election matchups in some key contests that will help determine control of the Senate next year, including in Virginia, where Republicans chose former senator George Allen as their nominee. Allen defeated a handful of more conservative candidates for the chance to take on former Democratic governor Timothy M. Kaine,” The Washington Post writes. “With the exception of the primaries in Maine — where six Republicans and four Democrats vied to take on independent front-runner Angus King in November — Tuesday’s contests, which also included races in North Dakota and Nevada, were not expected to be suspenseful. But the November races in these states will be crucial to Republicans’ chances of dislodging Democrats from their majority perch in the Senate. “These are the states where the Senate will be won or lost,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Matt Canter.”

Reuters: "So far, President Barack Obama has not been able to convince most Americans that they are better off than they were four years ago. His next step may be to try to convince them that they would be worse off under his Republican rival, Mitt Romney. In an economic speech on Thursday that could set the tone for months of campaigning, Obama is not likely to unveil new ideas to boost the economy and create new jobs, according to Democrats familiar with the preparations for the address. Instead, he will make the case that he needs four more years to undo the damage left by George W. Bush, his Republican predecessor in the White House, and argue that a President Romney would bring back the weak financial regulation and budget-busting tax cuts of the Bush years."

The New York Daily News reports global approval of President Obama has dropped, according to a Pew Research Center poll: “The global enthusiasm for US President Barack Obama has fallen ‘significantly’ since he took office in 2009, but in many countries there is still strong support for his re-election in November, according to a poll released Wednesday by the US Pew Research Centre. Confidence in Obama fell from 86 per cent in 2009 to 80 per cent in Europe, and from 85 to 74 per cent in Japan, the two regions where the US president is most popular.”

“The 2008 donors who haven't returned to President Obama are disproportionately centrists and very liberal Democrats, while regular Democrats have stuck by the president, according to a new analysis of campaign finance data. The analysis, by Stanford political scientist Adam Bonica, matches and deepens a BuzzFeed finding that roughly 90% of those who gave more than $200 to Obama haven't returned, a mark of the disillusionment among some of his early supporters and of his ongoing struggle — despite the advantages of organization and incumbency — to keep even with his 2008 fundraising totals,” BuzzFeed reports via Political Wire.

“For three years, Wall Street’s been telling the world how much it can’t stand President Barack Obama. Now, thanks to campaign finance filings, it’s possible to put a price tag on just how much: Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and the super PAC supporting it are outraising Obama among financial-sector donors $37.1 million to $4.8 million. Near the front of the pack are 19 Obama donors from 2008 who are giving big to Romney,” POLITICO reports.

The Romney campaign is out with a new graphic this morning titled “The First 100 Days: How Would A Romney Presidency Be Different?”

The Los Angeles Times: “During his first 18 months as governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney spent considerable time hammering out a sweeping climate change plan to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions. As staff briefed him on possible measures and environmentalists pressed him to act, Romney frequently repeated a central thought, people at those meetings said: That climate change is occurring, that the United States has the resources to handle its vast impact but that low-lying poor countries like Bangladesh would suffer greatly. "It was like a mantra with him," said a person who attended those meetings who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the topic. "His Cabinet members would look at him like, 'What?' He was the radical in the room."”

ARIZONA: "Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' hand-picked Democratic candidate won a special election Tuesday in southern Arizona to finish her term, defeating a Republican who narrowly lost to Giffords in 2010. The race was a hard-fought preview of the broader fall campaign as the two political parties used the contest to hone and test their political arguments for the November elections, when everything from the White House on down will be on the ballot," AP reports.

MASSACHUSETTS: "The campaigns of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have paid a combined $45 million to businesses and consultants from Massachusetts, making the Bay State the nation’s number one recipient of presidential campaign spending by a long shot," The Boston Globe reports.

WISCONSIN: “It turns out all of Wisconsin's problems weren't solved over beer and brats Tuesday. But Republicans and Democrats came a little closer to at least having a civil discussion about issues dividing the state during the so-called brat summit at the governor's mansion. "This can't hurt," Rep. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said. "Is it the answer? Probably not. But I think it's a first step." "First step" was a phrase legislators from both sides employed repeatedly. "It was a good first step, and the follow-up is what really counts," said Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha),” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes.

President Obama went on the attack against Mitt Romney's economic credentials in a spate of Mid-Atlantic fundraisers on Tuesday. 

