GOLDEN, Colo. -- Making his first public campaign appearance since returning stateside in the battleground state of Colorado, presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney talked up a five-point economic plan he believes will help bring America “roaring back.”

The five parts of the plan: (1) Energy: “take advantage of our energy, number one; (2) Education: “get our skills right. I’m talking about our kids and also our adults- right programs to get people back to work and have the skills to succeed; (3) Trade: “opening up trade and keeping the cheaters from being able to steal American jobs; (4) Balancing the budget: “getting us on track to a balanced budget by lowering our deficits”; and (5) Deregulation of business: “championing small business, making it easier for small business to grow and thrive in every way possible.

“We do those things,” Romney insisted, “you’re going to see this economy come roaring back- manufacturing, jobs of all kinds are going to come back.”

However, these five points aren’t new; they were ones he has talked about previously on the campaign trail. In fact, his campaign acknowledged this morning in a conference call with reporters that he would not likely tread new economic policy ground in this election.

So far, the campaign has offered few specifics on these five points. Yet the campaign later passed around an eight-page “white paper” with more on his plan and defending its rationale (which was pasted below).

Romney’s event in this Denver suburb Thursday was just 30 miles from where the shootings in Aurora, CO, took place nearly two weeks ago. Romney mentioned the tragedy during his 25-minute speech, prompting a standing ovation in support of the victims, and then told the crowd he met with one of the victims this morning.

“I'm sure you know this,” Romney said, “this tragedy has impacted the community of Aurora. I'm sure it’s impacted the entire state. The trauma here has got to be extraordinary. But across the country, people are thinking about Aurora and the tragedy there and the lives that have been lost and lives changed forever. We love you, and we pray for you. You're in our hearts, and you're in our prayers."

Marking his return from a six-day stint overseas that included a trip to the 2012 London Olympic Games plus Israel and Poland, Romney was gave a shout out to one of Colorado’s own Olympians – swimmer Missy Franklin.

But the event here was also a chance for presumptive nominee to reset the tone of the campaign after several public gaffes while he was abroad.

With less than 100 days before the election in November, the Romney campaign again tried to show the difference in records between President Obama and Romney as governor of Massachusetts. At the event here, the Romney campaign handed out a new “Presidential Accountability Scorecard,” a report card on President Obama’s economic record.

“Ever since I was in elementary school, we got report cards, and you saw on the report card, how you were doing,” Romney told the several hundred people at the Jeffco Fairgrounds. “I am going to be a little more straight forwarding with grading today because, you see, when the president was here as a candidate accepting the nomination four years ago in Colorado, he laid out the report card upon which he hoped to be judged by.”

Romney added, “All measures he laid out, are measures that have gone in the wrong direction. … if I am elected President of the United States of America, my promise to you is I am going to get all those arrows green again."

Also joining the former Massachusetts governor today in the Centennial State -- Beth Myers, Romney’s longtime confidant who is heading up his vice-presidential search. Myers’ presence will only further the growing speculation that Romney will announce his choice very soon for his No. 2.

This afternoon, Romney will join Republican governors – including potential VP picks, LA Gov. Bobby Jindal and VA Gov. Bob McDonnell – near Aspen, CO for a roundtable event.

“The Romney plan has three overarching objectives: to restore confidence in America’s economic future, to make America once again a place to invest and grow, and to provide opportunities for Americans to compete and succeed. These objectives are all about unlocking the potential for innovation, investment, and initiative in America’s dynamic economy.

“The Romney plan will achieve these objectives with four main economic pillars:

• Stop Runaway Federal Spending And Debt.

•  
  • Reduce federal spending as a share of GDP to 20 percent – its pre-crisis average – by 2016.
  • In so doing, reduce policy uncertainty over the need for future tax increases.

• Reform The Nation’s Tax Code To Increase Growth And Job Creation.

•  
  • Reduce individual marginal income tax rates across-the-board by 20 percent, while keeping current low tax rates on dividends and capital gains. Reduce the corporate income tax rate – the highest in the world – to 25 percent.
  • Broaden the tax base to ensure that tax reform is revenue-neutral.

• Reform Entitlement Programs To Ensure Their Viability.

