President Obama closes the month of May with a -22 score in the NBC News/NBCPolitics.com Voter Confidence Index -- an improvement over last month, but more evidence that voters’ confidence in him has flattened out.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

President Barack Obama walks through Hyde Park in Chicago.

He hit a low of -63 in September following the debt-ceiling crisis. That steadily climbed to -21 six months later by March.

What is the VCI and how is it calculated?

But for the past four months, Obama has been stuck in the 20s: -26 in February, -21 in March, -27 in April, and -22 in May.

President George W. Bush was reelected in 2004 narrowly with a -11 score. Bill Clinton won in 1996 with a +18. George H.W. Bush lost with a -84. Jimmy Carter lost in 1980 with a -72.

Obama isn't in as bad shape as H.W. Bush and Carter, but he isn't quite yet at even Bush's 2004 level.

The VCI is a combination of three questions commonly asked in national polls -- the president’s job approval rating, direction of the country, and generic congressional ballot (which tracks voter preference between parties rather than individual candidates). Equal weight is given to all three questions. We take the difference between two sets of numbers in each question and add them up.

In the VCI, a positive (+) measurement is generally a good sign for the president’s party while a negative number (-) is not.

For more on the VCI, including history, how it's calculated and which polls we use, click here.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

President Barack Obama pauses in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus in Washington. Wednesday, May 30,2012, before signing the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank Act of 2012.

Friday’s jobs report was a perception-changer… This is going to be a very close race… But here’s something about perception: It can always change again … The White House’s current dilemma after Friday’s jobs numbers: What does it do now? ... Here’s one answer: hit Romney with a new TV ad … One day out until tomorrow’s Wisconsin recall …  Breaking down Tuesday’s other races … And Elizabeth Warren gets back on track a bit.

*** A perception-changer: As we and our NBC/WSJ pollsters have been saying for the past few months, this presidential contest is a 50-50 race. But many, including plenty of Democrats, haven’t believed it. Yet Friday’s disappointing jobs report -- just 69,000 jobs created in May and the unemployment ticked up to 8.2 percent -- changed that perception in the blink of an eye, driving home for some holdouts the very real chance that President Obama could lose. It wouldn’t be correct to say he’s the underdog; he still has plenty of advantages as the incumbent, and the electoral map is probably his biggest. But what Friday did was erase the perception that Obama is the clear favorite heading into November. It also kick-started a new round of the Acela Corridor’s “What’s wrong with Obama?” handwringing (see: Dowd, Maureen.)

*** If things change, though, they can change again: But don’t forget: Things, including perception, can always change again. Last October -- when Obama called himself the “underdog” -- his job-approval rating in the NBC/WSJ poll was at 44 percent; the country and the economy were just emerging from the debt-ceiling drama; and, perhaps most important, the U.S. economy had created fewer than 100,000 jobs for four consecutive months during the summer. But the situation then changed for Obama: The economy began to add jobs at a stronger pace (more than 200,000 over a six-month stretch from September through February); memories of the debt-ceiling debate had faded; and the divisive GOP presidential primary took center stage. So it’s very possible, beginning with next month’s jobs report, that things could change again. But here’s a rule of thumb: Brace yourself for a VERY close election in November. Indeed, a new CNN poll released Friday had it Obama 49 percent, Romney 46 percent among registered voters.

*** Another tough summer for Team Obama? That said, all the current signs out there -- Friday’s jobs data, the economic worries in Europe, and the slowing Chinese economy -- are pointing to the start of yet another tough summer for Obama. In 2010, it was the BP spill and the initial Greek debt crisis; in 2011, it was the debt-ceiling debacle. But after that debt-ceiling debate, Team Obama channeled its inner Harry Truman and campaigned against a do-nothing Congress. And, to a large degree, politically, that worked. But here is the White House’s current dilemma: What do they do now? For one thing, they hope the May report was just a blip and that things can change, as we said above. The president on Friday used a phrase we hadn’t heard from him before about waiting for the fever to break, regarding the economy. Again, that falls under the category of simply “hope.” But they also will try to disqualify Romney, which brings us to…

*** New Obama ad hits Romney: Today, the Obama campaign has released a brand-new TV ad hitting Romney and his economic stewardship in Massachusetts. It will air in CO, FL, IA, NC, NH, NH, NV, OH, PA, and VA. “When Mitt Romney was governor, Massachusetts lost 40,000 manufacturing jobs -- a rate twice the national average,” the ad goes. “And fell to 47th in job creation, fourth from the bottom. Instead of hiring workers from his own state, Romney outsourced call center jobs to India. He cut taxes for millionaires like himself while raising them on the middle class.” The ad concludes, “So now, when Mitt Romney talks about what he’d do as president -- 'I know what it takes to create jobs' -- remember, we’ve heard it all before.” The Romney camp responds with this statement: "Having abandoned ‘Hope and Change,' the Obama campaign only ‘Hopes To Change The Subject' from an abysmal jobs report. We're happy to compare the 4.7 percent unemployment rate Mitt Romney achieved in Massachusetts to President Obama’s weak record any day.” By the way, it was interesting to see Team Romney unveil a new way to slice up the jobs data for Romney’s tenure in Massachusetts. Our question: Why did you wait until now? The 47^th in job creation was a staple for the entire primary campaign and yet, no pushback like we saw this weekend. As the Boston Globe writes, the Romney camp has never disputed the accuracy of the 47^th charge.