Obama, speaking at a fundraiser in Baltimore, advanced a line of attack first made by his campaign in conference calls and TV ads, meant to call into question the presumptive Republican nominee's political advantage on the economy and budgets. 

The president started off calling Romney “patriotic” and saying he should be proud of his “personal success.”  

But Obama's tone quickly changed when he said he thought Mitt Romney had “drawn the wrong lessons” from his experiences leading Bain Capital, the private equity firm he had cofounded.

“He seems to believe that if CEOs and wealthy investors like him are doing well, the rest of us automatically do well,” the president said.

He continued: “So when I hear Gov. Romney say his 25 years in the private sector gives him a special understanding of how the economy works, my question is why are you running with the same bad ideas that brought our economy to the brink of disaster?” 

The president entered the series of fundraisers in Maryland and Pennsylvania still reeling from a gaffe he committed at a press conference last Friday, when he said the private sector is doing "fine."

Romney responded by calling Obama "out of touch," and the president personally fought back on Tuesday by accusing Romney of failing to understand the vagaries of the "real world."

“Those of us who've spent time in the real world know that the problem is not the American people aren't productive enough. You've been working harder than ever…Bigger profits at the top haven't led to better jobs across the board.  You can't solve that problem if you can't even see it,” he said.

The president also attacked the GOP for blaming only his administration for the economic woes of the country.

“What they're not telling you is, is that they baked all this stuff into the cake with those tax cuts and a prescription drug plan that they didn't pay for, and the war. So all this stuff is baked in, with all the interest payments for it.  It's like somebody goes to a restaurant, orders a big steak dinner, martini all that stuff, and then just as you're sitting down, they leave, and accuse you of running up the tab.”

The president headlined three fundraisers in Baltimore today and is expected to attend three more in Philadelphia.  The Obama Victory Fund is expected to take in at least $3 million from the six fundraisers.

Mitt Romney will campaign on Sunday with John Boehner in the House speaker's southwest Ohio district, a Boehner campaign aide confirmed to NBC News.

As a stop on Romney's bus tour, which will hit six swing states in five days, Boehner and the presumptive Republican nominee will appear together in Troy, OH. Troy is in the heart of Boehner's 8th congressional district.

Additional details such as size and format will be made available later this week, according to Team Boehner. The speaker and Romney met together on Monday in Georgia, their first face-to-face meeting in quite some time.

President Obama spoke with Commerce Secretary John Bryson on Tuesday for the first time since Bryson was involved in multiple car accidents in California this past Saturday. 

White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that Obama called Bryson to offer his encouragement after the cabinet official suffered from some size of seizure that contributed to the accidents.

In the short conversation, the president encouraged Bryson to, "focus his thoughts on his own health, on his own family."  This comes after the commerce secretary informed the White House last night that he would be taking a medical leave of absence from his position.

There is currently no timetable for the secretary’s return to his post and, in his absence, Deputy Secretary Dr. Rebecca Blank will act as the secretary of commerce.

ORLANDO -- Mitt Romney tied President Obama's signature health reform law to the anemic hiring situation among small businesses on Tuesday, calling the 2010 law the "poster child" for harmful policies enacted during this administration.

"Obamacare," Romney said near the close of his remarks on a factory floor here in a crucial swing state, "is the poster child for a piece of policy that’s made it harder for businesses to hire people, so we’ve got to get rid of it, among other good reasons."

Aides said that Romney's renewed focus on "ObamaCare" anticipates a Supreme Court ruling on that very law this month. Romney has long been haunted by the strong resemblances between the law he signed as governor of Massachusetts (including an individual mandate), but has long since vowed to repeal the president's law should he be elected.

Today's events -- and ones like it in the coming weeks -- allows Romney to get out in front of the Supreme Court ruling, and outline his alternative plans for reforming health care.

To that end, Romney described some of his preferred solutions, such as block-granting Medicaid money to states and allowing consumers to buy insurance across state lines were specific. Others, such as Romney's desire to see health care act more like a market, and allowing states to experiment with their own reforms lacked specificity.

Any effort to replace the law, Romney said, must come after its repeal, a process he said again today he would begin on the first day of his administration -- a line that always gets cheers in Romney's stump speech, and today led to a standing ovation.

Romney also used an answer about the law that Obama gave on Monday to further his case that the president is "out of touch."

The president told a reporter from NBC affiliate KTIV in Sioux City, Iowa that it would be "hard to explain" why a business might have had to move from one state to another due to the health care law, because the law didn't govern that type of business. Republicans, including Romney today, pounced on the comment.

