Jewel Samad / AFP - Getty Images

Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla, speaks at the Brooking Institution in Washington, DC, on April 25, 2012. Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney dodged mounting speculation Monday about a potential running mate, even with Senator Marco Rubio, the man now in the VP spotlight, standing right beside him.

A prime obstacle facing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as he engineers his ascent within the GOP — possibly even to the vice presidency — involves murmurs regarding his previous political career in the Sunshine State. 

Rubio's staff has carefully worked to dispel allegations of impropriety surrounding his dealings with embattled Rep. David Rivera (R-FL), as well as whether he used a card issued by the Florida state GOP to pay for personal expenses. 

Well, the senator went great lengths in an extensive interview on Fox News to address those controversies.

Regarding the Republican Party card he had used as a state lawmaker, Rubio said:

It was totally resolved years ago. But let me walk you — it's a very valid question. First of all, I've already said that if I had to do it again, I would not do it that way. What I had was not a credit card; it was an American Express card, as a charge card. So basically, you charge things on a card and, at the end of the month, you have to pay it off completely. At the end of every month, we would get those statements, we would see what was on there that was party-related, and the party would pay that. If it wasn't party-related, I would pay that — directly to American Express. It wasn't like I reimbursed the party; I paid it directly to American Express at the time. 

Now obviously, in hindsight, it looks bad, right? I mean, why are you using the party credit card at all? Well, some of these expenses were because a travel agent had the number — you know, the credit card number — and they billed it to that card instead of the other card. Sometimes, it was just a mistake. I just reached for the wrong card. 

The point is that, if I had to do it again, I'd be a lot more careful. And I am because, in politics, perception is often reality. But it's important people understand: I did not bill personal expenses to the Republican Party of Florida. The Republican Party of Florida never paid my personal expenses. Never. I paid them directly to American Express, in the month that I would get those statements. 

Fox: And you addressed this in the campaign?

Oh, sure. You think I would have been elected if I hadn't? We did, repeatedly. And I answered questions like that all the time. It's a valid question and, you know, it was a mistake. If I had to do it over again, I'd do it very differently. And I think in life, you live and you learn. But again, let's be ver clear: we're talking about, at the time — it wasn't like somebody found out about this, and then I went back and paid it. These charges were on there, if they didn't belong on there, I paid them directly to American Express. But, look, I shouldn't have done it that way. Lesson learned. 

Rubio addresses his relationship with Rivera and a whole host of other issues in the Fox interview. 

More importantly, though, the appearance reflects an affirmative effort by Rubio to address some of the issues in his own background — issues that could ensnare the Romney campaign if the Florida senator were tapped as Romney's running mate. 

That effort by Team Rubio is especially important now, given the senator's own forthcoming autobiography, and another book about Rubio authored by a Washington Post writer, which is expected to be more critical.

President Obama escalated a war of words with Republican foe Mitt Romney, challenging the former Massachusetts governor to explain his 2007 comments suggesting that it might not be worth leveraging all U.S. resources to find Osama bin Laden.

The president denied that he or the United States were engaged in "excessive celebration" to mark the one-year anniversary of the mission that ended successfully with bin Laden's assassination at a safe haven in Pakistan.

Yuri Gripas / Reuters

President Obama denied that he or the United States were engaged in "excessive celebration" to mark the one-year anniversary of the mission that ended successfully with bin Laden's assassination at a safe haven in Pakistan.

"I hardly think that you have seen any excessive celebration taking place here," the president said at the White House. "And I think for us to use that time for some reflection, to give thanks to those who participated is entirely appropriate, and that's what's been taking place."

Obama continued, making no mention of Romney by name, but clearly intending to put his general election opponent on the spot, while taking a degree of credit for the mission.

Obama said in response:

As far as my personal role and what other folks would do, I'd just recommend that everybody take a look at people's previous statements in terms of whether they thought it was appropriate to go into Pakistan and take out bin Laden.

I assume that people meant what they said when they said it. That's been at least my practice. I said that I'd go after bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him and I did.

If there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they'd do something else, then I'd go ahead and let them explain it.

That was an unmistakable reference toward Romney's 2007 comments to the Associated Press that "it’s not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person," meaning bin Laden.

Those comments have become part of a bit of political gamesmanship surrounding the anniversary of the bin Laden mission, as Obama's re-election campaign works to win the president credit for his decision to authorize the risky mission.

Romney said after an event this morning in New Hampshire that "of course" he would have given the order to authorize the bin Laden mission. "Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order," said the former Massachusetts governor.

The Obama campaign has used Romney's 2007 remarks, though, to imply that Romney wouldn't have given that order.

"I also think it's worthwhile to make sure that, as we're heading into this general election ... the American people know where Mitt Romney did stand on it. It's not exploitation, it's fact," Obama's deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, told Andrea Mitchell this afternoon on MSNBC. "Mitt Romney ... said he wouldn't have gone into Pakistan to pursue bin Laden with actionable intelligence if the Pakistanis wouldn't get him [bin Laden]. And he also said he wouldn't move heaven and earth to get bin Laden. Well, the president did move heaven and earth."

Andrea Mitchell talks with Stephanie Cutter, Team Obama's Deputy Campaign Manager, about the Obama campaign's newest video touting the president's successful operation against bin Laden one year ago, and the criticism the campaign is facing because of it.

PORTSMOUTH, NH -- Mitt Romney's short list of vice presidential candidates is expected to include 10 to 15 names, a source with knowledge of the deliberations said Monday as one of those potential candidates, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, joined Romney on the campaign trail this morning.

Making his first appearance in the Granite States since having assumed the role of the presumptive Republican nominee, Romney was flanked by Ayotte, a longtime ally who's now receiving new scrutiny as a possible contender for the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket this fall.

A freshman senator and former New Hampshire attorney general, Ayotte, who endorsed Romney last November, toured the port here with Romney this morning, and introduced him, telling a crowd of supporters and local fisherman "help is on the way" under a Romney presidency.

The stop was sure to stoke speculation due to its spot in a series of campaign stops Romney has made with potential candidates to round out his ticket. He campaigned heavily in Wisconsin with Rep. Paul Ryan, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, another vice presidential favorite, appeared with Romney last week in Pennsylvania.