*** Wisconsin recall: One day away: Today is the final full day of campaigning before tomorrow’s Wisconsin recall. And here’s what we’ve gathered: Scott Walker’s (R) numbers seem to have stalled, but he’s at or near 50 percent. But Democrats think Tom Barrett (D) is gaining ground. If Barrett and Democrats narrowly lose tomorrow, expect there to be plenty of second-guessing why President Obama and the national Democratic Party didn’t play a bigger role in this recall. In fairness to the White House, though, things like recalls run counter to its philosophy -– which would rather work with the Olympia Snowes of the world (even if unsuccessful) than politically charge up the hill. In fact, what’s going on in Wisconsin is this referendum: Is political change better achieved through compromise and reconciliation (what the Obama White House has always preferred)? Or through a take-no-prisoners approach (Walker’s and, well, to a lesser degree, many elements of the progressive movement)?  

*** Tomorrow’s other races: In fact, tomorrow is shaping up to be a big political day. In addition to the Wisconsin recall, five states hold primaries, including California (where Berman-Sherman will head to overtime, we promise you that), New Mexico (where Martin Heinrich and Hector Balderas are competing in a Dem SEN primary) and New Jersey (where the Bill Clinton-backed Bill Pascrell faces off against the Obama-backed Steve Rothman in that member-vs.-member race).

*** Warren gets back on track a bit: After a rough month, Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D) got some good news over the weekend. The Boston Globe: “Elizabeth Warren steamrolled little-known Marisa DeFranco in winning the endorsement of the Democratic State Convention Saturday. She then proceeded to give the highly partisan crowd what they had traveled to Springfield for: an eloquent argument against Scott Brown’s U.S. Senate candidacy. After a month of struggling to answer questions about her alleged Native American roots, Saturday marked a return — at least for one day — to the kind of adoration that marked her entry into the Senate race.”

Countdown to WI recall: 1 day
Countdown to GOP convention: 84 days
Countdown to Dem convention: 91 days
Countdown to Election Day: 155 days

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*** Monday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: Wisconsin recall preview with The Nation’s John Nichols… Latest on the Florida voter ID fight with The Brennan Center’s Michael Waldman and The Heritage Foundation’s Brian Darling… U.S. House candidate Jeff Barth (D) of South Dakota on his viral video and outlook for tomorrow’s primary… More 2012 headlines with The Washington Post’s Dan Balz, former RNC chairman Michael Steele and former DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney.

*** Monday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, National Journal’s Reid Wilson, Slate.com’s Dave Weigel, Democratic strategist Steve McMahon, and former Santorum strategist John Brabender.

*** Monday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks with the Grio.Com’s Perry Bacon, Democratic strategist David Goodfriend, Alice Stewart (Santorum/Bachmann campaigns), Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), and the Advancement Project’s Judith Browne Dianis.

*** Monday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait, TheGrio.com Managing Editor Joy-Ann Reid, Georgetown University’s Michael Eric Dyson, MSNBC Contributor Jimmy Williams, former Gov. Gray Davis (D-CA), Environmentalist David deRothschild, and Climate Scientist Michael Mann

*** Monday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews RNC Chair Reince Priebus, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, the Miami Herald’s Marc Caputo, Politico’s Roger Simon, the Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus, USA Today’s Susan Page, the New York Times’ David Sanger and NBC News Royal Contributor Robert Jobson.

*** Monday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: Thomas Roberts, filling in for Tamron Hall, interviews MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, Michael Smerconish, political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis, and Penda Hair from The Advancement Project.

“The Obama and Romney campaigns sparred Sunday over what is the most repeated statistic of the political moment: Massachusetts ranked 47th out of 50 states in job growth when Romney was governor,” the Boston Globe writes, adding, “The Globe reviewed numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and found Fehrnstrom’s and Cutter’s seemingly irreconcilable figures are, in fact, mostly compatible and true. But the campaigns present BLS numbers in very different ways.”

More: “The statistics show that Massachusetts’s job growth ranking improved dramatically from Romney’s first year in office to his last, but its cumulative ranking during Romney’s four-year term was markedly lower than it was under his predecessor. The claim that Massachusetts under Romney ranked 47th out of 50 states in job growth is true, and the Romney campaign has not disputed its accuracy. If the District of Columbia is included, Massachusetts’s rank was 48th. Over the four-year period 2003 to 2006, Massachusetts jobs grew by 1.26 percent, well behind the national median of 4.84 percent. In the previous four-year span 1999 to 2002, job growth in the Bay State was just 0.89 percent, but its national rank was 35th.

“A comparison between the full-term job growth rankings of Romney and his predecessor, Jane Swift, supports Cutter’s point. From one governor’s four-year term to the next, Massachusetts’s national ranking dropped 13 spots. Yet, BLS data also reinforce Fehrnstrom’s argument. In 2003, Romney’s first year in office, the number of jobs in Massachusetts declined by 1.39 percent, ranking it “51 out of 51,” as Fehrnstrom said. In 2006, Romney’s last full year in office, Massachusetts jobs grew by 1.06 percent, 32nd in the nation. Over the course of Romney’s tenure as governor, Massachusetts’s annual job growth ranking improved by 19 spots.”

Obama’s up 49-46% in a CNN poll. Romney’s now a net-positive in the poll -- 48% fav (up from 34%)/42% unfav. Obama is at 56% fav.

Nancy Pelosi wants Hillary Clinton to run again: "Why wouldn't she run?” in 2016, she told the San Francisco Chronicle. “She's a magnificent secretary of state. She's our shot.”

