President Obama appears Tuesday night on what Jimmy Fallon dubbed the “holy crap edition” of his talk show, “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” a title made in reference to the Commander-in-Chief’s first appearance on the program.

Shot at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, for a live audience of primarily college students, it was the first stop in the president’s visit to a significant swing state that went blue for the first time in more than 30 years during the 2008 election.

Those hoping to attend waited in line for hours in the rain for tickets, days before the taping. People who didn’t make the cut, according to Fallon, were “students, professors and Joe Biden.”

Fallon and Obama began their stint by "slow jamming the news," a regular segment on the show.

The lights were dimmed, the camera zoomed in, and The Roots slowed it down for the presidential crooner – this time to the soulful song of student loans. Addressing the hot button issue of his North Carolina trip, Obama highlighted his call to congress.  “What we’ve said is simple” he began, “now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people.”

To which Fallon replied, “Awww yeah. You should listen to the President – or, as I like to call him, the Preezy of the United Steezy…”

The interview continued with a mix of light-hearted banter and a few probing questions for the president, who briefly addressed the current Secret Service scandal when questioned by Fallon.

"The Secret Service, these guys are incredible," Obama said. "They protect me, they protect our girls. A couple of knuckleheads shouldn't detract from that they do. What they were thinking, I don't know. That's why they're not there anymore." 

The president, an admitted fan of the Tar Heels, threw out a few college-centric jokes, poked fun at his former “afro” when Fallon revealed a photo of him from his college days, and tapped further into his agenda to reduce interest rates on student loans. Obama commented that he and the First Lady, Michelle Obama, “didn't finish paying off all of our student loans until about eight years ago, and I'm president of the United States."

The more serious points of discussion revolved around Obama’s plans to promote college education by reducing student debt, as well as his ongoing energy policies.

On Mitt Romney, Obama's presumptive Republican challenger in the November general election, the president said, “We’re not friends; his wife is lovely," and he "seems like somebody who cares about his family.”

For the most part, it seemed the audience was receptive of the president.

Cameron Parker, a UNC senior and former opinions editor with The Daily Tarheel, told msnbc.com, “People were really stoked by the president. Personally, I think one of the biggest highlights was seeing the president in a less formal setting. He was definitely in politicking mode, but we got to catch him in a more laid back and humorous setting.”

Of one potential dip in the mood, Parker added, “Fallon asked what Obama would pass if he could do one thing without opposition and Obama took a second. It felt like he wavered a bit before giving a pretty diluted answer about energy.”

UNC journalist Jarrad Cole live-tweeted from the event, noting “Fallon is super nervous,” and “Obama says he won't be legalizing marijuana anytime soon.”

Cole’s final tweet from the taping, “Fallon asked Obama if the campaign would get ugly. Obama didn't say no.”

After the event concluded, the late-night host offered his own impression of the show.

Tweeted Fallon, “The President has left the building. This has been one of the most exciting things I've ever done. #ObamaOnFallon.”

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Related content:

• Obama to college students: I feel your pain
• 3 more Secret Service employees forced out
• Romney hosts Rubio in coy VP audition
• Jon Stewart finds a running mate for Romney

Comic-book fans certainly know of Bizarro Superman, and "Seinfeld" aficionados are more than familiar with Bizarro Jerry -- references to characters who are mirror images (and thus exact opposites) of the hero/protagonist.

Today, we introduce you to Bizarro Obama vs. Romney: Republican Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown calling on Democrat Elizabeth Warren to release six years of her tax returns. That, of course, appears to be the exact opposite situation where the Democrats and President Obama's campaign are calling on Republican Mitt Romney to release his tax returns prior to 2010.

As the Boston Globe reports:

Republican US Senator Scott Brown plans to publicly release six years worth of returns later this week, his campaign said today in a letter that puts pressure on challenger Elizabeth Warren to do the same.

And the Brown campaign released this statement:

"It doesn't take a Harvard Law degree to see through Elizabeth Warren's game of cat and mouse and know she has something to hide. Whether she is concealing other big corporate clients like Travelers Insurance, which paid her enormous sums to fight against victims of asbestos poisoning, covering up sketchy financial transactions, or simply masking that she may take advantage of tax breaks she criticizes others for, Warren's nuanced refusal to disclose the tax years 2006 and 2007 exposes her hypocrisy when it comes to transparency in government."

The Warren campaign says that she'll release four years of her tax returns.

Yet this call by the Brown campaign might also pressure on Romney, who has released his tax returns for 2010 and who has filed an extension on his 2011 taxes.

Why?

Both Romney and Brown share the same top communications adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, who was the Romney aide who made the now-famous "Etch A Sketch" remark.

The Romney campaign wouldn't comment for attribution on this story. But a Republican strategist, who's not affiliated with the Romney camp, admits to First Read that this Brown strategy is "awkward" for the former Massachusetts governor and his campaign.
 
But the strategist adds that it's also awkward for Warren, as well as top Democrats who have attacked Romney on this issue but who are backing Warren.

"I have a lot of quotes from Chuck Schumer attacking Mitt Romney" over his tax returns, the Republican says. "There are two ways to look at it."

The Warren campaign says that its move to release four years of tax returns -- instead of six -- is consistent with the Democrats' call for Romney to release 10 year's worth, since both reflect the amount of time that Warren and Romney have been either in public service or running for office.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, who was the education secretary under Former President George H.W. Bush, talks about the race to 2012 and President Barack Obama's call for student loan reform. 

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., previews the Pennsylvania primary and shares his thoughts on who Mitt Romney should consider to become his running mate.

It doesn't hurt to make your state -- and yourself -- look as good as possible right when the nominee for your party is trying to pick a No. 2, especially when your job runs out in a year.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's PAC, Opportunity Virginia, is up with a new ad, promoting what's to love in Virginia (and who's been in charge).

But it was just last week that McDonnell denied to NBC's Chuck Todd on MSNBC's The Daily Rundown that his PAC would soon be going up with ads.

"You can't believe everything you read in the papers," McDonnell said. "We don't have any plans at this point."

He added, “We're always looking for ways to get out the positive message of Virginia," but then later said: “I don't know where those reports have come from."

Brian Snyder / REUTERS

Supporters cheer as they wait for a speech by Mitt Romney in Manchester, N.H. on April 24, 2012.

Updated 9:48 p.m. ET - Mitt Romney declared victory in his quest to become the Republican presidential nominee on Tuesday and kicked off his general election campaign against President Barack Obama in earnest following a clean sweep of primaries in the Northeast.

Romney's performance in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island allowed him to cap a tumultuous GOP primary cycle that extended longer than many expected. Romney's march toward the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination appeared, at this point, to be all but a formality.

And, eager to begin prosecuting his case against Obama, Romney took a victory lap in the general election swing state of New Hampshire -- rather than appearing in any of the states hosting nominating contests tonight or in the future -- to declare, "a better America begins tonight."

"Tonight I can say thank you, America," Romney told a cheering crowd in the Granite State. "After 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and more than a few long nights, I can say with confidence -- and gratitude -- that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility. And, together, we are going to win on Nov. 6."

