President Obama’s campaign has two new television ads up in nine battleground states, attacking Mitt Romney for outsourcing and hiking a number of fees during his term as Massachusetts governor.

Mark Halperin: “Most notable here: they take a gratuitous shot at the Republican for being a ‘millionaire’ and they hit him from the right on taxes/fees.”

[Read more…]

A new Bloomberg poll shows President Obama leads Mitt Romney by a wide margin, 53% to 40% among likely voters, even as six in 10 say the nation is headed down the wrong track.

Meanwhile, just 39% view Romney favorably, while 48% see him unfavorably. A majority of likely voters, 55%, view him as more out of touch with average Americans compared with 36% who say the president is more out of touch.

Key finding: “The presidential race is roughly tied among the most enthusiastic voters, 49% of whom back Romney compared with 48% for Obama. Still, Romney inspires far less enthusiasm even among his supporters than does Obama, with 35% of Romney backers saying their support for him is ‘very strong,’ compared with 51% of Obama backers who say so.”

Said pollster Ann Selzer: “You can see in these data how important turnout will be. Those most enthusiastic about the election are more supportive of Romney, but Obama’s voters are more locked into their candidate than Romney’s. Building resolve to vote and making the vote stick is job one, and both candidates face obstacles toward getting that done.”

McKay Coppins looks at web traffic for stories about Mitt Romney and finds they almost always lag stories about President Obama.

 “In a sort of controlled experiment, BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski created two sets of similar, photo-heavy posts focused on the early lives of President Obama and Mitt Romney. One set focused on Obama’s and Romney’s childhoods, the other on Obama and Romney as young men. They were comparably promoted — with all four posts featured on the site’s front page, and pushed out into the social media sphere — but in both cases the Obama-centric posts vastly outperformed those about Romney.”

Politico: “Tim Pawlenty has jumped to the top of the vice presidential shortlist of several Mitt Romney advisers after emerging as the most effective — and well-liked — surrogate for the GOP nominee-to-be… The former Minnesota governor has impressed top Romney officials with his winning onstage presence at a grueling roster of Republican events throughout the country and with his low-maintenance personal style that has made him a favorite with the campaign’s tight-knit inner circle at the Boston headquarters.”

Wall Street Journal: “As is pro forma among potential picks, Mr. Pawlenty has shrugged off
questions about the No. 2 slot. But over time, his denials have shifted
from suggesting that Mr. Romney take his name off the list to noting
that anybody would be honored to serve, if asked.”

The Super PAC backing Mitt Romney said it would launch a $7.6 million television ad sweep across nine states, Reuters reports.

The ads will begin airing Wednesday and run through the end of June in presidential battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The purchase ends weeks of silence from Restore Our Future, “the independent spending group that emerged as the deep-pocketed heavyweight that barraged Romney’s Republican competitors in the race to become their party’s nominee.”

Despite reports to the contrary, Mitt Romney told the media that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is being “thoroughly vetted as part of our process” to select a vice presidential running mate.

“Elephants are among my favorites, partly because I’m Republican and partly because I’m big. Elephants make me feel like I’m the right size.”

— Newt Gingrich, quoted by ABC News, in an interview at the National Zoo. He added, “They’re very smart animals.”

“I get a kick out of some of the speculation that goes on. I’m not going to comment on the process of course, but I can tell you this: only Beth Myers and I know who is being vetted.”

— Mitt Romney, quoted by NBC News, on his search for a vice presidential running mate.

A Project New America/Public Policy Polling survey in Arizona finds Mitt Romney just ahead of President Obama in the presidential race, 49% to 46%.

Mitt Romney has declined to call on his supporters to stop heckling President Obama’s campaign, the AP reports.

Romney said that he doesn’t believe in “unilateral disarmament,” but said it would “be a nice thing” if both sides would stop yelling at each other during campaign events. However, he noted that American politics has a “long history of heckling and free speech.”