“A Massachusetts solar company to which Mitt Romney personally delivered a $1.5 million loan when he was governor has gone belly up, leaving him vulnerable to the same ‘picking winners and losers’ charges that he's been lobbing at President Barack Obama over Solyndra,” Politico writes. “The president's reelection campaign wasted no time noting Romney's support for Lowell-based Konarka Technologies, which announced Friday it had filed for bankruptcy protection with plans to lay off more than 80 workers and liquidate its assets.”

The Boston Globe looks at Utah’s key role in the Romney campaign: “Campaign officials consider the state - with its prime location, its large number of highly motivated volunteers, and a population that shares Romney’s Mormon faith - a staging area for battles across the country, particularly in Western swing states such as Colorado and Nevada.”

More: “Utah has also disproportionally financed his rise on the national stage. In 2008, Romney raised more money in Utah than any other state except California. His fund-raising is down through April of this year compared with the same period in 2008, mainly because he has broadened his national fund-raising network. Yet he still has raised $3.6 million, making the state - 34th in population - the sixth-highest in Romney donations.”

“The 2010 U.S. Religion Census, released May 1 on the Association of Religion Data Archives, found that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gained the most regular members in the last 10 years, growing by nearly 2 million to a total of 6.14 million adherents in 13,600 congregations,” the Huffington Post’s David Briggs wrote earlier this month. “Some of the church's largest percentage gains were in places such as Tazewell County, Va.; Bath County, Ky., and Big Horn County, Mont.

“Mitt Romney has promised to consolidate redundant government agencies if he becomes president, a larger scale version of a pledge he made as governor of Massachusetts in 2003,” USA Today writes. “But his success in Massachusetts was limited, in part due to the Legislature — a problem he could again encounter should he win in November.” And the consolidation he did accomplish in Massachusetts, “did very little to change the government's bottom line.”

Romney would save himself $5 million a year if he’s elected and his tax plan is enacted.

Politico profiles Mike Leavitt, tasked with heading up Romney’s transition.

In a new 60-second negative TV ad, the Obama campaign continues its attack on Mitt Romney's economic record in Massachusetts, NBC’s Carrie Dann reports. The ad, titled "We've heard it all before," is airing in airing in CO,FL,IA,NC, NH, NV, OH, PA, and VA.  It's described by the campaign as "a significant buy.”

In the ad, a male narrator describes Romney's economic record while governor as "one of the worst in the country." Prominently featured is the oft-cited "47th in job creation" stat, as well as claims that the state "lost 40k manufacturing jobs" under the governor and that Romney "outsourced call center jobs to India" (the latter offers a visual of a young Indian man with a headset.) And he "cut taxes for millionaires like himself" while increasing the state's debt. Tagline: "Romney economics: it didn't work then, and it won't work now.”

The AP: “The ad is part of the targeted effort the Obama campaign launched last week to seek to discredit Romney's economic record in Massachusetts. It comes as the Obama campaign grapples with its own economic message to voters following an uptick in the nation's unemployment rate.”

“One fallout from Friday's poor jobs report: President Obama will almost surely have to win re-election with a record high unemployment rate for modern incumbents,” USA Today points out.

The New York Times: “[Sen. Lindsey] Graham’s colleagues in the Senate have been strangely quiet about the impending cuts, set in motion last summer when the Budget Control Act ended an impasse over raising the nation’s borrowing limit with a deal designed to hurt both parties if they did not strike an agreement later on. A special select committee was assigned to come up with at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. If it failed, the cuts would come automatically, half to national security, half to domestic programs. It failed, and the reckoning is approaching.

“‘Our ability to modernize will be basically gutted,’ Mr. Graham told National Guard officers in Greenville. The Marine Corps will have to choose between its giant training camps in San Diego or Parris Island, he told community leaders in Beaufort, a stone’s throw from Parris Island.”

More: “In fact, no one knows what ‘sequestration,’ the term for the automatic cuts, will look like, not lawmakers, not the military. But Republicans who helped create it as a bludgeon to force a bipartisan budget accord are now desperate to undo it. Indeed, some of the loudest advocates for blocking the cuts — like Representative Howard P. McKeon of California, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Senator John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee — voted to create them; 28 Senate Republicans and 174 House Republicans voted for the Budget Control Act, overwhelming the opposition.”

MASSACHUSETTS: Scott Brown leads Elizabeth Warren 39-37% in a Boston Globe poll out Saturday. “Despite a five-week drubbing over her claims to Native American heritage, Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren remains neck and neck with US Senator Scott Brown, a Republican, as she heads into Saturday’s state party convention, a new Globe poll shows,” the Boston Globe writes. “But there are signs that the controversy has wounded the first-time candidate, whose entrance into the race came with a star power that galvanized Democrats and catapulted the contest into one of the most closely watched in the nation. The vast majority of voters (72 percent) said the issue would not affect their vote, but 31 percent of self-described independents - a critical voting bloc - said the issue makes them less likely to support Warren in November. The Harvard professor’s popularity has also risen one percentage point, to 48 percent, since the Globe polled in March, but the percentage of detractors has climbed more precipitously, by nine points to 32 percent.”

Brown must know the race is close. He’s challenging Warren to a debate.

WISCONSIN: “The raucous protests at the state Capitol ended long ago, but the firestorm ignited by Gov. Scott Walker last year when he moved to cut collective-bargaining rights for most state workers still rages,” USA Today writes from Wisconsin.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Over the past month, Tim Pawlenty's response to questions gauging his interest in being chosen as vice president have ranged from "take my name off the list" to "anybody would be honored to serve if asked."