Romney faced only token opposition from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul in Tuesday's contests. The former Massachusetts governor had all but assumed the status of presumptive Republican nominee two weeks ago, when his principal conservative rival, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, suspended his campaign.

Major Republican figures had finally begun to rally around Romney and offer their endorsements since that point, but he must still work toward winning the 1,144 delegates needed to formally secure the nomination. Romney had entered Tuesday having secured 698 of the necessary delegates, according to Associated Press projections, putting him on pace toward crossing the threshold in late May or early June.

Tonight's primaries may also signal the last gasp for Gingrich, as well, who had pinned his hopes of continuing his campaign on winning Delaware. But the ex-speaker offered no hint as to his future plans in brief remarks.

"I think it's a very substantial mistake for Gov. Romney to give a general election speech tonight in New Hampshire," Gingrich told reporters Tuesday. "He is not the nominee. I think it's a little insulting to people in these states." But he did indicate at a North Carolina event that "over the next few days, we're going to look realistically at where we're at."

Romney spent the evening focusing not on his remaining primary challenges, and instead trained his sights instead on the task of unseating Obama this fall.

"This has already been a long campaign, but many Americans are just now beginning to focus on the choice before the country. In the days ahead, I look forward to spending time with many of you personally. I want to hear what’s on your mind, hear about your concerns, and learn about your families," he said, promising to tell voters more about himself.

For Romney, that re-introduction is a delicate and important task. The most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that more Americans -- 36 percent -- had a negative impression of Romney than the 33 percent who said they viewed the former Massachusetts governor positively.

On tests of whether he or Obama is seen as more easygoing and likable, or more in touch with the middle class, the president badly outpaces Romney.

Mindful of that, Romney kept his speech keyed in closely on pocketbook issues, warning of "diversions and distractions" from the central issue of the economy.

"It's still about the economy, and we're not stupid," Romney said, referencing the famous political maxim first employed by Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992.

Obama's re-election team has been eager to reuse fodder from the primary season against the former Massachusetts governor in the context of the general election, underscoring the urgency for Romney to put the GOP contest to bed.

"Mitt Romney has spent the past year out on the campaign trail tearing down the president with a negative message that even Republicans who have endorsed him have criticized," said Ben LaBolt, Obama's campaign spokesman. "This marks the end of that monologue. Now he must put his record and his agenda next to the president’s."

Although Santorum dropped out two weeks ago, he’s among the conservatives who are yet to have thrown their support to Romney. NBC News learned Tuesday that the two men will meet on May 4 at a to-be-determined destination, though the meeting wasn't expected to produce an immediate endorsement.

That Romney had not yet won an endorsement before the primary in the state that Santorum had represented in Congress suggests that the rift between conservatives and the presumptive nominee has not yet fully healed.

Gingrich's persistence poses a minor challenge to that effort to unify the party, though the former speaker hints that he may soon address his future as a candidate.

Paul is also promising to forge ahead with his own campaign, perhaps through the late May primary in his native Texas. But Romney might have won the delegates he needs by that point.

NBC's Andrew Rafferty contributed to this report.

Updated at 12:05p.m. ET:

A once-mysterious $400,000 check written to a "super" political action committee supporting Mitt Romney's presidential campaign rekindled a nagging question this election season: Just how much disclosure is enough to satisfy transparency?

The Florida husband and wife behind the contribution were identified Monday as the beneficiaries of an investment fund and are among Romney's top Florida fundraisers. But up until then, the donation to the Restore Our Future super PAC — which reported the contribution from an unknown Florida firm called SeaSpray Partners LLC — left more questions than answers.

Inquiries about the donation intensified over the weekend after a Florida man who owned a similarly named company in Palm Beach told news organizations he never donated to the pro-Romney group. It turned out that Restore Our Future listed the wrong address for the actual SeaSpray donor.

Related: First Thoughts: Romney's half pivot  

The super PAC at first declined to disclose more about the mystery donors, but as the controversy grew, the committee on Monday acknowledged the Florida couple's role. Restore amended its federal filings Tuesday, naming the Florida couple as the two donors.

Welcome to the reality of recent federal rulings that have changed rules on how federal elections are financed. Those court cases, including the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in Citizens United, gave a green light to corporations and labor unions to spend unlimited amounts of cash to support or defeat candidates.

The federal rulings upheld longstanding disclosure requirements, and super PACs that receive that cash still file periodic reports with the Federal Election Commission. But regulations require that only basic information about a company be reported; as such, SeaSpray's history and background effectively remained anonymous.

"Citizens United has not only allowed unlimited corporate spending, but has also opened many loopholes in disclosure laws," said Tara Malloy, associate legal counsel for the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center. "We see this when corporations give to transparent vehicles like a federal political committee. And this case underscores how porous the disclosure laws are."

An Associated Press review of financial documents found SeaSpray is, in fact, a financial fund managed by Boston-based Hellman Jordan Management. One of the firm's top executives, Gerald Jordan, and his wife, Darlene, received $200,000 apiece in unspecified "disbursements," company executive Susan Lynch told The Associated Press, and asked that the money be sent directly to Restore Our Future rather than to the couple's personal bank accounts.

"We were happy to do that," Lynch said. The amended report that Restore Our Future filed Tuesday confirmed that the Jordans had donated $200,000 apiece.

Restore Our Future acknowledged the Jordans' involvement Monday after the AP confirmed the couple's role and raised questions about their involvement with the group. Super PAC spokeswoman Brittany Gross attributed the mistake to a clerical error and said the super PAC would file an updated report with the Federal Election Commission.

But earlier, Restore Our Future said it would not identify the donors and would only update the firm's address, which it said met federal disclosure rules. That set the stage for a detective-worthy whodunit among news organizations and watchdog groups that follow the campaign closely.

The revelations about the $400,000 donation — and the super PAC's reluctance to identify such wealthy supporters — illustrate the loosened rules overseeing the federal campaign finance system in the wake of a series of court rulings in recent years. In the current presidential campaign, most donors identify themselves, but in some cases corporate donors are able to disguise their names using limited liability partnerships.

"We've disclosed all the information that the FEC required," Carl Forti, the super PAC's founder and chief strategist, said last week after his group first posted the mystery $400,000 donation. "I can't tell you anything more about the company."

Indeed, the Jordans are hardly strangers to Romney and his presidential campaigns. The couple hosted a $50,000-per-couple fundraising event for Romney at their Florida home last week, and Darlene Jordan was listed in an invitation as a host of an Orlando fundraiser last August for the former Massachusetts governor.

The two have also offered financial support to Romney and the Republican Party. Gerald Jordan gave $2,500 to Romney's presidential campaign in June and April 2011, and Darlene Jordan contributed the maximum $30,800 to the Republican National Committee in December. Gerald Jordan also contributed more than $40,000 to a fundraising account for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a possible running mate for Romney.

Last summer, Restore Our Future refused to identify the source of its first $1 million contribution. Controversy flared until the secretive donor, a retired executive from Romney's old firm, Bain Capital, stepped forward and acknowledged the donation.

In its latest financial reports listing more than $8.6 million in donations in March, the super PAC supporting Romney listed several large donations without donor identities, including the $400,000 donation and a $250,000 donation from a Montana firm, Fair Oaks Finance LLC.