"There's a whole ledger of items you check off, and Senator Ayotte is a strong candidate on the list," Former New Hampshire Governor and White House Chief of Staff John Sununu told reporters. "She knows how to cut budgets. She knows that you cut spending instead of raising taxes to cut budgets. She's a hard campaigner. She's earned the respect of her colleagues on both sides of the aisle in Washington."

Sununu, whom Romney described in his remarks as a "bulldog" for the campaign, played down the notion that today's appearance in Portsmouth constituted an audition for Ayotte. He pointed to her previous appearances and work for Romney, and the former New Hampshire governor suggested that Romney would continue to appear with GOP heavyweights in swing states.

But Sununu also raised eyebrows when he suggested that the vice presidential search committee, being led by longtime Romney aide Beth Myers, would be working with an extensive short list of prospective running mates.

"I know that the bowl has about 19 or 20 little folded pieces of paper in it, and they keep shaking the bowl," Sununu said.

A source with knowledge of the deliberations thus far called that number "a little high" and said the working list contained somewhere around ten to fifteen names instead.

Ayotte might earn her way onto that list because of her experience in law enforcement and background in the swing state of New Hampshire. Adding a woman to the ticket might help Romney to close the gap with women voters, as well.

But, even as Sununu acknowledged, Ayotte has little relative experience on the national stage -- something that could open her up to attacks on her inexperience.

But for all the speculation surrounding the second spot on the GOP ticket, the man at the top remained almost exclusively focused on the economy in his remarks today, accused the president and his campaign of engaging in "silliness" and distractions, and saying he would remain focused on "helping those that need help the most."

"I wish the president would start talking about the economy and stop trying to divert with all the silliness day in and day out," Romney said. "Let’s focus on what people care about, and the issue people care about is the one that is effecting us, which is their pocketbooks. The gasoline prices. The cost of higher education. The need for more jobs. The need for better incomes."

Top White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said today that Al Qaeda is now "on the path to its destruction" in a major speech that for the first time publicly acknowledged the role of "targeted strikes" using remotely piloted vehicles, otherwise known as drones.

The drone program against Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Yemen has long been officially classified, even though its use has been widely reported and become a central component of President Obama's counter-terrorism efforts.

But, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Osama Bin Laden's death, Brennan essentially declassified the program, saying the use of such vehicles gives the government "laser-like" precision to target terrorists planning attacks on the United States.

Brennan also acknowledged -- again for first time -- "innocent civilians have been killed in these strikes." But he said such instances have been "exceedingly rare, but it has happened. When it does, it pains us and we regret it deeply, as we do any time innocents are killed in war."

Brennan did not give any details, and he declined to answer how many times the White House has declined to proceed with drone strikes recommended by intelligence agencies.  

President Obama roused union members behind supporting his re-election bid in a speech Monday to labor leaders, a core Democratic constituency with which his administration has had differences in his first term.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

President Barack Obama speaks April 30 at the Building and Construction Trades Department Legislative Conference.

"These have been some tough years we’ve been in," Obama said to members of the Building and Construction Trade Department, an AFL-CIO-affiliated group. “I know a lot of your membership can get discouraged. They can feel like nobody’s looking out for them. They can get frustrated and it sure is easy to give up on Washington.”

Among those labor members who have expressed their frustration with Washington -– including the president –- is AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who in January criticized the administration’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness for focusing on reforming regulations and the tax system.

There are varied other instances in which unions that supported Obama during the 2008 election felted jilted by the president. Labor leaders pushed for a more robust stimulus and jobs program, and were generally disappointed deeply by Obama's decision to jettison the so-called "public option" as part of health care reform. The Employee Free Choice Act, a priority of organized labor that had enjoyed administration support, also died in Congress amid heavy business opposition.

Unions have also been generally supportive of a plan to build the TransCanada Keystone Oil pipeline, development of which the administration has mostly blocked.

Obama told the group Monday that, while he has not always been “a perfect president,” he has kept his promise to labor unions –- and, by extension, all voters.

“I made a promise I’d always tell you where I stood, I’d always tell you what I thought, what I believed in. And most importantly, I would wake up every single day working as hard as I know how to make your lives a little bit better," he said. "And for all that we’ve gone through these three-and-a-half or four years, I have kept that promise."

While not mentioning presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney by name, Obama also contrasted his views on labor with those of Republicans, saying that the party wants to weaken labor unions.

“If you asked them what's their big economic plan in addition to tax cuts for rich folks, it's dismantling your unions,” Obama said.

He criticized Republicans for advocating so-called “right to work” laws, which bar unions from requiring prospective employees to join as a precondition for being hired. Twenty-three U.S. states currently have such laws.

“I believe when folks try and take collective bargaining rights away by passing so-called ‘right to work’ laws that might as well be called ‘the right to work for less and less,’ that's not about economics -- it's about politics," Obama said.

He said that his support for labor unions was evident in his belief in strong collective-bargaining rights.

“The right to organize and negotiate a fair pay for hard work should be the right of every American -- from the CEO in the corner office to the worker who built that office,” he said.

Would Mitt Romney have given the order to authorize the daring mission that ended in Osama bin Laden’s assassination?

It’s impossible to say, but that hasn’t stopped President Barack Obama’s campaign from stoking doubts that a President Romney, essentially, wouldn’t have had the guts to make that order.

“Thanks to President Obama, bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive,” Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday in a campaign speech. “You have to ask yourself, if Gov. Romney had been president, could he have used the same slogan – in reverse? “

Jason Cohn / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney addresses supporters at a rally at Consol Energy's Research and Development facility outside Pittsburgh, Pa.

Marking the one-year anniversary of the mission that successfully killed bin Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2011 terror attacks, has undoubtedly given the Obama campaign an opportunity to remind voters of one of the president’s biggest accomplishments on foreign policy and national security.

“He took the harder and more honorable path, and the one that produced, in my opinion, the best result,” former President Bill Clinton said in a web video released Friday by the Obama campaign – one that directly asks the question about what Romney would have done if he were in that position last year.

But some Republicans are crying foul. For starters, the Republican National Committee was eager to highlight the 2008 Obama campaign’s own complaint against then-rival Hillary Clinton, accusing her of trying to “invoke bin Laden to score political points” by depicting the infamous al-Qaida leader in a campaign ad.

“I think it's irresponsible and unfair,” said Brian Hook, a foreign policy adviser to both President George W. Bush and former White House hopeful Tim Pawlenty, said of the Obama campaign’s questioning of Romney. “What person running for commander in chief doesn't want to bring bin Laden to justice?”