• • Gradually reduce growth in Social Security and Medicare benefits for more affluent seniors. Give more choice in Medicare to improve value in health care spending.
  • Block grant the Medicaid program to states, enabling experimentation to better fit local situations.

• Make Growth And Cost-Benefit Analysis Important Features Of Regulation.
• Remove regulatory impediments to energy production and innovation that raise costs to consumers and limit job creation.
• Repeal and replace the Dodd-Frank Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Romney alternatives will emphasize better financial regulation and market-oriented, patient-centered health care reform.

Alex Moe / NBC News

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks at the ShePAC fundraising event in Washington, D.C., June 25.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped back into the political spotlight Monday night as she headlined her first ever fundraiser in the nation’s capital.

“I am a great optimist,” Rice told attendees, referring to being able to get the country back on track again. She was speaking at an event to raise money for Republican female politicians.

"A little girl grows up in Birmingham, Alabama,” Rice said, noting that her parents were convinced she “could be President of the United States if she wants to be.”

"America has a way of making the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect and we are going to do it again,” Rice said. “We are going to strengthen ourselves, our democracy at home, strengthen our economy.”

Rice, who is currently a professor at Stanford University in California, is viewed as a dark horse choice for presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s running mate.

While she did not address anything related to Romney’s choice for VP in front of the few journalists – nor did she refer to her raved-about speech from Romney’s weekend retreat in Utah – some in attendance hope she is strongly considered for the position.

“It would be great to have a women vice president,” Amanda Abshire of Arlington, Va. said, mentioning she was “inspired” by Rice’s speech tonight. “I think she has the experience and has the respect of the Republican Party and that the core conservatives would support her. It would be such an awesome thing for conservative women too.”

ShePAC – the political action committee Supporting, Honoring & Electing Republican women – hosted the “DC Kickoff Reception” at the Capitol Hill Club and included nearly a dozen sitting female GOP Congress members and candidates from around the country.

Prior to addressing the general reception for which guests paid $1,000 to hear Rice speak – during which guests munched on a variety of cheeses, meats, and watermelon soup – Rice spent nearly 30 minutes talking with the elected officials and candidates, focusing on national security issues.

Rice, a top-ranked official in President George W. Bush’s administration, mentioned Romney just once in her remarks, saying he would be “a terrific president" – she even weighed in slightly to the on-going immigration debate.

"We need an immigration policy that works but, by the way, we need one that the Congress and the President work out together," Rice said.

Wrapping up her roughly 10-minute speech just feet away from the House office buildings, Rice encouraged the mostly female crowd to keep fighting for America.

“It just has to be that the freest and most compassionate and most generous country on the face of the earth has to continue to be the most powerful,” she said.

Rice remains in Washington Tuesday, where she will give opening remarks at the National Women's Hall of Fame event celebrating 40 years of Title IX.

Attendees Monday night included: Senate Candidates Deb Fischer (NE), Heather Wilson (NM), Sarah Steelman (MO), House Candidates Martha Zoller (GA), Lisa Wilson-Foley (CT), Karen Harrington (FL), Wendy Rogers (AZ), Kim Vann (CA), Nancy Jacobs (MD), Faith Loudon (MD), Leah Campos-Schandlbauer (AZ), Maria Sheffield (GA) and representing his wife Mayor Mia Love (UT), Jason Love. Current Congresswomen included: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), Rep. Sandy Adams (FL), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (TN), Rep. Judy Biggert (IL), and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL).

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney along with his grandsons Parker Romney, right, and Nick Romney, center, serve pancakes during a campaign event at Mapleside Farms on Sunday in Brunswick, Ohio.

BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- While Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney campaigned across the battleground state of Ohio Sunday, he has his family standing by his side this Father’s Day.
 
“Let's wish a happy Father's Day to my dad,” Craig, one of Romney’s sons, told the cheering, rain-soaked crowd. “Happy Father’s Day.”
 
Kicking off the third day of Romney’s “Every Town Counts” tour, Romney and his wife, Ann, plus two sons, daughter-in-law, and a handful of grandkids served up pancakes at a breakfast here. 
 