"Just yesterday, the president said something else that shows just how out of touch he is," Romney said. "He said he didn’t understand that Obamacare was hurting small business, he doesn’t understand that Obamacare impacts small business, and you have to scratch your head about that because about a year ago the Chamber of Commerce did a survey of some 1,500 small businesses and of those small businesses, three-quarters, 75 percent, said Obamacare made it less likely for them to hire people."

Romney recast his criticism of President Obama as "out of touch," last Friday after the president told reporters that the private sector was "doing fine," and today he continued to work that line of attack today.

"The president, as you know, said last week that the private sector is doing fine. He is so out of touch with what's happening across America, to say something like that. He went on, of course, this was not just one line taken out of context. He went on to describe why he believes that therefore we should provide another stimulus to hire government workers," Romney said, going on to describe how his own interactions with Americans as he travels the country have made him, not the president, more in touch with the concerns of average folks.

But the Romney campaign has also been forced to defend Romney's own response from last Friday, when he appeared to suggest that the message of the Wisconsin recall was not to hire more teachers, firefighters or police.

"He wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people," Romney said in that interview

Today, Romney told Fox News that Democratic accusations he would want to cut firefighters or teachers were "very strange."

“That's a very strange accusation. Of course, teachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level and also by states. The federal government doesn't pay for teachers, firefighters or policemen. So obviously that's completely absurd," Romney said. “[President Obama]'s got a new idea, though, and that is to have another stimulus and to have the federal government send money to try and bail out cities and states. It didn't work the first time. It certainly wouldn't work the second time.”

Romney had no more to say on the matter when asked by a reporter at his event today today if he thought Democrats had taken his remarks out of context.

"I'm not going to talk about that," Romney said, moving along the rope line.

Earlier this morning, we pointed that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush pulled a Cory Booker or Bill Clinton -- going off message when he talked about immigration, taxes, and the state of his party on Monday.

As the New York Times put it:

Mr. Bush questioned the party’s approach to immigration, deficit reduction and partisanship, saying that his father, former President George Bush, and Reagan would struggle with ‘an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement.

Going one better, he praised his father’s 1990 deficit-reduction deal, which drew the lasting ire of his party’s fiscal hawks for its tax increases.

And now like Booker and Clinton, it appears that Bush is walking back that critique.

In a series of tweets today, Bush said: "The point I was making yesterday is this: The political system today is hyperpartisan. Both sides are at fault."

He added, "My dad & Reagan sacrificed political points for good public policy."

And he concluded: "Past 4 years, Democrats have held leadership roles w/opportunities to reach across political aisle. For sake of politics, they haven't."

Edited by NBC's Natalie Cucchiara.

Here’s your economic anxiety… Jeb Bush and talk about going off message… Romney’s transparency (or lack thereof)… This week’s 10 hottest TV markets in the presidential contest… Both Obama and Romney go rural… Obama’s new TV ad hits Romney -- again -- on his record as Massachusetts governor… Obama leads Romney by six in Pennsylvania… And today’s the AZ-8 special to fill Gabby Giffords’ congressional seat; polls close at 10:00 pm ET.

This photo combo shows President Barack Obama in Chapel Hill, N.C. on April 24, 2012, and Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on April 18, 2012 in Charlotte, N.C.

*** Here’s your economic anxiety: The U.S. economy actually is growing (compared with some European countries); it’s adding jobs (though at a much slower pace than earlier this year); and the Dow Jones is up considerably from three years ago (but it’s recently gone down). Given this, why do so many feel like the country is on the wrong track and why are so many pessimistic about the state of the economy? Look no further than this report on American wealth: “Median net worth declined from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010, a Fed survey of family finances found. The median marks the point where half had more and half had less. The recession officially began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009,” the AP reports. (Caveat: This study only goes through 2010.) This could very well be the central challenge for both President Obama and Mitt Romney in this election: Who best understands -- and connects with -- voters who still might have jobs and who still own a house, but who have less money to spend and save and no idea when it will get better?

