“The question is: do you have another white-bread sandwich and, you know, is it just going to be boring to voters out there? I think that that’s the question with Portman.”

— Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), in a Fox News interview, on why Mitt Romney might not want to pick Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) as his running mate.

Despite headlines showing President Obama’s re-election campaign beating Mitt Romney in the race for campaign dollars, Ken Vogel points out that super PACs, committees and Romney’s campaign have actually outraised the president and his backers $402 million to $340 million.

Politico reports that Democrats and Republicans are increasingly worried about the role Super PACs will play in this year’s presidential election.

“The risk from rogue third-party groups is a potential menace to both Republicans and Democrats. The GOP has seen more super PACs and 501(c)(4) groups form to support its candidates, but there’s nothing to stop an individual liberal gazillionaire from commissioning ads on a subject the Obama campaign doesn’t want to talk about — say, Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith.. Paul Begala, the veteran Democratic operative working with Priorities USA, said the simple reality is ‘candidates and campaigns are no longer masters of their own fate — even their own messaging, on their own side of the fight.'”

Despite criticisms from those in his own party, First Read says President Obama’s campaign isn’t backing down over attacking Mitt Romney’s years at Bain Capital.

“If Romney is going to make his Bain record the central rationale of his candidacy — more so than his four years as Massachusetts governor — and if he’s going to take credit for job gains created under Bain, then it’s only fair to point out examples when Bain-controlled companies took on huge debt, slashed worker pay and benefits, laid off employees and filed for bankruptcy, all while Bain investors made money, they argue.”

“Think of it this way, they say: If a presidential candidate says that the education reforms he enacted as a governor are the centerpiece of his presidential bid, then it would be only fair to examine those reforms. Did they work? How well? Can that experience work at the federal level?”

The campaign released a new video stepping up those attacks.

[Read more…]

President Obama’s re-election campaign “is spending about half of what it raises to support a large political infrastructure that includes hundreds of workers and dozens of offices around the country,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“For now, it gives him at least one leg up on Mitt Romney, his presumptive Republican opponent, who still has far less money to spend despite making recent fundraising gains, according to federal filings released Sunday.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Mitt Romney “might be able to convince” him to serve as his running mate, CNN reports.

Said Christie: “He might be able to convince me. He’s a convincing guy, but I really love this job. I really want to stay in this job.”

He added: “I really have no interest in being vice president, but if Governor Romney calls and asks me to sit down and talk to him about it, I’d listen because I think you owe the nominee of your party that level of respect and who knows what he’s going to say. We’ll wait and see.”

“The long, grueling GOP primary race is over. Now comes a summertime lull the candidates could find just as difficult — not because the schedule is crowded but because it isn’t,” the AP reports.

“It is four months until the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in late August. Democrats hold their convention a week later in Charlotte, N.C. That’s a long time to fill, with no votes that matter, no debates to draw national attention. Voters tend to hibernate politically from the end of the primary season to the start of the conventions.”

That lull “should be a bigger problem” for Mitt Romney than for President Obama. “A challenger must keep stirring up enthusiasm if he hopes to oust an incumbent president.”