State records show Fair Oaks is registered to investment brokerage head Charles R. Schwab, who along with his wife, Helen, each gave $125,000 to the super PAC. Schwab has also given more than $80,000 to Republican candidates and causes in the current election cycle, including two $2,500 donations to Romney's presidential campaign.

Restore Our Future also received a $1 million gift from Huron Carbon LLC. That firm's identity turned out to be the West Palm Beach headquarters of Oxbow Carbon LLC, a fossil-fuel processor and mining firm headed by William Koch, who had already given $1 million to the pro-Romney group.

Romney’s half pivot toward the general election… Romney gives speech tonight in New Hampshire, but a new poll shows him trailing Obama there by nine points… Obama speaks in Chapel Hill, NC and Boulder, CO… It’s primary day in CT, DE, NY, PA, and RI, and we’re watching Romney’s percentages in those states… Delaware or bust for Newt?... Two PA primaries to watch… Priorities USA Action partnering with League of Conservation Voters?... And so you’re telling me there’s a chance: Boehner says there a one-in-three chance GOP could lose the House.

Jessica Kourkounis / Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at Mustang Expediting April 23, 2012 in Aston, Pennsylvania.

*** Romney’s half pivot: Today is another presidential primary day, but you know we’ve fully moved on to the general election when Mitt Romney began to pivot to swing voters yesterday -- ever so slightly. First, after taking a hard line on immigration during the primaries, he said in a press conference that he was open to “studying” Marco Rubio’s DREAM Act alternative. “I'm taking a look at his proposal. It has many features to commend it, but it’s something that we're studying.” (Translation: This is going to be something that I endorse soon, but not yet -- even though Marco Rubio is standing here next to me.) Second, he said he supports the student-loan push that President Obama is making. “I fully support the effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans,” Romney stated. But it really was just half of a pivot. After the press conference, the former Massachusetts governor delivered his usual serving of conservative red meat at a later town hall (repeal the health-care law, support voter ID measures, “I won’t apologize for America,” etc.). Bottom line: Romney is beginning his general-election pivot, but he’s not there just yet. He’s still minding his base. 

*** Romney’s trailing in New Hampshire: You also know we’re fully in general election when Romney isn’t delivering an address tonight in one of the primary states, or even an upcoming primary state. Rather, Romney will give a speech – entitled “A Better America Begins Tomorrow” -- at 9:00 pm ET in Manchester, New Hampshire. Unfortunately for Romney, a brand-new WMUR/University of New Hampshire poll shows President Obama leading Romney by nine points in the battleground state, 51%-42%. New Hampshire is a cautionary tale for Romney (despite owning a home there and serving as governor of a next-door state): Much of the southern part of the state is essentially a suburb of Boston. And what these poll numbers suggest is that Republicans are struggling in the ‘burbs. So if Romney’s down in New Hampshire, that also means he’s trailing in Northern Virginia and the Philly suburbs. New Hampshire is a state that has always been open to fiscal conservative messages but reticent about a focus on social conservative issues. Last year, New Hampshire was the battleground state Obama was struggling in the most, then the GOP began its conversation during the presidential primaries on non-economic issues (re: contraception) and the state seems to have moved dramatically.

*** It has been written -- “Those who have the youth have the future”: While Romney hits New Hampshire today, Obama will be in Chapel Hill, NC and Boulder, CO, where he will call on Congress to stop student loans from doubling. The president’s remarks in North Carolina take place at 1:15 pm ET, and his speech in Colorado is at 8:45 pm ET. Also while he’s in the Tar Heel State, Obama will sit down for an interview with Jimmy Fallon. And tomorrow, the president heads to Iowa City, IA. As we wrote yesterday, this is all about the youth vote.

*** Watching Romney’s percentages: Even though the general election campaign is now underway -- after Rick Santorum’s exit earlier this month -- there are five primaries today in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania (Santorum’s home state), and Rhode Island. As a result, this is the first primary day where Romney doesn’t face any real competition. So when we watch the returns, we’ll get a good idea of the true anti-Romney vote tonight. Does he get at least 50% in all of these contests? What about 60%? 70%?

*** The skinny on tonight’s primaries: At stake tonight are 222 total delegates. Per NBC’s John Bailey, Connecticut awards 25 (district delegates are winner-take-all per congressional district, at-large are proportional per statewide wide but winner-take-all with a majority); Delaware awards 17 delegates (and it’s winner-take-all per statewide vote); New York allocates 92 delegates (with district delegates going 2 for the winner and 1 for the runner-up unless there’s a majority and at-large delegates decided proportionally per statewide vote but needing to meet a 20% threshold); Pennsylvania awards 72 delegates but they’re not bound by the vote; and Rhode Island awards 16 delegates (both district and at-large delegates are proportional per statewide vote needing a 15% threshold). Polls close at 8:00 pm ET in Connecticut, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, and they close at 9:00 pm ET in New York. and Rhode Island. *** Correction *** Polls close at 8:00 pm ET in Rhode Island.

*** Delaware or bust for Newt? In an exclusive interview yesterday, Newt Gingrich told NBC’s Alex Moe that a poor showing in Delaware -- where he has been actively campaigning for the last few weeks -- could end his candidacy. "I think we need to take a deep look at what we are doing," he said. "We will be in North Carolina tomorrow night and we will look and see what the results are." Gingrich added, per Moe, that he would have to “reassess” his campaign if he doesn’t fare well in this winner-take-all contest. Give Newt credit for deciding if he can’t do what Christine O’Donnell did – win a Republican primary in Delaware – then maybe he should rethink his strategy. Call it the “Christine O’Donnell test.”

*** Two PA primaries to watch: In Pennsylvania, there are two other primaries worth watching tonight. The first is a battle of two incumbent Democratic congressmen, Jason Altmire and Mark Critz. From what we’ve heard, it’s going to be very close. The other is the GOP primary to see who emerges as the Republican challenger to Sen. Bob Casey (D). And the field is thin on formidable candidates: former Santorum staffer Marc Scaringi, businessman Steve Welch, businessman David Christian, and Sam Rohrer, the director of Americans for Prosperity’s branch in Pennsylvania. This GOP field should be a warning sign to Republicans who want to make this state competitive in November: They couldn’t find a top-tier or even second-tier challenger to take on Casey in this battleground state.

*** Priorities USA partnering with League of Conservation Voters? It appears that the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA Action is teaming up with the environmental group League of Conservation Voters for a nearly $1 million ad buy through mid-May. Smart Media, an ad-buying firm, reported that the two entities have purchased $980,000 on broadcast and cable TV in Colorado and Nevada. Asked for comment by First Read about the ad and possible partnership, Priorities USA’s Bill Burton replied, “We'll have some info for you in the next couple days.” Priorities USA Action has so far struggled in raising money for the presidential contest. In March, it reported raising $2.5 million for the month (up from $2 million in February) and it has $5 million in the bank. Meanwhile, Priorities USA Action is partnering with another Dem-leaning group -- American Bridge -- for this video hitting Romney on education.