But speaking to reporters on Saturday after an impassioned address at the North Carolina Republican Convention, the former presidential candidate maintained he is not sending mixed messages.

"I think I can help [Romney] in other ways like this, being a volunteer for his campaign.  But obviously anybody would be honored if asked," Pawlenty said. "But, beyond that, I don't think those two things are inconsistent.  I'm trying to signal that I could best serve him in a different way, but anybody would be honored to serve if asked."

Speaking to more than 1,000 Republicans here in an important swing state, the former Minnesota governor and national co-chair of the Romney campaign showed why he has established himself as one of the GOP nominee's top surrogates.  He drew high praise for his speech urging conservatives to unite in opposition to President Barack Obama.  Many in the crowd said he they found Pawlenty to be an even more impressive speaker than Donald Trump, who took the stage the night before.

Pawlenty acknowledged that he has been able to find a level of comfort now that he had not been able to as a candidate.  Asked what accounted for the change, he said, "I don't know the answer to that, other than that I speak from the heart now, I don't particularly use a script now other than a few notes. I don't have a bunch of handlers telling me what to do and I just let it fly."

He fired up the North Carolina crowd talking about their importance as a swing state, throwing in much of the same speech he used while a candidate, but mixing it with praise for Romney's vision for America.  His message was that it was time for conservatives to come together.

"If we're going to win as a conservative movement, we got to recognize that we're a team," Pawlenty said. "And so when the Vikings or the Hurricanes and other teams go out and practice with each other as teammates, they don't go out and smash each other in the boards or knock each other out when they're practicing as teammates, do they?"

He added, "It's important that we recognize the coalition of conservatives consists of economic conservatives, and social conservatives and tea party conservatives and libertarian conservatives and security and defense conservatives and more.  And no one group can win the swing states or most states by themselves."

One of those team members includes Trump, who in his address the night before again brought up questions about the president's place of birth.  It's the reason some feel the business mogul overshadowed Romney last Tuesday when they held a fundraiser together -- the same day the former Massachusetts governor secured the 1,144 delegates to earn the Republican nomination.

"Donald Trump is trying to do what he can to advance the cause to try to get Mitt Romney elected president. ... So he's a somebody who can get attention, who can bring perspective to issues.  But also, he's part of team and a team needs to work together.  And that doesn't mean that everybody agrees on every issue," Pawlenty said.

Darren Hauck / Reuters

Tom Barrett and Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker talk during a debate held at Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee on May 31.

Updated 5:14 p.m. — Democrats and their allies in organized labor are heading into a final weekend of campaigning in hopes of avoiding an embarrassment in their goal of recalling Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

The Badger State has played host to months of furious campaigning since Walker, the conservative governor first elected in 2010, sought major reforms for public employee unions. He pushed through legislation to strip them of collective bargaining rights and force them to contribute to their pensions.

But the Republican governor leads Tom Barrett, the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee and Walker’s opponent in the 2010 general election, by 7 points, according to a Marquette Law Poll released Wednesday.

“Democrats really were just foolish in this way they approached this recall,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a sit-down interview with NBCPolitics.com this week. “They set up this World Series event in Wisconsin, built it up. They put on the ballot a candidate who’s not worth two nickels – he’s already lost twice statewide, and is going to lose a third time now.”

The recall battle carries high stakes for not only for Walker, who has become the face of a generation of reformist conservatives, but also for Democrats and organized labor, which vowed revenge in the aftermath of the politically divisive fight to push the collective bargaining law through the state legislature.

That battle drew tens of thousands of protesters to the state Capitol in Madison, and a million people put their names to paper in support of an initial petition seeking Walker’s recall.

Jeffrey Phelps / AP

A supporter of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, right, talks with a supporter of Democratic opponent Tom Barrett at a recall election rally Friday, June 1, 2012, in Milwaukee.

Several state senators were recalled in 2011 as a result of the collective bargaining clamp-down, and Democrats almost succeeded in unseating a state Supreme Court justice, too.

But Walker’s been the beneficiary of a marginally improved state economy and overall fatigue associated with the recall. His chief advantage, though, comes from the millions more he, and supportive groups, have been able to spend on the campaign. Walker and those groups have spent $23 million in his race against Barrett; the governor’s fundraising was enabled by a loophole in state law allowing him to collect funds in large sums.  Barrett and labor groups have spent $12.4 million, by contrast.

"From recruiting volunteers and registering voters to organizing on campuses across the state, the DNC and OFA are working alongside the Barrett campaign and the state party to build the ground game that is crucial for success on Election Day.  And we will continue to utilize both our substantial network of activists, volunteers and supporters and extensive online resources to lay the groundwork for victory," said Melanie Roussell, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee. 

The DNC and Organizing for America — the president's political arm — have invested almost $1.5 million in staffing, offices and support in order to help Barrett pull out a win on Tuesday.

The campaign has taken a turn toward bare-knuckled politics, though, in which Walker and Barrett have traded barbs at debates and in those paid advertisements. Barrett has sought to stoke suspicions regarding the so-called “John Doe” investigation, in which former Walker aides stand accused of allegedly misappropriating campaign funds.

The Walker campaign, in turn, has questioned Barrett’s crime record as mayor, and their overarching strategy has involved questioning the wisdom of the recall in the first place.