“In my experience, every president will try to do the right thing,” said Charles Hill, a conservative foreign policy expert and lecturer at Yale University.  “You can't say one person would do it and another person wouldn't; it depends on the operational plan.”

And Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee and ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, protested in a statement: "No one disputes that the President deserves credit for ordering the raid, but to politicize it in this way is the height of hypocrisy. The Obama campaign asks whether Mitt Romney would have made that decision. Of course they want to focus on this one tactical decision because the other decisions this president has made have harmed our national security."

By most press accounts, the decision to authorize the mission that killed bin Laden was fraught with difficulties; there was no “slam-dunk” guarantees that the risky strike would end with success. Biden himself has said that he had counseled the president against the Special Forces mission.

The Obama campaign’s effort to translate that decision into a political chit is two-fold. First, they’re looking to build up the president’s stature as a commander in chief, and their efforts are meant to cast Obama as a figure of fortitude in the face of Republican criticism that he’s too weak.

The other prong – and this is where the claim that Romney wouldn’t have acted comes into play – is intended to seize on the instances in which the former Massachusetts governor’s foreign policy positions have seemed muddled or, worse, inconsistent.

The crux of that argument stems from comments Romney made in 2007 when, in reference to bin Laden, Romney said “it’s not worth moving heaven and earth and spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.”

That comment, said former Gen. Wesley Clark, a onetime Democratic presidential candidate and surrogate for the Obama campaign, made it fair to question whether a Romney presidency would have ended in the same outcome of killing bin Laden.

Clark argued that Obama deserves credit not just for ordering the mission, but for initiating an overall shift in strategy that helped collect the actionable intelligence that allowed the president to make the call he did.

“It’s not quite a fair comparison to say Gov. Romney might have decided to go after him, too, if he had that information,” Clark said. “But that information is the result of thousands of man hours of effort at the exclusion of not focusing on other things. The decision was just one step of many that led to the takedown of Osama bin Laden.”

Rudy deLeon, a senior vice president of national security and international policy at Washington’s Center for American Progress, concurred.

“You had actionable intelligence, which is something the president doesn't always get. But in swinging the forces from Iraq to Afghanistan, you were able to swing with it the kind of surveillance that was able to get you actionable intelligence,” he said, referencing the surge in troops in Afghanistan that Obama had authorized.

“He basically took on his own party. That's not a sign of weakness or indifference,” deLeon added.

Hook cautioned, though, against overly politicizing the bin Laden mission, referencing the instance in which Obama said he was wary of appearing to “spike the football,” referring to the photos of a dead bin Laden.

“Didn't Obama say we shouldn't be spiking the ball in the end zone?” Hook asked. “Well, isn't this spiking the ball in the end zone?”

Rock Center's Brian Williams talks about his discussion with President Obama in the situation room about the killing of Osama bin Laden.

A Meet the Press roundtable discusses the role women voters play in the 2012 presidential campaign and how best to frame gender-specific issues.

Robert Gibbs details various strategies and tactics in the Obama administration's re-election campaign.

Republican expert Ed Gillespie elaborates on Mitt Romney's campaign strategy in the 2012 presidential race.

A Daily Rundown panel discusses Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., as a potential running mate for Mitt Romney. 

DUE TO TECHNICAL ERROR, FIRST THOUGHTS WAS LATE PUBLISHING.

The bin Laden killing, one year later – how quickly things change … Republicans cry foul that Obama campaign is using the death as a reelection weapon … Foreign policy vs. the economy (it’s still the economy) … Is Obama the Warrior in Chief? … Another veep tryout – this time it’s Romney with New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte. … Gingrich to drop out Wednesday.

Believe it or not, tomorrow marks a year since Osama bin Laden was killed. We wrote then: “While it’s doubtful that Osama bin Laden’s death will have as long of a political impact [as 9/11] -- especially in this fast-changing, short-term memory media landscape -- it will surely shape the contours of next year’s presidential race. … Last night changes everything (for now), but we also know how quickly it can dissipate.” And dissipate it did. The president’s bump – for something that was as big a singular accomplishment that any president could have -- was short-lived, because of the economy and the debt-ceiling fight. It’s a reminder of just how important the economy is that the bump was never as big as it would have been under normal circumstances. (By the way, NBC’s Rock Center went inside the decision making of the killing of bin Laden. Brian Williams previewed his interview with the president on Meet the Press. The full show, with interviews of others that were in the room) airs Wednesday at 9:00 pm ET.

*** Playing politics: Republicans are crying foul at the Obama campaign’s touting of the killing (and using it in a campaign video charging that Mitt Romney might not have made the same call. There are two lines of attack: (1) Republicans are trying to minimize the accomplishment, saying anyone would have done it; and (2) They say he’s politicizing everything, including foreign policy. Ed Gillespie, an adviser to the Romney campaign and former Bush adviser said on Meet the Press: “This is one of the reasons President Obama has become one of the most divisive presidents in American history. He took something that was a unifying event … and he’s managed to turn it into a divisive, partisan, political attack. … I think most Americans will see it as a sign of a desperate campaign.” It’s fascinating to watch Democrats try to demagogue foreign policy, the way Republicans do and have done over the years (see Cheney, Dick in 2004). Republicans usually find themselves almost overreacting when Democrats go over the top in their foreign policy attacks. Count on some REALLY heated cable and Twitter rhetoric this week on this topic as the run-up to the bin Laden anniversary kicks in.

Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks to troops at Third Infantry Division Headquarters at Fort Stewart in Hinesville, Georgia, on April 27, 2012, prior to Obama signing an Executive Order to protect them from deceptive targeting by educational institutions.

*** Warrior in Chief? The Romney campaign has pushed the issue of foreign policy, trying to paint Obama as weak and appeasing (especially when it comes to Iran). The GOP would have liked to paint the picture of Obama as a feckless, weak president, lacking strength. But despite the rhetoric, Obama’s foreign policy has been incredibly muscular. In fact, Peter Bergen of the New America Foundation in the New York Times Sunday Review provocatively casts President Obama as the “Warrior in chief,” ticking off several of Obama’s foreign-policy raids, killings, and use of drones. The death of bin Laden undercut any hopes Republicans had of being able to paint Obama as Jimmy Carter. And he makes the point of this disconnect: “Despite countervailing evidence, most conservatives view the president as some kind of peacenik. From both the right and left, there has been a continuing, dramatic cognitive disconnect between Mr. Obama’s record and the public perception of his leadership….” Make no mistake, had it failed, that’s exactly how he would have been portrayed. Bergen writes that if Romney runs a risk when criticizing Obama on foreign policy. If he tries to portray him as “a typical, weak-on-national-security Democrat,” then “he will very likely trap himself into calling for a war with Iran, which many Americans oppose.”