*** Talk about going off message: We said this yesterday, but we’ll say it again: For all the grief Team Obama got when Bill Clinton and Cory Booker went off message, isn’t what Jeb Bush said yesterday about immigration, taxes, and the state of the Republican Party as -- or even more -- significant? And even more off message? At a pen-and-pad event yesterday sponsored by Bloomberg View, “Mr. Bush questioned the party’s approach to immigration, deficit reduction and partisanship, saying that his father, former President George Bush, and Reagan would struggle with ‘an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement,’” the New York Times says. More: “Going one better, he praised his father’s 1990 deficit-reduction deal, which drew the lasting ire of his party’s fiscal hawks for its tax increases.” It is one thing for Bush to say what he did about immigration, but it’s another for him to praise his father’s tax increase. Paging Grover Norquist…

*** Romney’s transparency (or lack thereof): Yesterday, the AP’s Kasie Hunt wrote, “Keeping his secrets, Mitt Romney tends to lift the veil on his finances and campaign only if the law says he must. The Republican presidential candidate refuses to identify his biggest donors who ‘bundle’ money for his campaign. He often declines to say who's meeting with him or what he's doing for hours at a time. He puts limits on media access to his fundraisers. And he resists releasing all of his tax returns, making just a single year public after facing pressure to do so.” A GOP operative close to the Romney campaign told reporters yesterday that enough transparency already exists -- via FEC reports, dismissing a follow-up that bundlers have more influence than a person who donates $250. Inevitably, all recent presidents and presidential nominees get criticized for not being transparent enough. But if he wins the White House in November, Romney could very well be the LEAST transparent president in a generation; after all, the two previous Republican presidential nominees -- George W. Bush and John McCain -- released their bundlers. What is Romney hiding? Is this how a Romney White House would operate? These are all legitimate questions, but questions with which Romney campaign believes in this media age are easy to avoid.

*** This week’s 10 hottest TV markets: Below are this week’s 10 hottest TV markets in the presidential contest (in terms of advertising points from June 11-17). The hottest market is Columbus, OH, which was No. 2 last week; No. 1 last week was Norfolk, VA. Seven of the top 10 most saturated markets are in Virginia and North Carolina -- four in North Carolina, and three are in Virginia.

1. Columbus, OH: Obama 1,420, Crossroads GPS 501, Romney 428, Priorities USA 335
2. Richmond-Petersburg, VA: Romney 1,105, Obama 750, Priorities USA 341, Crossroads GPS 326
3. Des Moines, IA: Romney 982, Obama 772, Planned Parenthood 481, Crossroads 272
4. Roanoke-Lynchburg, VA: Romney 1,106, Obama 842, Crossroads 507
5. Reno, NV: Obama 1,224, Romney 870, Crossroads 341
6. Raleigh-Durham, NC: Romney 1,055, Obama 870, Crossroads 487
7. Greensboro, NC: Romney 1,252, Obama 770, Crossroads 387
8. Norfolk-Portsmouth, VA: Romney 1,004, Obama 700, Crossroads 367, Priorities 283
9. Charlotte, NC: Romney 1,199, Obama 799, Crossroads 333
10. Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville, NC: Obama 1,175, Crossroads 1040

*** Going rural: Strikingly, both Obama and Romney are focusing on Rural America. Yesterday, the president conducted interviews with several affiliate TV stations on rural issues. And later this week, Romney will embark on his “Every Town Counts” bus tour through battleground states, which will take him through small towns and localities. Of course, this is the time in the campaign season when the candidates can focus on rural areas. By the way, Romney’s bus tour could test his campaign’s discipline. Over the past six weeks, Romney has kept a VERY low profile, giving a speech here and there while hitting the fundraising circuit -- without much interaction with the reporters following him. But that is going to change on Friday with this tour.

*** Obama’s latest TV ad: In the latest effort hitting Romney’s record as Massachusetts governor -- and trying to undermine his chief strengths -- the Obama campaign is up with a brand-new TV ad that will air in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. “When Mitt Romney was governor, Massachusetts was No. 1 -- No. 1 in state debt,” the ad goes. “At the same time, Massachusetts fell to 47th in job creation.” It concludes, “First in debt; 47th in job creation. That’s Romney economics.” The Romney camp issued this response to the ad: “President Obama has overseen trillion-dollar deficits, soaring national debt and the first credit downgrade in history. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, closed a $3 billion budget shortfall, balanced four budgets, left a $2 billion rainy day fund and received a credit rating upgrade.”

*** Keystone Light: A new Quinnipiac poll shows Obama ahead of Romney in Pennsylvania by six points among registered voters, 46%-40%. Last month, Obama’s lead was eight points, 47%-39%. Not surprisingly, the president holds the edge with women (51%-36%) and independents (43%-35%) in the state; Romney’s up with men (44%-40%); Obama is seen as more likeable; and Romney is seen as doing a better job on the economy (49%-41%). Also in the poll, Obama’s approval rating is upside down (at 46%-49%), and Gov. Tom Corbett’s (R) approval rating is at an all-time low in the survey (just 36%).