“We love to help my dad and my mom and any chance we get to fly and meet up with them we just love to do it,” Romney’s other son in attendance, Matt, told the several hundred people at Mapleside Farms. Matt went on to fondly tell a story about how his dad helped his pregnant wife when she was on bed rest.
 
“He [Mitt] spliced the cable, built a TV cabinet, put a TV upstairs went and found someone who could help her do errands and got this all arranged in a matter of like 30 minutes,” Matt said. “I just look at that…he taught me to be both a father and a husband."
 
While the two sons shared insight on Romney’s personal side this Father’s Day, the all-but-certain GOP nominee continued to jab his competitor -- President Barack Obama.
 
“It looks like the sun is coming out,” Romney said as he began his nearly 20-minute speech just as the rain clouds parted. “I think that’s a metaphor for the country, the sun is coming out guys.  Three and a half years of dark clouds are about to part and it’s about to get a little warmer around this country, little brighter.”
Romney promises to seek immigration reform law

The Buckeye State is setting up to be the site of a fierce battle between Romney and Obama in this fall’s election. This visit marks Romney’s second visit to the state just this week and is a state Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman says the president should be spending more time in.
 
“We’re concerned for our families, our state, for our country. We’re concerned because we have a president of the United States who doesn’t know how to turn things around,” Portman, a Romney supporter and highly speculated vice presidential candidate, told the crowd while introducing Romney. “Folks he [Obama] needs to spend less time in Hollywood at fundraisers and more time with small businesses here in the state of Ohio.”
 
Romney served pancakes with Ann while Portman poured the syrup. The trio and Romney's two sons will all continue campaigning across Ohio on Father’s Day – two more events are planned Sunday in Newark and Troy. 

MILFORD, NH -- Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney believes a long-term-solution is needed to fix America’s immigration problem, especially for young illegal immigrants -- but not the changes announced by President Barack Obama Friday afternoon.

“I think the action that the president took today makes it more difficult to reach that long-term solution, because an executive order is, of course, just a short term matter,” Romney told reporters outside his campaign bus following an ice cream social here.

Romney went on to say what the president did can be “reversed by subsequent presidents.” But when he was asked if he himself would overturn the changes -- if elected president -- Romney did not answer.

He also commended Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R) DREAM Act alternative, despite saying in April that he was still looking at Rubio’s proposal.

“I'd like to see legislation that deals with this issue, and I happen to agree with Marco Rubio as he considers this issue. He said that this is an important matter, we have to find a long-term solution. But the President's action makes reaching a long term solution more difficult,” Romney said.

"If I'm president," he concluded, "we'll do our very best to have that kind of long-term solution that provides certainty and clarity for the people who come into this country through no fault of their own by virtue of the actions of their parents."

These remarks by the former Massachusetts governor came nearly two hours after Obama announced that people younger than 30 who came to the United States before the age of 16, who pose no criminal or security threat, and who were successful students or served in the military could apply for a two-year deferral from deportation.

It also came months after Romney blasted Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the GOP presidential primary for supporting in-state college tuition for young illegal immigrants in Texas. And during the primaries, Romney said he would veto the DREAM Act.

Romney made no mention of Obama’s announcement during his campaign stop here nor when asked repeatedly by reporters on the ropeline. Only after Romney got on his campaign bus for some time while reporters gathered outside did he reemerge to give a brief statement.

*** UPDATE *** The Obama camp issued this response: “During the primaries, Gov. Romney called the DREAM Act a handout and said he would veto it. His ‘solution’ to our immigration challenges was self-deportation. Today he continues to refuse to express support for legislation that lets children who were brought to the U.S. and want to contribute by pursuing higher education or serve in the military stay in America. The president remains committed to passing the DREAM Act, which was drafted with bipartisan support, but he won’t sit back and allow these children to get deported in the face of inaction. Congressional Republicans must end their continued obstruction to allow us to achieve the ultimate goal of signing the DREAM Act into law.”

STRATHAM, NH -- Mitt Romney today kicked off his first major bus tour since clinching the Republican nomination with an event at the same family farm where he announced his candidacy for president just a year ago.