*** McCain as top foreign-policy attack dog: Taking the lead on the attack, though, is Sen. John McCain, Obama’s 2008 opponent (who also believes Obama hasn’t had courage to act in Syria). McCain, now a Romney surrogate, said Obama’s “diminishing the memory of September 11th,” and accused him of “doing a shameless end-zone dance.” It’s a fine line. McCain clearly doesn’t mind playing this role. He says things Romney couldn’t get away with and it’s something that’s quite beneficial to Romney. If Romney said what McCain did, Romney might get ridiculed. It’s an interesting role that McCain is willing to play. It could be a preview of the role McCain might play going forward in the campaign -- traditional role of VP, but on foreign policy. McCain doesn’t mind going personal with Obama, as he’s demonstrated since 2008. You can try to explain away McCain’s motives all you want, but it could be oddly effective for Romney.

*** STILL THE ECONOMY: But for all the talk of foreign policy and how much credit Obama deserves or whether or how he should be touting it, the most important issue this election – as it was a year ago -- remains the economy. It should be like a flashing red sign – IT’S THE ECONOMY, IT’S THE ECONOMY. Jobs will get a fresh look Friday when the latest report comes out. The unemployment rate has been essentially flat for three months. Even though the rate has come down from a high of 10.0%, if the rate continues to appear not to drop very much or the trajectory seems flat, that is going to be a problem for the incumbent president. Watch the trajectory; it will tell you the whole ballgame.

*** Another veep tryout: Today’s another veep tryout with Romney and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte at 10:50 am ET. Though she’s been a senator for just two years, Ayotte served as New Hampshire’s attorney general (she was appointed by Republican Craig Benson in 2003 and RE-appointed by a Democratic governor). The Republican Party’s problems with women have been well documented over the last few months. If Romney is going to pick a woman, the most serious candidate is likely Ayotte. That is, aside from Condoleezza Rice if she wants it, and there’s no indication she does. But the shadow of Palin still looms large over the GOP pick, and the Romney team may be more risk averse because of it. But as GOP 12’s Heinze wrote last week: “Sarah Palin didn't prove that picking a woman doesn't help with women. Palin was simply the wrong woman.” (By the way, over the weekend, NBC’s Alex Moe reported that Newt Gingrich would officially drop out Wednesday.)

*** Obama fundraises with Clinton: There were a couple striking things at the fundraiser with President Clinton this weekend at the home of Terry McAuliffe: (1) How little Romney was mentioned. After a weekend and week of going after Romney personally, last night was more in line with where the Obama campaign was when this campaign first started -- go after the entire GOP. It was more the theme of -- they want to take you back, it’s their failed economic policies on steroids, not the party of Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt; it’s not their Republican Party. (2) This was not an ordinary Obama fundraiser speech. Here, he was trying to follow one of the Democratic Party’s best economic communicators. Obama knew he was on friendly turf, but not the friendliest turf, as he was trying to appeal to Clinton people. One Democratic source who is more of a member of Team Clinton than Team Obama described last night as kind of like a “first date” between Clinton and Obama; For the first time, this person could actually see the two of them starting to bond; It took a while for Clinton to get over 2008 but so far, things have gone well in this courtship. Two more Obama-Clinton fundraisers to go; New York and PROBABLY Hollywood.

*** A way to bring up Seamus: Don’t overlook the fact that the White House used the opportunity of the White House Correspondents Dinner -- when they knew they’d get lighter coverage for what they did – put a story that they’ve struggled to put into the mainstream, quietly trying to do for months, the Seamus story. It was frankly a way to get Seamus out there. Yes, Obama made fun of himself and eating dog, but they’ll take that to get the Seamus story mainlined; They’ve been trying for months.

** Waiting on Lugar’s fate: There are just eight days until the Indiana Senate primary that could see the ouster of the most senior Republican in the Senate. AP today wonders whether Richard Lugar waited too long to brand his opponent. On Friday, the 2008 GOP presidential ticket split its endorsement – John McCain endorsed Lugar; Sarah Palin endorsed his challenger and Tea Party favorite, state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Mitt Romney said he was staying out of it. A poll aligned with Mourdock showed him up 44-39% Thursday. The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette headline: “Hundreds cheer Mourdock at city rally.” The rally was organized by Tea Party Express, which has played a big role in this race.

Countdown to Indiana Senate/Wisconsin recall primaries: 8
Countdown to Wisconsin recall election: 36
Countdown to Election Day: 190 days

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President Barack Obama has a new campaign slogan: "Forward."

Obama's re-election team unveiled its new motto in a video released Monday morning. The seven-minute video begins by recalling the grim state of the nation's economy when Obama took office, then ticks through what the campaign says are the president's accomplishments, both on the economy and other issues.

The campaign also uses the video to target congressional Republicans, saying Obama had to overcome GOP obstruction on Capitol Hill in order to pass legislation.

The video tries to make the case for Obama's re-election by saying there is still more work to do going forward.

The campaign says the video will be played for supporters attending the president's first re-election rallies Saturday in Ohio and Virginia.

Rock Center's Brian Williams talks about his discussion with President Obama in the situation room about the killing of Osama bin Laden.

A Meet the Press roundtable discusses the role women voters play in the 2012 presidential campaign and how best to frame gender-specific issues.

Republican expert Ed Gillespie elaborates on Mitt Romney's campaign strategy in the 2012 presidential race.

Robert Gibbs details various strategies and tactics in the Obama administration's re-election campaign.

Senior Obama campaign strategist Robert Gibbs defended his boss this morning from attacks on the president's economic policies. Gibbs claimed the Romney campaign's only message is: "You didn't clean up our mess fast enough."

In addition to the economy, foreign policy played a big part in the discussion as the one year anniversary of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden approaches. President Obama's campaign released an ad this week featuring former President Bill Clinton that questions whether or not Romney would have made the call to approve the raid. Romney strategist Ed Gillespie accused the president of politicizing the event. 