Eager to fight off the sense that the recall is all but lost, Democrats have been furiously contesting public polls that show Walker ahead, and releasing a flurry of internal surveys that, they say, depict a much tighter race.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was in the state this week to help raise money for Barrett, and on Friday, former President Bill Clinton will stump against Walker in Wisconsin. For his part, Walker brought his own heavyweight to the fight: South Carolina Gov. Nikki campaigned with him Friday in Sussex.

But the Obama administration has been somewhat removed from the campaign; the president has no plans to campaign in the state for Barrett, and the White House was forced on Wednesday to clarify whether Obama had even endorsed the Democratic nominee (he has).

The saving grace for Democrats might lie in a labor-driven turnout effort. But Republicans have been equally enthusiastic about retaining Walker, whom they treat as a vanguard for efforts to rein in public employee unions and entitlement spending.

But Republicans contend that, between the 2010 elections and two intervening recalls before this one, they have built a voter outreach machine on par with few others – one which could pay dividends in an election like Tuesday’s, which may hinge on each side’s ability to drive supporters to the polls.

Video edited by NBC's Jordan Frasier.

MILWAUKEE, WI -- Just days before Wisconsin's gubernatorial recall, former President Bill Clinton drew a crowd of nearly 2,000 attendees here as he campaigned for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) in his contest against Gov. Scott Walker (R).

“Ordinarily, I’m against recall elections,” Clinton told the crowd. “But sometimes it is the only way, to avoid a disastrous course."

Clinton's visit comes on the heels of a recent Marquette Law School poll, which showed Walker leading Barrett by seven points among likely voters, 52%-45%. Democrats argue that their internal polling shows a much closer contest -- one that they say will be determined by turnout.

That explains Clinton’s visit here, which was only announced yesterday.

In brief remarks with NBC News after his speech, Clinton said President Obama was “glad” the former president was campaigning with Barrett.

“A lot of people encouraged me to come, including the White House,” Clinton told NBC News. “But, I didn’t talk to him [Obama] until yesterday when I had already accepted” the speaking invitation. But he was “glad I was going.”

The two-term former president, who noted he won the state of Wisconsin during both of his elections, also told NBC that the recall could have implications on November’s presidential election.

“If Tom Barrett wins, I think it will because it’ll show that people favor cooperation over conflict and that’s really what the American people have to say," he said. "This is not about liberal/conservative, Republican/Democrat anymore. It's about whether you want constant conflict and winner take all or creative cooperation.

“What’s working in America -- the places that are back are places that are working together.”

In his speech here, Clinton even opened with a little joke, just a day after he praised GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s work at Bain -- and taking some heat from Democrats for being off message.

“The great thing about not being president is you can say whatever you want. Nobody has to care anymore, but you can say it,” he said.

While Clinton campaigned with Barrett, Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) is stumping with Walker.

GOLDEN VALLEY, MN -- President Barack Obama acknowledged on Friday that the economy still wasn't creating jobs to his satisfaction, pointing to outside variables as factors in depressing the recovery.

“Today we're still fighting our way back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The economy is growing again, but it's not growing as fast as we want it to grow," the president said. "Our businesses have created almost 4.3 million new jobs over the last 27 months, but as we learned in today's jobs report, we're still not creating them as fast as we want."

Obama's appearance at a Honeywell manufacturing facility in Minnesota was meant to, once again, urge Congress to take action on his "To-Do List." This time, the president focused on pushing Congress to pass legislation creating a Veterans Jobs Corp to further aid returning Afghanistan and Iraq veterans in their hunt for employment.

But the dismal jobs numbers announced overshadowed his other announcements, and an upbeat message about companies like Honeywell hiring veterans.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment jumped to 8.2 percent in May, and the economy added 69,000 jobs were created last month. For African Americans, the unemployment rate rose to 13.6 percent in May, and to 11 percent, for Hispanics, over the same period.

The president’s remarks about jobs came right after presidential candidate Mitt Romney took to CNBC to chastise Obama for blaming Europe and Congress for the slow economic recovery. "First it was George Bush, then Congress, ATM machines, then it was Europe. The truth is it's the job of the president to get people back to work," said Romney.

And the president did cite European headwinds and Congress as barriers to economic growth.

“We had high gas prices a month, two months ago, and they're starting to come down, and you know, they were spiking, but they're still hitting people's wallets pretty hard. That has an impact. And then most prominently, most recently we've had a crisis in Europe's economy that is having an impact worldwide, and it's starting to cast a shadow on our own as well," he said.

After giving Congress “credit” for passing parts of the America Jobs Act, Obama rebuked them for not doing more.

"Congress has not acted on enough of the other ideas in that bill that would help make a difference and help create jobs right now. And there's no excuse for it, not when there are so many people out there still looking for work, not when there's still folks out there struggling to pay their bills,” he said.

The president emphasized that the fact that it’s a election year should not stop Congress from moving on some of the initiatives the President claims will aide in job creation. “It's not lost on anybody that it's an election year. I understand that. I've noticed,” he said to a few chants of “four more years” in the audience of about 1700.

He continued, “we've got responsibilities that are bigger than an election…So my message to Congress is, now's not the time to play politics, now's not the time to sit on your hands.”

SAN DIEGO -- Mitt Romney declared May's disappointing jobs report a "harsh indictment" of President Obama's stewardship of the economy, accusing the president of being overly focused on "legislative achievements" instead of putting Americans back to work.

"The president's policies and his handling of the economy has been dealt a harsh indictment," Romney said in an interview on CNBC. "In many respects their policies have made it harder for the economy to recover."