*** So you’re telling me there’s a chance: In an interview on FOX last night, House Speaker John Boehner said that Republicans have a one-in-three chance of not holding the House, NBC’s Luke Russert and Frank Thorp report. "I would say that there is a two-in-three chance that we win control of the House again, but there's a one-in-three chance that we could lose," Boehner said in the FOX interview. "We've got a big challenge, and we've got work to do."

Countdown to Election Day: 197 days

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Senate Republicans are trying an unusual tactic to nullify new labor regulations that would speed up the time frame for unions to hold workplace elections.

The Senate will vote Tuesday on a rarely invoked measure, known as a resolution of disapproval, to overturn rules approved last year by the National Labor Relations Board.

Though the measure has little chance of passage — it also faces a White House veto threat — the vote forces Democrats in tough elections to take a stand on rules that have won praise from unions and sharp rebukes from business groups.

The rules simplify procedures and reduce legal delays that can hold up union elections after employees at a work site gather enough signatures to hold a unionization vote. They are set to take effect on April 30.

Unions call the changes a modest fix that would limit corporate stalling tactics, where litigation can delay elections while workers are can be subject to harassment, threats and even illegal firing.

During debate Monday, Republicans claimed the new rules would lead to "ambush" elections that barely leave company managers enough time to respond or counsel against forming a union.

"The NLRB has chosen to impose new rules to aid big labor at the expense of employees, small business employers and the jobs they would create," said Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, called the vote "the latest chapter in an unprecedented Republican assault on unions." Harkin, who chairs the Senate committee overseeing labor, said employers "have ample opportunity to express their views" on unions.

Business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have designated the vote a "key vote" — used to score members of Congress each year on their records. The AFL-CIO has also aggressively lobbied lawmakers to vote against the measure.

Updated 2:14 p.m. ET -- Courting college voters, President Barack Obama said Tuesday that Congress needs to keep the cost of college loans from skyrocketing for millions of students, taking an important election-year message to three states crucial to his bid to hold onto the White House.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama shakes hands before speaking to a crowd April 24 at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Obama told students at the University of North Carolina that he personally understood the burden of college costs, noting that he and first lady Michelle Obama had "been in your shoes" and didn't pay off their student loans until eight years ago.

"I didn't just read about this. I didn't just get some talking points about this. I didn't get a policy briefing on this," Obama said, recalling he and his wife shared a "mountain of debt" not a long time ago. "When we married, we got poor together."

The emphasis on his personal experience set up a contrast with his likely Republican presidential opponent, Mitt Romney, whose father was a wealthy auto executive.

By taking on student debt, Obama spoke to middle-class America and targeted an enormous burden that threatens the economic recovery. He was heading to campuses in the South, West and Midwest to sell his message to colleges audiences bound to support it.

Pressuring Republicans in Congress to act, he sought to energize the young people essential to his campaign — those who voted for him last time and the many more who have turned voting age since then. Obama urged students to take their message to social media sites like Twitter to pressure their lawmakers.

Both Obama and Romney have expressed support for freezing the current interest rates on the loan for poorer and middle-class students but lawmakers are still exploring ways to pay for the plan. The issue is looming because the rate will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1 without intervention by Congress, an expiration date chosen in 2007 when a Democratic Congress voted to chop the rate in half. 

Updated 4:05pm ET The trustees of the Social Security system said Monday the fund that helps sustain retiree and survivors’ benefits will become exhausted in 2033, three years sooner than they projected last year. 

At that point, payroll taxes and taxation of Social Security benefits will provide only enough income to pay about 75 percent of the benefits that Congress has promised to retirees and survivors.

In practical terms, this means that a 40-year-old worker who is eligible to collect retirement benefits in 2039, would see his or her expected retirement benefit cut by about 25 percent, unless Congress took action to change the program’s funding or its benefit structure.

The trustees attributed a big part of the change in their forecast to “slower growth in average earnings, lower interest rates, and higher unemployment rates due to a longer period of recovery from the recent recession,” as well as to a 3.6 percent cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits last December.

Last year, Social Security paid benefits of $725 billion. There were about 55 million beneficiaries.

In their annual report, the trustees also estimated that Social Security’s Disability Insurance fund will be exhausted in 2016, two years sooner than last year’s estimate. Congress will need to take action to avert that outcome, with the most likely remedy being a reallocation of the payroll tax between the part of the tax that supports Social Security’s retirement and survivors’ benefits and the part of the tax that pays for disability benefits.

The Social Security system does have assets in the form of $2.7 trillion in Treasury bonds -- but those assets must be redeemed – cashed in – in order to pay benefits.

“The redemption of those bonds can only occur out of current income,” explained Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad last year. “The general fund has been borrowing from Social Security and we've borrowed well over $2 trillion,” he said. “That money has got to be paid back. How's it going to be paid back? It's going to be paid back by the other general expenditures of the federal government having to be reduced to make way for the payments that we're going to have to make on those bonds.”

The trustees said that to keep the Social Security trust funds solvent over the next 75 years, Congress could take a number of steps:

• increase the payroll tax rate from its current level of 12.4 percent to 15.01 percent;
• reduce benefits by 16.2 percent;
• find alternative sources of revenue;
• adopt some combination of these approaches.

Separately, the trustees, who are also the trustees of the Medicare program, reported that the Medicare fund that pays hospital costs for older and disabled Americans will be exhausted by 2024, the same forecast as they made last year.

After the assets of the Medicare fund are gone, if Congress were to take no action, projected Medicare revenue would be adequate to cover 87 percent of the estimated spending in 2024 and about two-thirds of projected costs in 2050.

The trustees’ report underscored the need for Congress to either change the funding of Medicare or curb the increasing cost of the benefits being paid out, or address both funding and benefits.

Reaction to the trustees’ reports varied widely along the ideological spectrum.

Jason Fichtner, a senior research fellow at the free-market oriented Mercatus Center at George Mason University, said the report showed that Social Security will be facing an increasing mismatch between taxes being paid in and benefits being paid out.

“The longer we wait, the higher the tax rate is going to have to be to make up the difference… This is a big shortfall and it's just going to get larger with each passing year if we don’t do something to reform Social Security,” he said.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said, “Despite the repeated efforts of Republicans to privatize Social Security and end the Medicare guarantee, these vital initiatives remain strong.  Today’s Trustees’ report affirms that Social Security and Medicare will continue to provide critical benefits to seniors and other Americans.”

AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka said in a statement that the report “confirms that Social Security remains a vibrant, strong, and durable program….The Social Security surplus is large and growing. Despite lower than expected wage and economic growth and unexpected increases in the cost of living, Social Security will be able to pay full scheduled benefits at least until 2033 absent congressional action.”

He pledged that the labor union confederation “will oppose any Social Security benefit cuts, such as a reduction of COLAs (cost of living adjustments) or an increase in the retirement age, no matter who proposes them.”

But Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Budget, saw the trustees report as “a good reminder of what we've known for decades now -- that the Social Security program is on a troubling path and must be reformed. Time is not on our side, and the longer we wait the harder it is going to be to fix this program."

Jae C. Hong / AP

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, accompanied by by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., talks to reporters in Aston, Pa., Monday, April 23, 2012.

Wednesday’s argument before the Supreme Court over the constitutionality of an Arizona law cracking down on illegal immigrants is almost as much of a 2012 campaign event as it is a courtroom face-off between the Obama administration and Republicans.