"He took something that was a unifying event for all Americans... and he's managed to turn it into a divisive, partisan, political attack."

Plus our roundtable examined The Deciders in the upcoming election, specifically the impact that women voters will have. We were joined by the Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen; Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA); MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow; and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos.

You can watch the entire program on our website including our special PRESS Pass conversation featuring a general election preview with SNL stars Jason Sudeikis (Mitt Romney) and Fred Armisen (President Obama).

We'll be back next week. If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press. 

WESTERVILLE, Ohio --  At the close of a political week focused in large part on the youth vote, Mitt Romney visited a small liberal arts college in central Ohio, and after taking the pulse of a small group of graduating seniors, delivered a political speech billed as a "guest lecture" that touched on politics and economics, but focused on rhetoric and history in an election year.

"Words are easily malleable but facts, they’re stubborn. And so I suggest that in the campaign ahead and in the campaigns of various officers running for various positions ahead, that you consider not just the brilliance of their words, but also the facts of their record and what they’ve done and that will be the best predictor I believe of what they’ll do going forward," Romney told an audience at Otterbein University.

This veiled reference was one of several allusions to President Barack Obama in Romney's remarks, which focused primarily on the former Massachusetts governor's own background and not the president's record -- unusual for Romney on the stump.

Romney's advisers said on Tuesday that the candidate would begin re-introducing himself to the American public this week, and his first public appearance since accepting the mantle of "presumptive nominee" on Tuesday night in New Hampshire did exactly that. The former private equity firm CEO spent far more time than usual in his remarks Friday touching on highlights of his business career - including investments in Staples and Steel Dynamics - and even joking about passing on becoming a founding investor in JetBlue.

But in delivering his re-introduction message, Romney passed on the opportunity to comment on the day's major news stories: disappointing GDP growth (Romney at one point referred to the recovery as "anemic" and the worst such recovery since the Hoover administration, but did not address the day's report directly), and the House of Representatives passing a bill to keep student loan interest rates down. The latter was a bill that both Romney and Obama supported, and which was on the minds of students here Friday.

"I'll probably have around $50,000 to $60,000 in student debt," sophomore nursing major Jessica Hindman, who said she was planning to support Romney, told NBC News. "I actually have a lot of fears that I’m going to be paying off college for a long time way past when I’ve graduated."

"If the rate doubles for student loans, I might have to switch colleges," freshman accounting major Jacob Hobbs said.

Before his speech, Romney talked with a small group of graduating seniors over cheeseburgers in a roundtable discussion.

"It’s been a tough, ah, a tough few years for people coming out of college. And this year does not look at any better than the prior years. And that’s gotta change," Romney said. "Because folks who cant find work in the first few years coming out of college find that over a long period of time, that really affects their long-term earning potential. So we want to get you to work and your colleagues to work."

Perhaps Romney's best nod to his college audience of mostly economics and political science majors, wasn't policy-related at all, but rather his fluency with the gourmet dining preferences of many college students, who survive on sandwiches and pizza. He described Champaign, Ill.-based Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches chain founder Jimmy John Liautaud:

We've always encouraged young people: Take, take a shot, go for it. Take a risk. Get the education. Borrow money if you have to from your parents. Start a business. I was with a guy named Jimmy John -- (laughter) -- You know Jimmy John? Yeah. I met Jimmy John. Jimmy John he... grad-- I hope I get this story entirely right, I think I will. He graduated from from high school and he didn't want to go to college. And he said to his dad, can I borrow some money, I want to start a business. His dad said you know what? You- I just don't think you've got the discipline to start a business and make it work. And he said, I'll loan you the money but if you can't pay it back, with interest, by the end of the year I want you to go into the military, and sign up. And he said ok, I'll do that."

"And I think he, I think he said he borrowed $20,000 dollars from his dad. Was going to start a restaurant. Then he found out how expensive it is to buy all the restaurant equipment and twenty thousand dollars wouldn't cut it. The only thing that would work for $20,000 was a sandwich shop, so he started making sandwiches. And as you chucklingly, chucklingly indicated a moment ago you know that his sandwiches are doing pretty well. He's got shops all over the country and thousands of people that work with him."

"This is a, this is kind of an American experience. You see it time and again. The other night I was with another restaurant guy, Papa John (laughter). Papa John. I think he said it was in 1986, he opened his first pizza restaurant and today employs thousands of people. We welcome that. We celebrate that in this country. Its one of the reasons we are the nation we are."

Little known outside the elite world of Supreme Court lawyers only a few weeks ago, Donald Verrilli has become famous -- or notorious, depending on one’s point of view -- for his oral arguments before the high court in the health care cases last month and in the Arizona illegal immigration case this week. 

Observers have panned Verrili’s performances and point to comments by some of the justices showing impatience with how he made the Obama administration’s case.

Art Lien / AFP - Getty Images

This courtroom sketch by Art Lien shows Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, right, speaking to Justice Antonin Scalia on March 26, 2012 as he argues his case before the Supreme Court in Washington, DC.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor told Verrilli during Wednesday’s oral argument, “General, I'm terribly confused by your answer. Okay? And I don't know that you're focusing in on what I believe my colleagues are trying to get to.”

"Obama's Lawyer Chokes Again" the Drudge Report headlined Wednesday, while in The Daily Beast, Arizona journalist Terry Greene Sterling, called Verrilli’s performance “a humiliating slap-down of the U.S. solicitor general … Verrilli lost focus and failed to drive home key points.”

“There have been a lot of attacks on the left on Verrilli,” said University of Wisconsin political scientist Ryan Owens, co-author of The Solicitor General and the United States Supreme Court: Executive Branch Influence and Judicial Decisions, an empirical study of the performance of solicitors general.

“There’s some grumbling that he hasn’t performed ably,” Owens said. “If he loses this Arizona case, then you might start to see calls” for Obama to find a new solicitor general.

“It seems to me, though, that the president is in a kind of complicated political position here. Let’s assume that the court strikes down the individual mandate and assume that the court sides with Arizona,” Owens said. “If he replaces Verrilli, it makes it difficult to make the Supreme Court look like it is activist -- and it seems he’s going to try to do that as he runs for re-election. Instead it looks as though Verrilli sort of lost the case.”