“Washington’s big government agenda should not smother small-town dreams. In the America we love, every town counts. Every job counts. And every American counts,” Romney told the 1,000-plus crowd at Scamman Farm. “In the days ahead, we'll be traveling on what are often called the 'back roads of America.' But I think our tour is going to take us along what I will call the 'backbone of America.'”

This event launched the campaign’s “Every Town Counts” bus tour that will bring the GOP nominee to six battleground states over the next five days: New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan.

In a briefing to press at Romney headquarters in Boston, MA Friday morning, a campaign strategist noted that all states visited on the tour were won by President Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign.

"We're certainly campaigning on their turf as opposed to what would be considered our turf," strategist Russ Schriefer said.

As Romney addressed the crowd two planes flew overhead in the crystal blue sky, very reminiscent of his announcement day: “Romney for President 2012” [paid for by the campaign] and “Romney’s Every Millionaire Counts Tour” [from MoveOn.org] -- a sign of the ongoing battle between the two sides during this election cycle. The former governor was also very critical of Obama during his roughly 20-minute speech.

While mocking Obama’s long speech yesterday, Romney called him a “a detached and distant president.” 

"If there has ever been a president who has failed to give the middle class of America a fair shot, it is Barack Obama," Romney told the crowd. "I have a very different vision for America, and of our future. And I know what we must do to truly give our fellow Americans a fair shot and a better chance." 

Romney was joined in the small New Hampshire town by U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), who has accompanied the former Massachusetts governor at his past three visits to her state.

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.

Jae C. Hong / AP

House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., speaks at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., Tuesday, May 22, 2012. Ryan, a potential pick to join Mitt Romney's presidential ticket, blamed President Barack Obama on Tuesday for anemic job growth and unchecked spending and debt that he said are pushing the nation toward decline.

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. -- Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), a potential vice presidential pick for Mitt Romney, had harsh words for President Barack Obama Tuesday evening, but told the crowd the nation could get back on the right track with the 2012 election.
 
"We face not just a failed president, but a failed ideology. We face a pessimistic mood in the nation's capital. A belief that our best days are over and the only thing left to do is to manage the nation's decline,” Ryan told the nearly 1,000-person crowd at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. “But, we have the same opportunity today to reject this defeatist attitude and to embrace a positive reform agenda possible to kick start a new era of prosperity, an American renewal, a comeback.”
 
The House Budget Committee chairman, who focused the majority of his 30-minute address on Obama, said the president continues to want “to take us further in the wrong direction” and acknowledged the only way to make progress is “the removal of certain partisan roadblocks” -- like the president.
 
“Americans have always rejected those with nothing to offer but cynicism and the politics of division. And right now, that’s all they are getting from the president,” Ryan said, noting the president has become “just another Washington politician.”
 
Romney, who Ryan threw his support behind before the primary in his home state of Wisconsin, is the man who can best change the trajectory of America according to the Congressman.
 
“What I see in Mitt Romney are the kind of tools, the kind of skills, the kind of character and attributes you need in a leader. He makes decisions. He doesn’t pander. And so what I see is a person who understands the moment our country is facing and a person who is willing to do what it takes to get us out of the path we are on and back on a path to prosperity,” Ryan said. “I really believe he is the right guy for the times and I think he is going to beat Barack Obama and I think we are going to save this country.”

Former first lady Nancy Reagan, 90, who invited Ryan to speak at the library was scheduled to attend but it was announced at start of event she is at home on doctor's orders recovering from broken bones she suffered in a fall a few weeks back.
 
This high profile speech in California will only continue speculation that the seven term congressman may be selected to serve as Romney’s No. 2. Both New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Florida Senator Marco Rubio – two additional names on the potential VP list – have spoken at the venue.  Asked about accepting the position if approached by the presumptive nominee, Ryan did not completely shut down the idea as other Republicans in question have recently.
 
“That’s somebody else’s decision months away and that’s a conversation I need to have with my wife before I have it all with you,” Ryan said to loud applause, but added, “I like what I am doing. Don’t underestimate how important Congress is.”
 
The Congressman did say he was optimistic Republicans would retain control of the House and gain control of the Senate but cautioned, “you can’t take anything for granted.”