This week’s oral argument focuses attention on illegal immigration just a few days after the most prominent Latino Republican, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, highlighted the division between himself and Mitt Romney on the Arizona law, saying, “I do not believe that laws like Arizona’s should be a model for the country.”

A potential vice presidential running mate for Romney, Rubio campaigned with Romney on Monday in the Philadelphia suburbs. Romney told reporters he was studying an immigration bill that Rubio is drafting.

Rubio also said last week, “I understand why the people of Arizona did what they did (in passing the immigration law, known as S.B. 1070) and I think if you live in a state like Arizona that was facing and is facing the challenges that Arizona faces, people would understand why they reacted the way they did.”

He added that Arizona had a constitutional right to enact its law, but “I would much rather the federal government deal with the illegal immigration issue and modernize our legal immigration system ... .”

Rubio’s comments put him at odds with Romney, who in a debate in Arizona in February called the state’s immigration law “a model.”

Romney has also said he hoped the law “will be implemented with care and caution not to single out individuals based upon their ethnicity.” 

The Arizona law, enacted in 2010 by a Republican-controlled legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, makes it a state crime for non-citizens who are unlawfully in the United States to work in Arizona, requires police officers to check the immigration status of any person involved in a routine stop, and requires the arrest of any person whom a police officer has probable cause to believe is an illegal immigrant.

Recommended: Mexican immigration to U.S. at a standstill, report says

Before the Supreme Court
Wednesday’s argument is the second time in two years that an Arizona immigration statute has been before the high court.

Last May, in a 5-3 decision, the justices upheld an Arizona law requiring employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check the legal status of newly hired employees, and which permits the state to revoke business licenses of employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who served as President Barack Obama’s solicitor general, recused herself from that case and also from the case being argued Wednesday.

Arguing for Arizona on Wednesday will be Paul Clement, who served as solicitor general in the Bush administration; facing him will be Donald Verrilli, the current solicitor general. They’re the same duo who squared off in the oral argument at the high court three weeks ago over the the president's health care overhaul.

Kagan’s recusal creates the possibility of a four-to-four split among the justices. Such a split would leave in place the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit which blocked enforcement of key sections of the Arizona law last year.

But the appeals court decision wouldn’t be binding precedent, which means other states could enact laws similar to Arizona’s (as a few states already have done) and hope a future Supreme Court ruling would uphold them.

The Obama administration argues that regulating immigration is the job of the federal government, not the states, and that where the federal government has pre-empted state action, no state can intrude on federal turf.

Verrilli says in his brief to the high court that allowing states to put illegal immigrants in jail “would impermissibly interfere with the Executive Branch’s discretion, conferred by Congress, to determine whether or not a particular alien’s unlawful presence warrants detention or removal.”

The Arizona law, he contended, deprives the federal government of the power to decide whether a particular illegal immigrant in Arizona ought to deported or be allowed to stay in United States.

In an interview with NBC’s Pete Williams, Clement said a crucial issue is “to what extent Congress, having made it pretty clear they want the immigration laws enforced, can essentially have that judgment overridden in part by the Justice Department and their enforcement posture.”

He contended that “this Arizona law is exactly what Congress had in mind, especially when it comes to making sure that there’s cooperation between state and local law enforcement and the federal immigration officials.”

In his brief, Clement also contended that the 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli immigration law focused “only on the demand side” by penalizing employers who hire illegal immigrants.

He said the Arizona law “reinforces” the 1986 federal law by “addressing the supply side” – punishing non-citizens unlawfully in the United States who try to work in Arizona.

What it could mean to Latino voters
Just as the high court’s “Obamacare” decision, when it is handed down this summer, will have an impact on the November election, so, too, will the Arizona decision.

If the justices rule in favor of Arizona, Democrats hope it will spark a surge of Latino voter registration and a wave of Latino votes in November not only in Arizona but in in hotly contested states such as Colorado, Nevada, and Florida.

Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat who represents a Latino-majority congressional district in Arizona, said, “If the court were to uphold the law, the alternative left to many of us would be that we need to politically change the culture in Arizona because the court will not be that refuge for us.”

Conversely, if the justices strike down the law, “it’s kind of like, ‘we fought the law and we won.’ But that victory wouldn’t dampen what’s going on out there” with Democratic efforts to register and mobilize Latino voters, Grijalva said.

Stanford University political scientist Gary Segura, who is a principal in the polling firm Latino Decisions, said, “There’s only good news for the president in this one, at least among Latino voters and probably overall.”

Segura points to the increase in Latino voting in California after voters in that state approved Proposition 187 to deny state benefits to illegal immigrants in 1994. If the Supreme Court upholds the Arizona law, that would probably mobilize Latino voters more effectively than if the court strikes down the law, he said. But either way, “simply having the court raise the salience of immigration helps the president,” Segura said.

Romney seems aware that there’s some political risk for Republicans in the immigration issue. At a fund-raising event last week in Florida, Romney warned donors that polling shows Latinos overwhelmingly favoring Obama – a fact which "spells doom for us," he said.

Romney, Rubio, and other Republicans seem to be edging towards a more accommodating approach to younger non-citizens who were brought to the United States as children by their illegal immigrant parents.

The Senate has twice voted to reject the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act which would give a road to citizenship to non-citizens who’d been brought to the United States as children under age 16 by their illegal immigrant parents.

A new proposal?
Rubio has been crafting a Republican DREAM bill that would allow such young non-citizens to stay in the country and apply for residency.

Romney was non-committal Monday about Rubio’s proposal.

“He and I have spoken about his thinking on his version of a different act than the DREAM Act that’s been proposed in the Senate,” Romney told reporters Monday as Rubio stood by his side at a press conference.

Romney said “the one that’s been proposed in the Senate creates a new category of citizenship for certain individuals. The senator’s proposal does not create that new category, but instead provides visas” for younger people brought to United States by their illegal immigrant parents. “I’m taking a look at his proposal. It has many features to commend it, but it’s something that we’re studying.”

Referring to the Rubio proposal, Frank Sharry, a veteran advocate of comprehensive immigration reform, said “I think it has caught the Obama administration and some Democrats a little bit on the back foot.” Sharry said if Rubio can bring a dozen or so GOP senators with him to support his proposal it might create momentum for a vote in the Senate.

Romney said at that Florida fundraising event last week his party must offer a "Republican DREAM Act," although it’s not yet entirely clear how a GOP version would differ from the one which the Senate rejected in 2007 and again in 2010, with most Republican senators and some Democrats voting against it. Romney has pledged to veto the Democratic version of the DREAM Act.

As for this November’s election, Segura said there’s an important difference between the DREAM Act and the Arizona law. “The DREAM Act is a motivator around the issue of immigration for people who think that’s important and are emotionally attached to it, but S.B. 1070 has the potential to mobilize even people who are not all that interested in immigration.”

S.B. 1070 will have a wider motivating effect, he said, because the law opens the way to arresting people simply because they appear to be Latino or are speaking Spanish – even if they are American citizens or legal permanent residents. The only basis for identifying a non-citizen illegally in Arizona “would be the language that they’re speaking and their looks – and that affects all Latinos,” he said.