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The solicitor general’s job is to decide when the United States should appeal a case it has lost in a lower court and when it should file an amicus brief in a case in which it is not a party. The solicitor general doesn’t personally argue every Supreme Court case involving the federal government -- he has a staff of lawyers who argue many of them -- but he does often argue the highest profile ones.

Among those who have served as solicitor general, five have gone on to become justices of the Supreme Court: William Howard Taft, Robert Jackson, Thurgood Marshall, Stanley Reed and Elena Kagan.

Some high court observers think the current denigration of Verrilli is unwarranted.

The criticism “has been overstated and at times unfair,” said Elizabeth Wydra, chief counsel of the Constitutional Accountability Center, a liberal legal think tank. “His arguments, along with the briefs filed in the health care and Arizona cases give the justices every argument they need to side with General Verrilli in both cases. While I wish he would have emphasized the Constitution's text and history more, because those sources are so strongly on the Administration's side in both cases, that is a strategic judgment call more than a criticism."

Andrew Pincus, a partner in the Mayer Brown law firm who has argued 23 cases before the Supreme Court and is co-director of Yale Law School’s Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic, said the criticism was “completely unfair and completely inaccurate.”

He said, “In order to assess whether someone is doing a good job in a Supreme Court oral argument, you have to understand what a Supreme Court argument is: It’s not a speech; it doesn’t have to be flowery, it’s not pretty. The whole notion is to provide answers to the concerns that animate the justices’ questions – and do so in a way the advances your cause both with that justice and with court as a whole.”

He added, “I’ve read some people who say, Gee, the solicitor general didn’t make some of the arguments that were suggested by some of the questions by justices who appeared to be favorably inclined in the health care argument.”

But he said, “My guess is if I were him, I would have done exactly what he did -- because a lot of the arguments that were being suggested would alienate other justices whose votes are probably critical to the outcome of the (Affordable Care Act) case.”

Many accounts of Wednesday’s Arizona argument mentioned the awkward moment when Sotomayor told Verrilli, “Putting aside your argument that this -- that a systematic cooperation is wrong -- you can see it's not selling very well -- why don't you try to come up with something else?”

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But Pincus said, “It’s quite typical that justices say, ‘your argument isn’t convincing me.’ It may be the only argument that’s available. And it may be an argument that’s not necessarily directed to the justice who’s asking the question, but is directed to some other justices who may have a different perspective.”

He added that statements the solicitor general makes in oral argument “are quoted back to the government later in the Supreme Court, in lower courts. You can’t just say, ‘I’ll say anything to win this case.’”

In sum, Pincus said, “No one could ever know if the (oral) argument is why you win or not – and in 99.9 percent of the cases, it almost certainly isn’t.”

Owens agrees with that assessment up a to a point: “While the quality of oral argument is not the primary driver of justices’ decisions, a strong performance can increases a party’s odds of success -- so in this particular (Arizona) case it’s quite possible that a stronger argument by the solicitor general might have persuaded Justice Kennedy or Chief Justice Roberts. It’s too early to tell where those justices are going to come down. It’s quite possible that Verrilli’s argument, as weak as it seems to have been, maybe it did win the day,”

Pincus said it’s a mistake to imagine that a virtuoso performance by the solicitor general – as in Hollywood movies where a lawyer saves his client from the death penalty – will tip a case in the government’s favor.

“It’s not like you’re going to walk into the courtroom and come up with a new legal argument that no one has thought of before and really wow them. Eighty-five percent of your presentation is the written product (the legal briefs),” he said. “In fact the court would be quite surprised and it would be an admission of weakness in your case and not having thought it through, for you to stand up and say, ‘Throw out everything I’ve said in the written briefs. I’ve now got a great new idea!’ It’s the writing of the briefs that frames the legal argument in the case.”

While in Congress and the news media outside the Supreme Court, the burning issue in the Arizona immigration case was whether the Arizona law was on its face invalid because it would require racial profiling, that’s not the argument the Obama administration chose to make.

Instead it argued that the state was treading on the federal responsibility to regulate immigration.

Roberts made that quite clear in his very first question to Verrilli as soon as he stood up to begin on Wednesday: “No part of your argument has to do with racial or ethnic profiling, does it? I saw none of that in your brief.” Verrilli replied, “That's correct.”

If the Arizona is allowed to stand and is enforced, the racial profiling issue may be decided in some future case.

The House narrowly passed on Friday the Interest Rate Reduction Act by a vote of 215-195 -- largely along party lines. The White House has already threatened to veto the legislation.

The bill, introduced by House Republicans, would postpone, for a year, the doubling of interest rates on student loans to 6.8 percent on July 1st. Those interest rates currently sit at 3.4 percent as a result of a five-year bill passed by Democrats in 2007.  

The Republican's bill would offset the almost $6 billion price-tag for the year-long interest rate freeze by taking money from programs established by President Barack Obama's health care overhaul -- including those for prevention, wellness, and public health.

Democrats oppose that plan, saying they would rather pay for the bill by taking away subsidies for oil companies.

The legislation now goes to the Senate, which is expected to pass its own version in May. After that, both chambers will likely end up going to conference on the bill, to negotiate a way to fund the proposal that's amenable to both sides.

Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images

Congressional hopeful Tammy Duckworth arrives at a World War II Memorial ceremony to pay tribute to World War II veterans of the Pacific in this file photo on March 11, 2010 in Washington, DC.

There’s a proud tradition of service members and veterans of the military serving in Congress, but a new generation of political leaders, forged by tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, are poised to possibly join their ranks next year.

The 2012 elections could send as many as 20 veterans of those two wars to Washington. While they would join many other lawmakers in having a background in military service, these veterans are of a different class – both younger in age, and experienced in a new era of warfare. Two of those veterans, one soldier and one Marine, spoke to NBCPolitics.com about their journeys to the campaign trail.

“We think that citizens are looking for a new generation of leadership to take our country in a much better direction,” said Josh Mandel, a 30-year-old former Marine who was elected as Ohio’s state Treasurer in 2010.

Mandel, who served two tours in Iraq, is running for Senate against incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, and he’s viewed as one of the GOP’s rising stars. This is his first bid for national office, and has said his campaign’s main focus is on economic and job-related issues.

Jay Laprete / AP

Senate hopeful Josh Mandel, celebrates his win as the Ohio State Treasurer, in this file photo, with his wife Ilana on stage at the Ohio Republican Party celebration Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010, in Columbus, Ohio.