Romney scheduled the appearance in reaction to a new government report on Friday that showed the economy added 69,000 jobs in May -- well below expectations -- and that the unemployment rate had ticked upward to 8.2 percent.

The dismal numbers gave Romney ammunition to prosecute his case against Obama as a manager of America's economy.

"Jobs are job No. 1 for the presidency," Romney said.

Romney's argument on CNBC was largely similar to the one he makes on the campaign trail: that the recovery has been dampened by Obama's policies. Romney said the president's focus on "legislative achievements," like green energy policies, taxes, and health care reform, which Romney asserted would slow the recovery.

"He decided instead of getting people back to work he’d fight for something he thought was historic, and frankly the American people don’t want it and we can’t afford it," Romney said.

Economists have attributed some of the struggles in the U.S. to the ongoing monetary crisis in Europe, but Romney said that was no excuse for Obama.

"Of course the developments around the world always influence our jobs, but we should be well into a very robust recovery right now," Romney said, noting several times during the interview that the unemployment rate has remained above eight percent for 40 straight months -- longer than the Euro crisis."

The former Massachusetts governor said the most significant prescription to instill confidence in businesses in the near term would be to "elect a new president," and that his energy, tax and spending policies would stimulate more robust growth in the private sector.

Romney also voiced opposition to a third wave of so-called "quantitative easing," a stimulative effort by the Federal Reserve that, critics fear, could lead to inflation.

Beyond the economy, Romney also addressed some of the larger political issues to plague his campaign this week.

Three days after appearing at a fundraiser with controversial supporter Donald Trump, who has continued to question whether President Obama was born in the United States, Romney was asked again why he does not simply tell one of his most prominent surrogates to drop the issue.

"I disagree with it," Romney said. "there's no question that the President was born in the United States of America,"

Romney added that he doesn't tell his supporters what to think, but that Trump "knows what I believe about this."

The presumptive GOP nominee also pushed back on the Obama campaign's criticism of his private sector record.

"I'm happy to embrace my record in private equity," he said, pointing also to an interview given last night by former President Bill Clinton, who said Romney's business career was "sterling."

Count House Speaker John Boehner as being a “nay” on New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to ban the sale of large sugary drinks to combat obesity.

The speaker, an admitted chain smoker and Merlot connoisseur, issued a harsh rebuke to Bloomberg’s idea at his morning press conference at the Capitol.

Responding to a question from NBC News Boehner said, “I like Mayor Bloomberg, but are you kidding me!? You look, come on, don't we have bigger issues to deal with than the size of some soft drink that somebody buys?”

Boehner’s view echoes many of those on the right that feel Bloomberg’s plan is the ultimate example of the overreaching “nanny state.”

A congressional aide said there are no plans on either side to institute a federal ban on the sale of large soft drinks.

Obama maintains his battleground-map lead in latest NBC News map… But today’s job report is an “ouch” for Team Obama: Just 69,000 jobs created in May, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.2%... Summing up yesterday’s political activity: a day of stunts… Team Romney and riding the Tea Party/Breitbart tiger… Bill Clinton’s praise of Bain not helpful to the Obama camp… Edwards’ acquittal and what’s stopping the future Bunny Mellons?... And are Walker and Obama following the same campaign playbook?

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

President Barack Obama speaks before signing the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank at the White House in Washington May 30, 2012.

*** Ouch for Team Obama: Why is this presidential race close? And why might it get closer? Look no further than today’s jobs report for May, which is a gut-punch for Team Obama. According to the report, employers added just 69,000 in May -- the fewest in a year -- and the unemployment rate increased to 8.2%. The AP: “U.S. employers created 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year, and the unemployment rate ticked up. The dismal jobs figures could fan fears that the economy is sputtering. The Labor Department also says the economy created far fewer jobs in the previous two months than first thought. It revised those figures down to show 49,000 fewer jobs created.”

** Obama maintains his battleground-map lead: After our new rounds of NBC-Marist polls, as well as our conversations with the presidential campaigns, we’ve unveiled our latest NBC News Battleground map. And it shows -- surprise, surprise -- a very competitive contest. We have 237 electoral votes in the Democratic column and 191 in the GOP one. That’s a slight change from our last map in April, when it was 231 to 197. The big changes in our map: We moved New Hampshire and Wisconsin from Lean Dem to Toss-up; Iowa from Lean GOP to Toss-up; and Pennsylvania from Toss-up to Lean Dem. Why the Pennsylvania move when the current polling suggests that Obama has just a modest lead over Romney? The Romney camp simply isn’t spending the money or building the organization; the state appears to be lower on their target list than others, at least for now. The way Republicans are treating Pennsylvania is akin to how Democrats appear to be treating Missouri. One way to judge how a move in the perception of the economy can shift landscape? Focus on the “leans” in on our map; a tick upward in Obama’s direction buts more of these lean GOPers in play… a move, like we may be seeing today with the May jobs report would shift those Lean Dem states to the right. Here’s our map as of today: 

Solid Dem (no chance at flip): DC, DE, HI, ME (3 EVs) MD, MA, NY, RI, VT (70 electoral votes)
Likely Dem (takes a landslide to flip): CA, CT, IL, WA (94)
Lean Dem: ME (1 EV) MI, MN, NJ, NM, OR, PA (73)
Toss-up: CO, FL, IA, NV, NH, NC, OH, VA, WI (110)
Lean GOP: AZ, GA, IN, MO, NE (I EV) (49)
Likely GOP (takes a landslide to flip): AL, LA, MS, MT, ND, SC, SD, TX (79)
Solid GOP (no chance at flip): AK, AR, ID, KS, KY, NE (4 EVs) OK, TN, UT, WV, WY (63)