*** On the trail: It’s yet another day of fundraising. Obama holds finance events in Baltimore and Philadelphia… Romney raises in money in Florida, and he also has a public event in Orlando at 9:50 am ET… And Ann Romney fundraises in Linthicum, MD.

*** AZ-8 special: Today, Arizona voters head to the polls in the special congressional election to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D). In this contest, former Giffords aide Ron Barber (D) -- who was injured in that Jan. 2011 shooting -- faces off against Jesse Kelly (R), who narrowly lost to Giffords in ’10. After Dems lost in last week’s Wisconsin recall, a win for them here would stop some of the party’s bleeding over the past couple of weeks. But a loss would be yet another blow for Democrats. That is what’s on the line tonight. Polls open at 9:00 am ET and close at 10:00 pm ET, and the Arizona’s secretary of state won’t start reporting results until 11:00 pm ET. NBC’s John Boxley reports that Giffords -- accompanied by Barber -- will vote at her polling location at 1:00 pm ET.

Countdown to GOP convention: 76 days
Countdown to Dem convention: 83 days
Countdown to Election Day: 147 days

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*** Tuesday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter… Vanity Fair’s David Margolick on his profile of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a deep dive into the Israeli leader’s history with both Obama and Romney… More 2012 headlines with Roll Call’s Shira Toeplitz, former Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-AR, and Alfonso Aguilar of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.

*** Tuesday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt, Rep Keith Ellison (D-MN), GOP strategist Chip Saltsman, Dem strategist Chris Kofinis, UVA political science professor Larry Sabato, USA Today’s Susan Page, and the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne.

*** Tuesday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D), MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, the Wall Street Journal’s Carol Lee, the Daily Beast’s Patricia Murphy, Salon.com’s Steve Kornacki, and New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman.

*** Tuesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, White House Economic Adviser Gene Sperling, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Politico’s Jonathan Allen, thegrio.com Managing Editor Joy-Ann Reid, presidential historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin, and United4Iran.org’s Sarah Shourd.

*** Tuesday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall interviews Pennsylvania Attorney General candidate and former Lachawanna prosecutor Kathleen Kane on Sandusky, National Journal Hotline’s Josh Kraushaar on AZ special election, The Hill’s AB Stoddard, and Michael Smerconish.

With strong support from women and independent voters, President Barack Obama leads Gov. Mitt Romney 46 - 40 among Pennsylvania voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Romney would do a better job on the economy, voters say 49 - 41 percent.

A Siena poll shows Obama leading Romney in New York among registered voters, 59%-35%.

Why is the Obama-Romney race close? Charlie Cook writes, “Andy Laperriere, the political economist who runs the Washington office of the ISI Group, a highly regarded Wall Street research firm, sent a note to his institutional investor clients on Monday. This note looks at real disposable personal-income statistics—that is, how much money people have coming in, after taxes and inflation, as measured per capita, year over year, for the last 15 presidential elections going back to 1952. At this point, real per capita disposable personal income is the lowest of the 15 elections, and resembles where it was for President Carter’s ill-fated 1980 reelection bid. The next three lowest measures of income growth occurred in 1952, 1960, and 2008. In each of these years, voters ousted the party occupying the White House.”

On the other hand, Cook says, a focus group of “Walmart Moms” showed that Romney’s “business background seems to be a double-edged sword: There’s an assumption that as a successful businessman, he brings some expertise to the table when it comes to the economy. But the perception of him being cool and aloof, and the impact of negative ads about his private-equity firm throwing people out of work, raised doubts about his motivations. There were questions about whether he would side with the average American.”

President Obama will attend fundraisers today in Baltimore and Philadelphia. According to POLITICO, the President's six events today are expected to bring in at least $3.6 million for his campaign.

Today, Obama for America released a new television ad titled "Number One" that attacks Mitt Romney's economic record as Governor of Massachusetts. "Number One" will air in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

The Romney campaign offered this response to the new ad: “President Obama has overseen trillion-dollar deficits, soaring national debt and the first credit downgrade in history. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, closed a $3 billion budget shortfall, balanced four budgets, left a $2 billion rainy day fund and received a credit rating upgrade.  President Obama will do anything to distract from his abysmal economic record and – despite that record – the fact that he thinks the private sector is ‘doing fine.'”