NBC's Pete Williams contributed to this report.

Surrounded by the haunting memories of the Holocaust, a solemn President Barack Obama on Monday announced a new crackdown on Iran and Syria and said the world must never again allow hatred to take root into the "madness" of mass atrocities.

The president announced new sanctions on people and entities in Iran and Syria that use technology to target citizens and erode their human rights. More broadly, Obama spoke of the work that "will never be done" — the global challenge of preventing atrocities.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, lights candles in the Hall of Remembrance as they tour the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

To Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Obama said: "You show us the way. If you cannot give up, if you can believe, then we can believe."

In his first appearance as president at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Obama broadly defended his government's steps to protect innocent people, saying: "We have saved countless lives."

His words came as the United States is under pressure to help rally an international solution in Syria, where President Bashar Assad is accused of running a lethal crackdown on his people.

"National sovereignty is never a license to slaughter your people," Obama said.

The president announced he would be giving a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a wartime emissary of the Polish government-in-exile who was among the first people to provide accounts of the Holocaust to the world.

Obama's new steps aim to counter violations of human abuses through technology. While rebellions in countries like Libya and Egypt have been fueled by cellphones and social media, other regimes have used technology to track dissidents or block Internet access.

For example, Iran has provided the regime of Assad with technology to jam cellphones and block or monitor the social networking sites rebels would use to organize demonstrations.

Obama has also asked the U.S. intelligence community to include assessments of the likelihood of mass killings in its National Intelligence Estimates.

The White House also announced a set of "challenge" grants for companies that help create new technologies to help warn citizens in countries where mass killings may occur.

Before delivering remarks, Obama spent about 30 minutes touring the museum with Wiesel. The president and Wiesel quietly entered the museum's Hall of Remembrance, where they lit candles and paused, heads bowed, for a moment of silence.

Obama placed his candle in the hall's Buchenwald section in memory of the concentration camp his great-uncle helped liberate at the end of World War II. 

BALTIMORE, MD -- Newt Gingrich considers himself a man of “really big ideas” and has used his presidential run to share them with thousands of Americans.

The former House speaker faced criticism from opponents for being “grandiose,” which prompted Gingrich to respond in January: “I accept the charge that I am grandiose and that Americans are instinctively grandiose."

While Gingrich continues fighting the increasingly uphill battle of trying to become the Republican nominee, here is a recap of some of the more fantastical ideas he has thrown out over the past 10 months of the campaign.

CREATING A MOON COLONY
"By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon. And it will be American." – Cocoa, FL 1.25.12

AP / Evan Vucci

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, center, and his wife Callista, tour the Wilheit Packaging factory in Gainesville, Ga.

DESTINY IN SPACE
“I want to restate, far from backing off, I want to restate, America has a destiny in space. It is a part of who we are. We are not going to back off from John Kennedy’s challenge and we are not going to go timidly into the night allowing the Chinese to dominate the future of space.” – Huntsville, AL 3.6.12

SEND PACKAGE TO ILLEGALS
“UPS and FedEx move twenty four million packages a day and track them in virtually real time. Over here is the federal government, the world that fails. And let me give you an example of what I’m talking about: twenty four million packages tracked while they move; eleven million illegal visitors sitting still. Or 15 million. One of my proposals is very simple. We send a package to every person who’s here illegally. When it’s delivered, we pull it up, we know exactly where they are. It’s on the computer.” – Council Bluffs, IA 11.30.11

NATIONAL SECURITY
“You think about an Iranian nuclear weapon.  You think about the dangers – to Cleveland, or to Columbus, or to Cincinnati, or to New York.   Remember what it felt like on 9/11 when 3100 Americans were killed.  Now imagine an attack where you add 2 zeros.  And it’s 300,000 dead.  Maybe a half million wounded.  This is a real danger.  This is not science fiction.  That’s why I think it’s important that we have the strongest possible national security.” – Cleveland, OH 2.8.12

CHANGE ALL OF AMERICA
“You have a bipartisan establishment that has been running this country, that has created a gigantic mess.  You have bureaucracies that are out of control, judges who think they can be dictators.  You have systems around this country.  You have laws that don’t work.  So, we have got to change not just Obama, we have got to change the entire direction of the United States of America to get it back on track and that is our obligation to these young people." – Rock Hill, SC 1.11.12

HOW TO FIX GAS PRICES
“The long-term answer is American’s producing their own energy and telling other people, ‘you may have a problem, we don’t because we can be the largest oil producer in the world by the end of this decade. Bigger than Russia, bigger than Saudi Arabia. We have vastly more resources than any other country if we use them.” – San Francisco, CA 2.25.12

AFGHANISTAN
“We’re not going to fix Afghanistan.  It’s not possible…There’s some problems where what you have to do is say, ‘You know, you’re going to have to figure out how to live your own miserable life because I’m not here – you clearly don’t want to hear from me how to be unmiserable.’  And that’s what you’re going to see happen.” – Nashville, TN 2.27.12

ISLAMIC WORLD
“I believe we need to reassess every element of our relationship with the Islamic world and we need to be prepared to do whatever it takes to become economically independent and to be able to tell the truth. And American president who cannot tell the truth cannot possibly defend this country.” – Rome, GA 2.28.12

MEET WITH DEMOCRATS AND PUT THEM IN GROUPS
”Between the election and the inauguration, I will try to meet with every Democrat individually and sit down with them face to face and say look I’m going to be here for four years and what is it that you’re trying to get done that’s compatible with what I’m trying to get down. Now, they’ll break down into three groups. There will be the crazies. We won’t invite them back. There will be hardheaded guys who you can get occasionally. And there will be folks who say I’m glad we’re trying to do this together, let’s see what we can get done.” – Mobile, AL 3.10.12

PAY-PER-VIEW DEBATE
”Let me just say to the president: I will be glad to debate him anywhere, any time, and I’ll go a step further just to make it non-political. We ought to debate on pay-per-view and we ought to charge ten bucks to watch the debate, and it ought to go to a charity of our mutual choice, and it would be the largest charity fundraiser in the country this year. And the topic ought to be price of gasoline.” – Shreveport, LA 3.20.12

ATTITUDE OF MODERN WORLD
“The psychological attitude of the modern world is such that if Thomas Edison invented the electric light in the modern era, it would be reported on the network news as the candle making industry was threatened today. And somebody on the left would jump up and say this was all an excuse for killing poor people by putting electricity in their homes, and who knows what the electricity will do to them. And is this really a gamble to electrocute people? Think about -- Everything we do nowadays is negative.” – Frederick, MD 4.2.12

OBAMA/BIRTHDAY CAKE RECIPE
“If you went to somebody who was a great cook and you said ‘do you think you can bake a birthday cake’ and they said ‘sure I can bake a birthday cake,’ the odds are pretty high they’ll be able to bake a birthday cake. Now it helps to have a recipe for birthday cakes and it helps to have baked one. President Obama’s biggest challenge is, that he has exactly the wrong ideas. He belongs to an ideology that believes the way you get hard eggs is you freeze them (laughs)…. This is his whole problem with job creation.” – Dyersville, IA 12.27.11