*** Stunt men: How do we sum up yesterday’s dueling campaign events? It was a day of stunts. There was the Obama camp holding a press conference in Boston; Team Romney trying to crash that presser; and Romney making a secret stop to Solyndra. What struck us was how both campaigns seemed to be more worried about winning the news cycle than making their point. Did Team Obama really not think that holding an event in the city where the Romney campaign headquarters is located could be interrupted? Likewise, does anyone think Romney would have received more attention with his Solyndra trip if they had actually publicized it instead of keeping it a secret? (Also, they might have tried picking a time other than the very moment all the cameras and attention were focused on George W. Bush at the White House.) When you chase the news cycle like McCain and Clinton did a lot in 2008 -- something Team Obama rarely did in ’07-’08 -- you forget about other things. Both campaigns chased the news cycle yesterday, and neither got what it wanted.

*** Riding the Tea Party/Breitbart tiger: Buzzfeed has this additional observation about yesterday’s stunts by the Romney campaign: They are winning over the Limbaughs and other parts of the GOP base. “[Romney’s] aggressive tactics stand in for the sort of policy compromises that could damage him in November; better, his advisers argue, to court conservatives with a press conference shouting match than with a high-profile fight over abortion or gay marriage. What’s more, they say, the media obsession with Romney ‘pandering’ to the right represents a misunderstanding of conservatives, who can live with Romney’s moderate record – as long as he’s a fighting moderate.” As one conservative remarked to Buzzfeed about yesterday’s Solyndra stunt: "My God, this is right out of Breitbart's playbook. I love it!" The question is whether riding the Tea Party/Breitbart tiger is good long-term politics. After all, you ride that tiger -- and everything that comes with it -- at your own peril, especially if you’re looking to be able to govern after winning, never mind trying to win swing voters in the fall. We get that the campaign believes swing voters are NOT paying attention now, but there’s a line.

*** Bill Clinton’s praise of Bain: The folks in Chicago are probably “shocked, shocked” that Bill Clinton wasn’t on message when he praised Romney’s business background and work at Bain Capital on CNN yesterday. "I don't think that we ought to get into the position where we say 'This is bad work. This is good work.” And: "I think the real issue ought to be, what has Gov. Romney advocated in the campaign that he will do as president? What has President Obama done and what does he propose to do? How do these things stack up against each other?" A few points here: One, like Cory Booker, Clinton didn’t do Team Obama any favors here. Two, remember that Clinton wasn’t always on message even when campaigning for Hillary (remember South Carolina in ’08?). And three, notice that all of the Dem praise of Bain has come from folks who live and work in the Acela Corridor (Booker, Rendell, Ford, Clinton). We’ve yet to hear from a single Democrat from Toledo or Green Bay about private equity’s virtues. So be careful assuming Bain attacks don’t work.  

*** What’s stopping the future Bunny Mellons? As you may have noticed, we haven’t had much to say about John Edwards and his trial in North Carolina. But after a jury acquitted him on one charge -- and was unable to reach a verdict on the others -- we have this political observation: Campaign-finance loopholes remain a mile wide. If wealthy donors/patrons can cut large checks to hide an affair and love child, there’s nothing to stop future ones from being able to find new ways to curry influence with the politicians they sponsor. What about a $1 million check to help a politician’s friend start up a new business? Or a $1 million check to help pay off someone’s debt? (Then again that donor or patron could always start up -- legally -- a Super PAC.) As the New Yorker writes, “The Edwards trial put the question in crude terms—What do you owe the rich donor who helped hide your mistress?—but a lot of politicians have a lot of debts as well as secrets that are increasingly inaccessible to the public.” Ultimately, what we learned from the whole ordeal: Campaign-finance cases are VERY hard to criminalize. One other thing we’ve heard from folks close to the Edwards family: They want him to stay out of the public spotlight. So far, John Edwards is showing he’s learned nothing from how he got into trouble. He still has no self-awareness.

*** Are Obama and Walker following the same campaign playbook? We’re just four days away until the Wisconsin recall, and one of us wrote yesterday that despite their ideological and stylistic differences, Scott Walker and Barack Obama are trying to run the same kind of campaign. Turn the race into a choice, not a referendum; argue that progress has been made, no matter how slowly or controversially; and link your opponent to your even more unpopular predecessor. Of course, there are some differences here, including the difference between a gubernatorial recall and a presidential contest. But just take a look at some of the pro-Walker ads that are airing in Wisconsin. Their messages -- disqualifying the challenger, touting any good economic news, and reminding you of the even more unpopular predecessor -- aren’t going to be much different from the pro-Obama ads you’ll see in September and October.  By the way, Walker and Tom Barrett squared off in their final debate last night, and it was pretty contentious. 

Countdown to WI recall: 4 days
Countdown to GOP convention: 88 days
Countdown to Dem convention: 95 days
Countdown to Election Day: 159 days

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*** Friday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: Moody’s Mark Zandi and President Obama’s CEA Chairman Alan Krueger on the jobs report… NBC’s Pete Williams and Lisa Myers break down the Edwards outcome… NBC’s David Gregory with a “Meet the Press” preview… NBC’s Mike Viqueira (a D.C. native!) with a special piece on why everyone gives his town such a hard time… More 2012 news with NBC’s Tom Brokaw, Politico’s Maggie Haberman and Demos.org’s Bob Herbert.