But his campaign has taken every opportunity to remind voters of his two combat tours in Iraq. The campaign’s first TV ad, titled “Boots,” features multiple references to military service and includes a photograph of Mandel on duty in Iraq. At the end of the ad, Mandel is lacing a pair of combat boots while a narrator says "Washington is broken and needs new leaders. And this Marine is ready to answer the call."

Military service is just as much a part of Democrat Tammy Duckworth’s bid for a seat in Congress from Illinois.

A former combat aviator for the Army, Duckworth is a double amputee who lost both her legs and severely injured her right arm in 2004 when her helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents. She ran for Congress in 2006, but lost by less than three points to Republican Peter Roskam. Following that electoral defeat, Duckworth spent five years working for the Department of Veterans Affairs – first as director of the Illinois office, then as an assistant secretary of public and intergovernmental affairs in Washington. In 2011, she resigned to launch her campaign for the 8^th congressional district in Illinois, which had been redrawn following the 2010 census.

Stan Honda / AFP/Getty Images

President Elect Barack Obama and Iraqi war veteran Tammy Duckworth, place a wreath at The Bronze Soldiers Memorial in this file photo, November 11, 2008 on the Lakefront in Chicago, Illinois.

“I would not have sought public office if I had not been wounded,” Duckworth said. She recounted meeting Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama while she was recovering at Walter Reed Army Hospital. She said Obama, who at the time was serving on the Veterans Affairs Committee, “would come through and visit people in the hospital.” She added, “he would come through without a lot of fanfare because he was just a junior senator.” As a result of these meetings, she was urged to consider a career in politics. “It was Sen. Durbin who called and said ‘Barack and I have been talking and we really think you should consider running for office.” She said prior to being injured, she “ would not have had the bravery to do it.”

Both Mandel and Duckworth have enjoyed the support of influential figures in their respective parties. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Arizona Sen. John McCain, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio have either endorsed or campaigned for Mandel.

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Duckworth has attracted national attention since her entrance into politics and time spent at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Obama political organization strongly supported her during her primary battle this spring.

Combat veterans who exit the military and seek to enter the world of public service are afforded the unique opportunity to highlight their experience not only with other veterans, but also with other voters who might look toward candidates with a proven ability to lead under fire. It’s a quality of great political value as voters become hungry for leaders to help break through the partisan gridlock in Congress.

Both Mandel and Duckworth spoke about the maturity instilled by their experiences.

Mandel describes his deployments as a “maturing and eye-opening experience,” and added that they gave him a “renewed confidence in the next generation” of citizens. “By serving with so many young people with intelligence and talents far beyond my own I came home with a great optimism about where our country is going,” he said.

And Duckworth contends that her background primes her to work with other veterans in Congress, regardless of their party affiliation. “We’ve got to find something to reach out to one another, and if I can do it through BS-ing with someone about what a jerk my drill sergeant was, then that’s what I’m gonna do,” Duckworth said. “Or talking about not showering for weeks or what our favorite MREs [meals ready to eat] were and then talk about what we can do together and maybe co-author a bill.” 

She added, “It’s probably sacrilegious of me to say that I want some Republicans to win, but I want some Republican Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to win. I’d like to win and I want to see them in Washington, and I want for us to work together just as that post-World War II [generation] worked together to try and do something.”

Both of them said they feel especially motivated to tackle issues like veterans’ health, but Duckworth and Mandel each acknowledged that the top issue for them – and most other campaigns this fall – is the economy.

Their experience allows them to speak with a degree of credibility on issues of importance to the military community, and also provides them with some political insulation, too.

Duckworth’s Republican opponent in November, Rep. Joe Walsh, faced a serious backlash after questioning her military service. “What else has she done? Female, wounded veteran … ehhh, she is nothing more than a handpicked Washington bureaucrat,” Walsh was quoted as saying by POLITICO.

She said the comments are more than simply a personal attack. “I think he’s really dismissed the service of the 24 million veterans in this nation, and that’s a really disturbing thing for a sitting congressman to say. Anybody who has served their country in uniform, whether or not they gave their legs, has done a whole hell of a lot for their country.”

Mandel’s time as a Marine has also helped him fend off Democratic attacks about his relative inexperience in political office. “We think the code and the experience and integrity of veterans is something that Americans want in their leaders,” he said.

Duckworth echoed that sentiment, “Our men and women in uniform have guaranteed the quality of their work with their lives … . When my crew chief looked at me and said ‘Tammy I did the maintenance on this helicopter, and I did everything I was supposed to do’ and he handed me the keys … he guaranteed the quality of his work with his life.”

Darron Cummings / AP

Senate candidates running in the GOP primary, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.,and Richard Mourdock, left, participate in a debate Wednesday, April 11, 2012, in Indianapolis.

In the 2010 midterm elections, the GOP was jarred by an array of suddenly-potent Tea Party-backed challengers taking on the party establishment. The movement achieved mixed results overall, but resulted in a Republican Party heavily influenced by it.

History is repeating itself in Indiana where one of the Senate’s two longest-serving Republicans, Richard Lugar, 80, who was first elected in 1976, is facing a challenge in the May 8 primary from state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who became famous in 2009 for opposing the auto industry bailout and the forced write-downs for Chrysler bond holders. 

Mourdock is backed by Tea Party activists, the Club for Growth, the National Rifle Association, and old-line social conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly.

As Lugar struggles to fend off Mourdock’s challenge, Democrats hope their candidate, Rep. Joe Donnelly, will profit from the GOP schism and pick up the incumbent’s seat in November.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Wednesday, “The race is very close now and it’ll be decided on May 8 and a number of factors could apply. Obviously turnout is important. Gov. (Mitch) Daniels’s ad supporting Sen. Lugar is a very positive development for him,” he said. “But our job is to hold the seat (in November) and we’ll support the nominee in the general election, but I think we will hold that seat regardless of what happens in the primary.”

A Lugar loss would end the political career of a man who was first elected in 1964 to the Indianapolis school board and who in the 1970s was known as “Richard Nixon’s favorite mayor” when he held that office in Indianapolis. Since taking his Senate seat in 1977, Lugar has become his party’s cerebral foreign policy expert.  