FOOD STAMPS
“And so I’m prepared, if the NAACP invites me, I’ll go to their convention to talk about why the African American community should demand pay checks and not be satisfied with food stamps. And I’ll go to them and I’ll explain a brand new social security opportunity for young people, which would be particularly good for African American males, because they’re the group that gets the smallest return on social security…” – Plymouth, NH 1.5.12

PAY KIDS TO WORK
“You have a very poor neighborhood. You have kids who are required under law to go to school. They have no money, they have habit of work. But what if you paid them part time in the afternoon to sit in the clerical office and greet people that came in. What if you paid them to work as the assistant librarian? And I’d pay them as early as was reasonable and practical. And then we get into the janitor thing. These letters were written saying janitorial work is really hard and really dangerous. Fine. So what if they became assistant janitors and their job was to mop the floor and clean the bathroom and you pay them?” – Des Moines, IA 12.1.11

BEAR ARMS IN OUR TRUCKS
“You can’t put a gun rack in a Volt. So, let’s be clear what this election is all about. We believe in the right to bear arms and we like to bare the arms in our truck, there.” – Peachtree City, GA 2.17.12

NOT BOW TO SAUDI KING
“If you would like to have a national American energy policy, never again bow to a Saudi king and pay $2.50 a gallon, Newt Gingrich will be your candidate.” – San Francisco, CA 2.25.12

IRAN
“We should indicate calmly and decisively that any act to close the Straits of Hormuz will be considered an act of war and we will eliminate the government of Iran.” – Knoxville, TN 3.5.12

IMMIGRATION
“I think the vast majority of them should go home. And we should be very clear about this. If you are here without any great ties to the United States and you came here illegally, you just need to leave and apply for the guest worker program from back home. Period…I do think that if you have somebody in your neighborhood who has been here for 25 years, and they belong to your church and they have three kids and two grandkids, and they have been paying taxes and working hard the entire time, it’s going to be very, very hard to get the American people to agree that we should tear up those families and expel them.” – Naples, FL 11.25.11

COURTS
“I do think it’s legitimate for the Congress and the president to address the 9th circuit’s aggressive anti-religious bias but I think that will be done with other methods. I’d ask the Congress to look seriously at either impeaching or replacing the 9th circuit.” – South El Monte, CA 1.15.12

GINGRICH TREATY
“I proposed yesterday what Chris Cox of the NRA called the Gingrich Treaty. As president, I would propose that the United States submit a treaty that says that the right to bear arms is a universal human right and that every human being on the planet should have the right to bear arms. That the Second Amendment should apply everywhere." – Raleigh, NC 4.14.12

BRAIN SCIENCE RESEARCH
"The number of things we'll learn by learning about the brain will absolutely pay for itself probably by a thousand to one or better. Literally in terms of cost to the government … This is a very big idea in an area that I don't know of any political leader who is willing to tackle that would lead to a dramatic explosion of new science that would lead directly to a better quality outcome for health which would lower the cost of healthcare which would help solve our long term budget problems and would create a huge new zone of creating American jobs. But it requires having a conversation in an area the people just aren't used to talking about politically.” – Iowa City, IA 12.14.12

It's official: President Barack Obama will clinch the Democratic nomination for president Tuesday, ending a low-key primary race that many Americans probably didn't realize was happening.

Obama is certain to reach the 2,778 delegates he needs to secure his party nod for a second time when five states vote on Tuesday. He has won almost every delegate so far, with a few exceptions in some Southern states that won't vote Democratic in the fall anyway.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

President Barack Obama will clinch the Democratic nomination for president Tuesday, ending a low-key primary race that many Americans probably didn't realize was happening.

But don't expect a big party, or any party. Campaign officials say they are focused on the general election, as they have been for months, and the all-but-certain Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

All this is a stark difference from four years ago.

At this time in 2008, Obama was still in an epic primary battle against Hillary Rodham Clinton. The fight for the nomination didn't end until June, on the last day of the primary calendar, when Obama inched across the finish line on his way to the general election and eventually the White House.

There was a party that night, and why not? Obama was a big underdog heading into the 2008 primaries. Facing the well-financed former first lady, Obama was the junior senator from Illinois, a black man with a funny-sounding name. No foreign policy experience. No military experience.

Obama's resume may have been a bit thin, but he parlayed his compelling life story and an inspiring message of hope and change into an unlikely run for the Democratic nomination and victory over Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

The partying was intense that night in 2008 when Obama became the first black man to win a major party nomination to run for president. Obama's top campaign aides were in a Chicago bar near campaign headquarters. The candidate wasn't there, but the bar tab was open.

"There are red shots, blue shots and green ones. I have no idea what I'm drinking, and don't give a damn," Jeff Berman, Obama's 2008 delegate expert, wrote in his new book about the 2008 campaign, "The Magic Number."

"Time after time, we lock arms, let out a yell, and send it down the hatch."

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt was succinct when asked if the campaign was planning a similar celebration Tuesday night, after the primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York and Rhode Island.

"No sir."

This year, Obama's march to the nomination has generated little interest because he has no major primary challenger, no one who made the ballot in more than a handful of states.

In Iowa, which gave Obama his first victory in January 2008, Democratic caucus-goers didn't even vote for president this year. Instead, they held rallies to fire up supporters for the general election.

Democratic voters, however, are not unanimously behind the president.

In Oklahoma, anti-abortion protestor Randall Terry, who founded Operation Rescue, got 18 percent of the vote in the Democratic presidential primary March 6. That should have been good enough to win eight delegates, but state party officials said Terry didn't follow party rules and was not a "bona fide Democrat."

The delegates were awarded to Obama; Terry complained he was the victim of "political insider trading."

In Alabama, 18 percent of Democratic voters voted for "uncommitted" in the March 13 primary, so the state party will send eight uncommitted delegates to the Democratic national convention.

Obama is unlikely to win Oklahoma or Alabama in the general election. Regardless, LaBolt said Obama's campaign is busy building the largest grass-roots operation ever.

"Now that we are on the doorstep of the general election, the choice Americans will have in November has already come into view: between a president who has fought every day to create jobs and restore economic security for the middle class, and a Republican nominee that would return to the same policies that led to the economic crisis," LaBolt said.

Republicans have a different view, now that Obama has a record to run on.

"He was a blank slate four years ago, and people projected onto that blank slate their hopes for the future," said John Ryder, a member of the Republican National Committee from Tennessee. "Now we've got a record. How'd that work out for you?"

Berman, who is not with the Obama campaign this year, said Obama may not be able to recapture the same magic he had in 2008, but he still has plenty of advantages.

"He can't have what he had the first time," Berman said in an interview. "But it's not like he lost everything. They know where their people are, they just have to figure out how to motivate them."

AP / Carolyn Kaster

President Barack Obama heads to Chapel Hill, N.C. and Boulder, Colo. (on Tuesday) and Iowa City, Iowa (on Wednesday) to talk about student loans.

Obama focuses on the youth vote… Romney takes a VP test drive of sorts with Rubio… Breaking down the Obama-vs.-Romney money chase… Obama’s left jab at Romney… Huntsman blasts the GOP… And Hatch survives Utah GOP convention but still faces a primary (but that’s a MUCH better position than Bob Bennett was in).