*** Friday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews National Journal’s Beth Reinhard, Reason magazine’s Matt Welch, Romney economic adviser Kevin Hassett, Elon University Law School’s Michael Rich, Democratic strategist Krystal Ball, and GOP strategist Hogan Gidley.

*** Friday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks with the jurors in the Edwards trial, Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, CNBC Contributor Ron Insana, State Sen. Chris Larson (D-WI),  Chris Kofinis, Susan Del Percio, National Journal’s Reid Wilson, and MSNBC’s Melissa Harris Perry.

*** Friday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), NBC News Chief Legal Correspondent Savannah Guthrie, the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, The New York Times’ Jodi Kantor, MSNBC Political Analyst Richard Wolffe, and Radio Host & Author Kurt Andersen

*** Friday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, New York Magazine’s John Heilemann, NBC’s Lisa Myers, MSNBC’s Martin Bashir, BBC’s Katty Kay and National Journal’s Major Garrett.

*** Friday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall interviews Newsweek’s Zachary Karabell, The Hill’s AB Stoddard, Chicago Sun-Time’s Lynn Sweet, Dem strategist Jimmy Williams, the DNC’s Patrick Gaspard, and Former FL State Attorney Kendall Coffey.

*** Saturday's and Sunday's "Weekends with Alex Witt" line-up: As part of her weekly "Office Politics" series, Alex Witt interviews NBC's Matt Lauer.

Romney said President Obama’s killing of Osama bin Laden was laudable, but still grades his president an “F.” "Oh an F, there's no question about that,” Romney said, adding, “Across the board” – even on foreign policy. "Look at what's happening in the Middle East. The Arab Spring's become the Arab Winter."

Domestically, Romney said, unemployment's bad, claiming of Obama, "even he said it would be in the 6% range.” (However, we can’t remember anytime when Obama promised unemployment would be at 6%.)

Romney also said he wanted to partially privatize unemployment benefits. “I think it would be a much better system to have folks have a personal account, if you will, where they’d build up over time an unemployment account. They’re able to draw from that, perhaps as being matched by the government, they’d draw from that.” He added, “So they’d have an incentive to get back to work. At the same time, they have the resources they need during difficult times of unemployment.”

The Boston Globe: “The former Massachusetts governor, when asked about what he would do to improve the economy, mentioned a program he oversaw in Massachusetts. The program gave employers a $2,000 to help train workers who had been unemployed for more than a year. Romney also outlined a potential shift in federal unemployment payments, something that could become a major topic during the election.”

“Polls already show that President Obama is destined to win Massachusetts handily this fall, but Mitt Romney’s team showed Thursday that it won’t allow insult on top of that political injury,” the Boston Globe’s Johnson writes. “When word leaked Wednesday afternoon that senior Obama strategist David Axelrod was coming to the State House on Thursday morning to criticize Romney’s record as governor, Romney’s team quickly mobilized. There would be no such rally such as that George H.W. Bush staged with Boston police officers when he was running for president in 1988 against then-Governor Michael S. Dukakis, and no such uncontested photo-op of Bush peering into the waters of a then-polluted Boston Harbor.”

Bill Clinton described Romney has having a “sterling business record” and being qualified to president. On the Bain attack, he said: "I don't think that we ought to get into the position where we say 'This is bad work. This is good work.” And: "I think the real issue ought to be, what has Governor Romney advocated in the campaign that he will do as president? What has President Obama done and what does he propose to do? How do these things stack up against each other?"

But, he added: "There is a lot of controversy about that. But if you go in and you try to save a failing company, and you and I have friends here who invest in companies, you can invest in a company, run up the debt, loot it, sell all the assets, and force all the people to lose their retirement and fire them. … Or you can go into a company, have cutbacks, try to make it more productive with the purpose of saving it. And when you try, like anything else you try, you don't always succeed."

“The formula is getting familiar: find a line of attack against Mitt Romney, find clips of his GOP primary opponents delivering variations on that line of attack, create a montage, repeat,” Politico writes. “This morning, Democrats put that method to use in a web video targeting Mitt Romney's record in Massachusetts, highlighting criticism from Republicans on job creation and taxes. Special guests include Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman. But the real stars are John McCain and Rick Perry, who says in a debate video from earlier this cycle: ‘You failed as the governor of Massachusetts.’”

“First lady Michelle Obama will return to Virginia next week to campaign for her husband,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. “Her scheduled June 7 appearance in Northern Virginia will be her first public campaign event of the 2012 cycle without President Barack Obama, according to the Obama campaign.”

No. 1 geopolitical foe? Bloomberg: “U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rejected Russia’s claim that it’s a stabilizing influence on Syria and said that, by protecting the Assad regime, it’s speeding the country’s slide into civil war.”

Clinton said, “The Russians keep telling us they want to do everything they can to avoid a civil war because they believe that the violence would be catastrophic,” Clinton said in remarks to students in Denmark yesterday. Noting Russia’s claims to be a stabilizing influence, Clinton said, “I reject that. I think they are, in effect, propping up the regime at a time when we should be working on a political transition.”

Obama today heads to Minneapolis and Chicago for White House and campaign events. In Minneapolis, he’ll push the Veterans Jobs Corps initiative and urge Congress to create it. “ ‘The proposal would "help Afghanistan and Iraq veterans get jobs as cops and firefighters, as well as other jobs serving their communities,’ said the White House schedule,” per USA Today.