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. who serves alongside Lugar on the Foreign Relations Committee, said “the knowledge that Sen. Lugar has – having worked on these issues for decades – has been invaluable ... Certainly he’s someone who’s very respected in the Senate and he’s listened to by both sides of the aisle.”

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But no matter how deeply respected Lugar is on Capitol Hill, Mourdock’s charge is that Lugar isn’t conservative enough – although Lugar’s lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, based on dozens of roll call votes, is 77 out 100, putting him a long way from Senate GOP centrists such as Olympia Snowe of Maine, who has a 48.5 lifetime ACU rating.

Mourdock’s campaign ads regularly link Lugar with Democratic President Barack Obama. Early in Obama’s Senate stint, Lugar helped him establish his foreign policy credentials. In 2005 Obama accompanied Lugar on a trip to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan to inspect weapons dumps and sites where smallpox and other pathogens were kept.

“When Dick Lugar moved to Washington, he left behind his conservative Hoosier values,” Mourdock says in one of his television spots. “How else to explain his support for amnesty, for Obama’s liberal Supreme Court choices, even his vote to bail out Greece?”

An ad the NRA has run against Lugar tells viewers that, “Some things shouldn’t change. Our Indiana values, stewardship of the land, and the protection of our Second Amendment and hunting rights. But over his 36 years in Washington, Dick Lugar has changed ... He’s become the only Republican candidate in Indiana with an “F” rating from the NRA.”

The NRA grievance against Lugar goes way back: he voted for Bill Clinton’s 1993 Brady handgun bill and for the ban on certain semiautomatic weapons, called “assault weapons” by gun control advocates.

Lugar, always avuncular and courteous, told reporters this week in Washington that his battle with Mourdock is “a very close contest (and) has been throughout.”

Asked about Mourdock’s view that he has changed in his years in Washington, Lugar chuckled amiably and said “I think it’s his view but we’re getting along fine with voters.”

Since last year, Democrats have accused Lugar of being detached from Indiana issues and denounced him for living in Virginia. They gained ammunition when he had to reimburse the Treasury for some hotel stays in Indiana that were charged to his Senate office account. On the residency issue, Lugar said Tuesday, “It was clearly somebody engaging in negative campaign research, trying to find some difficulty.”

Since this is his first primary challenge since 1976, is it difficult since he’s perhaps out of practice? “No,” Lugar replied, “I’ve been campaigning all over the country for the last 35 years and I’m campaigning vigorously again this time ... This is a very vigorous experience and we’re doing the best we can.”

The Republican fratricide in Senate races two years ago had at best mixed results for party leaders.

Darron Cummings / AP

Brent Gentry shows his support for Richard Mourdock before a U.S. Senate debate Wednesday, April 11, 2012, in Indianapolis. Mourdock is running against Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.

One of the GOP incumbents, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, ultimately survived after losing the Republican primary by running in November as a write-in candidate.

Establishment GOP candidates in Arizona, Indiana, New Hampshire, and Missouri defeated their conservative primary opponents and went on to win in November. The party favorite in Washington beat his conservative challenger in the primary, then lost in November.

Elsewhere, conservative challengers forced one GOP senator, Robert Bennett, into retirement in Utah and another, Arlen Specter, into switching parties in Pennsylvania.

Conservative favorites won four Senate seats (in Pennsylvania, Utah, Kentucky, and Florida), but lost to Democrats in four other Senate contests (Delaware, Connecticut, Nevada, and Colorado) – races which more mainstream Republican candidates might have won.

One of the Establishment GOP victims of the Tea Party surge in 2010, was former Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware, who lost to Christine O’Donnell – who then was defeated by Democrat Chris Coons in November.

Castle is now a partner with the DLA Piper law firm.

Reflecting on the parallels with his bitter loss to O’Donnell two years ago, Castle said if Lugar loses the primary, “it has the effect of making it more and more difficult for people who take middle-of-the-road positions, who try to work with both sides of the aisle to get things done ... .”

The Tea Party trend puts such pragmatism, Castle said, “at jeopardy in the Republican Party ... It moves the party not just further to the right, but to a much more conservative stance than it used to have. It’s going to ultimately lead to a minority status in the country.”

Pointing to the danger of Mourdock winning the primary but losing to Donnelly in November, Castle said that for Indiana Republicans, Lugar “may not be 100 percent what they might want, but the alternative is you may elect somebody from the other party.”

Castle’s campaign fund has given $1,000 to Lugar’s campaign.

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Seeing the race from a different angle, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, whose Senate Conservatives PAC supported O’Donnell against Castle and Sharron Angle in Nevada in 2010, said, “Richard is a friend of mine – but of course, we’ve got two Richards in that race. Dick Lugar is a friend of mine, but I’d be honored to serve with Mourdock. He’s clearly someone who is in line with some of the things we’re trying to do,” but he added, “I’m not going to get involved” in the Lugar versus Mourdock primary. “I’m not involved in any incumbent races right now.”

Meanwhile Democrats are waiting to take on the survivor of the GOP primary. "While Joe Donnelly has been focused on jobs and the economy, both Richard Mourdock and Dick Lugar have spent the last year slinging mud, pandering to the Tea Party, and showing voters that they're both of touch with Indiana's middle class. Joe's candidacy gives us an excellent chance of winning in November regardless of who Republicans nominate," said Shripal Shah, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Despite the Democrats touting Donnelly's chances, there are echoes of Indiana’s 2010 Senate race when Democrats had hopes for former Rep. Brad Ellsworth, a centrist Democrat with a voting record much like Donnelly's.

Ellsworth ended up losing by 14 percentage points to Republican Dan Coats. Democrats say 2012 isn't 2010; turnout this year is going to be significantly higher and the economy is healthier now than it was in 2010.

But Donnelly voted for the Obama health care bill and for his stimulus plan, neither of which will help with conservative voters in Indiana. And his fund-raising has been less than stellar.  

Democrats privately say that Donnelly runs stronger against Mourdock than against Lugar.

Tom Williams / Roll Call/Getty Images

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., talks to a reporter before the Senate Republican Policy luncheon in the Capitol.

“Yeah, I understand that,” Cornyn said. “Sen. Lugar is a legend in Indiana. To show how quickly things change, six years ago, he was uncontested in the Republican primary and in the general election ... But it will probably make it more of a contest if Sen. Lugar is not the nominee, but I’m confident we’ll hold the seat.” Cornyn said the Indiana race “is not one of my worries.”