*** Only the young: As we begin the third week of the young general-election campaign, there are two different tracks of stories -- Team Obama is focusing on the youth vote, while Team Romney is conducting another round of veepstakes auditions. We’ll start with the youth vote. President Obama heads to Chapel Hill, N.C. and Boulder, Colo. on Tuesday, and Iowa City, Iowa on Wednesday to talk about student loans. They’re all “official” trips of course, and a Jimmy Fallon appearance is sprinkled in as well. And today, the Obama campaign is holding a conference call on the subject at noon ET. “While the president is calling on Congress to stand up for our college students, Mitt Romney and the Romney-Ryan Budget would undercut them -- letting student interest rates double and gutting critical programs that help students go to college and graduate,” the campaign says in a press release. As our NBC/WSJ poll showed, Obama is leading Mitt Romney among 18- to 34-year-olds, 60%-34%. But the problem for Team Obama isn’t support; it’s enthusiasm. Per an analysis released by NBC/WSJ co-pollster Bill McInturff (R), 63% of this age group expressed high interest in the election in our April ’08 poll. Now just 45% of them are, according to our latest survey. That’s a challenge for the Obama campaign. It’s the biggest drop-off in “interest” of any key voting group we’re tracking.

*** Romney takes a test drive with Rubio: Meanwhile, Romney is holding another veepstakes audition of sorts -- campaigning with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at a town hall in Aston, Pa. at 12:55 pm ET. This comes after Romney has already stumped with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte and South Dakota Sen. John Thune. In addition, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman has recently campaigned solo for Romney in Pennsylvania. For Romney, doing these public auditions, especially with folks who could help with a specific weak voting bloc, is probably a decent way for the GOP challenger to get attention for some of his travels. Expect more of these events with different short-listers. By the way, Jeb Bush opened the VP door slightly in a Newsmax interview. “Well I’d consider it, but I doubt I’ll get a call, and I don’t know if it’s the right thing for me to do,” he said. “I didn’t run for president for a similar kind of reason, so I’m all in to try to help him get elected.” But then we saw conservative commentator George Will try to close that door. “If Jeb Bush is to be Romney’s running mate, it would mean that in seven of nine presidential elections there would be a Bush on the Republican ticket,” he said on ABC yesterday. “And it gets hard to argue that we’re not a tribal society at that point.”

*** The money chase: On Friday, we found out that Obama had raised $35 million for his campaign in March (with another $18 million raised by the DNC and other committees) -- which was Obama's biggest fundraising month of the cycle so far. The Obama camp also reported having $104 million in the bank. By comparison, the Romney campaign last month raised $13 million and has $10 million cash on hand. So Obama, as of March 31, holds a 10-to-1 advantage in available cash. But when you factor in the major political parties (DNC, RNC) plus the top Super PACs (the pro-Romney Restore Our Future, the anti-Obama American Crossroads, and pro-Obama Priorities USA Action), Team Obama’s cash-on-hand edge drops to less than 2-to-1, $147 million to $87 million. And that doesn’t count the 501c4 groups (like Crossroads GPS, Americans for Prosperity, and American Energy Alliance).

*** Obama’s left jab at Romney: Don’t miss this New York Times piece from over the weekend, which noted that Obama and his campaign are no longer attacking Romney for being a flip-flopper; instead, they want the former Massachusetts governor to own the conservative views he expressed during the GOP primary season. “For Mr. Obama, the decision to start going after Mr. Romney from the left is as much a logical evolution as is any attempt by Mr. Romney to move to the center, in particular Mr. Romney’s effort now to try to woo Hispanic and female voters who may have been alienated by some of the talk coming out of the Republican primary.”  These next three months of the campaign are mostly about who is going to win the fight to define Romney -- Team Obama or Team Romney.

*** On the trail: A day before tomorrow’s primaries, Mitt Romney stumps in Pennsylvania -- first with Tom Ridge in Township, Pa. and then with Marco Rubio in Aston, Pa… Ann Romney delivers remarks at the Prescott Bush Awards Dinner in Stamford, Ct… And Newt Gingrich stumps in Delaware.

*** Other odds and ends: Vice President Joe Biden is in the all-important battleground state of Florida, visiting Everglades National Park… And the RNC has a web video hitting Obama over having lobbyists and former lobbyists work in his administration and donate money to his campaign.

*** Huntsman blasts the GOP: Is it possible that Jon Huntsman could play a bigger role in the general election than he did during the GOP primary campaign? “Former Republican candidate Jon Huntsman took a battle axe to his own party, comparing it to China's Communist Party and criticizing it's standard bearer in a wide-ranging interview at the 92nd Street Y Sunday night,” Buzzfeed reported. Recounting his first experience on the presidential debate stage in Iowa last August, Huntsman says he was struck by the question ‘Is this the best we could do?’ Huntsman, the former Utah governor and once President Barack Obama's Ambassador to China, expressed disappointment that the Republican Party disinvited him from a Florida fundraiser in March after he publicly called for a third party. ‘This is what they do in China on party matters if you talk off script,’ he said. Huntsman said he regrets his decision to oppose a 10-to-1 spending cuts to tax increase deal to cut the deficit at the Iowa debate lamenting: ‘if you can only do certain things over again in life.’”

*** Hatch survives convention vote but still faces primary: The good news for Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch: He accomplished something that Bob Bennett was UNABLE to do -- escape the Utah GOP convention. The bad news: Because Hatch didn’t get 60% of the vote (he got 59%), he’ll face a primary challenge on June 26 from state Sen. Dan Liljenquist. While Hatch would have definitely preferred to avoid the primary, do remember that polling in 2010 showed that Bennett probably would have won a statewide primary; his challenge was getting out of the convention.

Countdown to the CT, DE, NY, PA, and RI primaries: 1 day
Countdown to Election Day: 197 days

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A Meet the Press roundtable discusses recent scandals at government agencies and the impact they have on society.

Obama re-election campaign consultant David Axelrod discusses various political issues with NBC’s David Gregory.

Congressmen Darrell Issa and Peter King discuss congressional oversight of government agencies with NBC’s David Gregory.

A handful of scandals recently across multiple government agencies including the United States Secret Service have raised serious questions about discipline in our government. 

Six members of the Secret Service have already lost their jobs over the prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Columbia and Homeland Security Committee Chair Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said there could be more to follow.

"I would suspect within the very near future to have several other Secret Service agents leaving the agency," he said.

However, even after this embarrassing scandal for the Secret Service, both Chairmen Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Peter King (R-NY), as well as president Obama's chief re-election strategist David Axelrod expressed support for the agencies leader, Mark Sullivan. 

"We're looking over the shoulder of Mark Sullivan and asking the director to do an exhaustive search. ... And I have great confidence he's doing it," Issa said.

The other government scandal we discussed was lavish spending of taxpayer money by the General Services Administration (GSA). David Axelrod said the president was "apoplectic" about the it, adding, "It was very enraging to him."

You can watch our entire program on our website to hear more from our interviews with David Axelrod, Representatives Issa and King, as well as our political roundtable.

Moreover, you can watch our Meet the Press Take Two with Mike Bolt, the keeper of the Stanley Cup, who made an appearance to talk about the history of one of the sporting world's most storied trophies.

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