Gregory Shaver / AP

About 2,500 people gathered to see First lady Michelle Obama speak Friday during a campaign event at Memorial Hall in Racine, Wis.

RACINE, WI -- Days before early voting begins here in Wisconsin, first lady Michelle Obama told an audience of several thousand people Friday to get to the polls ahead of election day, declaring that the work of her husband, President Barack Obama, is "all on the line."

"Early voting starts here in Wisconsin on Monday," Obama said, before explaining that new or unregistered voters could register on the spot at polling locations.

It was the latest plea from the first lady to vote early, delivered in yet another state that will open its polls in advance of November 6th.

In late September, on the second day polls were open in Iowa, Obama urged students at the University of Northern Iowa to visit a so-called satellite polling station the campaign had opened on campus for that day only. 

And Monday, Obama told college students in Cleveland to vote early in Ohio -- declaring she had that day voted by mail in Illinois. 

Early voting will be available this election cycle in a total of 32 states and the District of Columbia.

The Obama campaign hopes that by encouraging early commitments, it can create early gains even as it pushes a message on the economy that dismisses snap judgment and calls for patience.

Here in Racine County, a Democratic area south of Milwaukee, Obama told voters that while "we still have a long way to go to completely rebuild our economy," there are signs "every day" that things are looking up. 

"The stock market has doubled.  Exports have grown by 45-percent.  Manufacturers have added 500-thousand jobs," Obama said.  "Do you hear me?" she added, growing animated.

The first lady's visit comes as an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows the president leading Republican nominee Mitt Romney by six points among likely voters, 51 to 45 percent.

But it also comes days after a testy debate on Long Island, N.Y., in which Romney argued that improvements to the economy haven't come fast enough.

The first lady's message Friday seemed in part a response. 

"Real change is hard and it requires patience and tenacity," she said, adding later, "You see your president? How calm he is? How forward thinking he is? That is a lesson for all of our young people."

Earlier, Obama said that listening to her husband "talk about his values" during Tuesday's debate "makes me fired up and ready to go, too."

Evan Vucci / AP

Republican presidential candidate greets supporters Friday during a campaign rally in Orange City, Iowa.

ORANGE CITY, Iowa -- In his first rally since President Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president, Mitt Romney on Friday called Obama's speech in Charlotte, N.C., "extraordinarily disappointing" and castigated Obama for not proposing how to solve joblessness.

"I read that this morning, you perhaps got the chance to do that," Romney said of the speech, suggesting he didn't watch the event live on television Thursday night.

"But if you did, perhaps like me you found it extraordinary disappointing -- surprisingly disappointing," Romney continued, adding later, "I was surprised by his address because I expected him to confront the major challenges of the last four years, which is an economy which has not produced the jobs that the American people need."

Romney made the remarks to several thousand people inside a basketball gym at Northwestern College, a small Christian liberal arts school here in conservative northwest Iowa.

Campaign officials said 2,600 people were inside the gym, and another 800 to 1000 people were inside an overflow room, which Romney visited briefly afterward.

The event came on the same day the Labor Department released a sour jobs report showing employers added 96,000 jobs in August and that more than 350,000 people had stopped looking for work.

"It’s just simply unimaginable," Romney said of the numbers.  "The president said that by this time we’d be at 5.4 percent unemployment. 5.4 percent. Instead, we’re at about 8 percent."

Romney said the difference accounts for 9 million people who could be working.

Earlier Friday, Romney called the report a "hangover" after the Democrats' "party" in Charlotte.

"This is a tough time for the middle class of America," Romney told reporters on a tarmac in Sioux City.  "There's almost nothing the president has done in the past three and a half, four years that gives the American people confidence that he knows what he's doing when it comes to jobs and the economy."

Before Romney took the stage here in Orange City, campaign aides tossed to the crowd blue foam gloves designed to look like baseball mitts. 

A scoreboard inside the gym had been programmed to list one team as "Mitt" and the other "Romney."  Scores were listed as 11 and 6, a reference to the Nov. 6 general election.

Romney was introduced by two Iowa Republicans, Gov. Terry Branstad and Rep. Steve King, who represents the 5th district here and is running for re-election.

Making an apparent pitch for Romney's conservative credentials, King told the crowd that Obama "undermines" the values of northwest Iowa "day after day after day."

"Don't doubt this man's faith. Don't doubt his conviction," King said of Romney.  "Do not doubt his patriotism or his faith, and his love for Jesus Christ, our savior."

Romney later urged the crowd inside the overflow room to re-elect King.

"I wanna make sure he's in Washington when I get there so we can do the things we're promising doing," Romney said.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Paul Ryan’s got a friend in Bobby Jindal.

Jindal, governor of Louisiana, told an audience of conservative activists on Saturday that presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney would send a “powerful message” on budgetary issues were he to choose Ryan, Wisconsin’s U.S. House representative, as his running mate.

The remarks came as Jindal – a buzzed-about veep prospect himself – wrapped up a keynote address to the Red State Gathering in Jacksonville, an annual conference of Tea Party and other conservative activist groups.

"I think picking somebody like a Paul Ryan would send a very powerful message that this administration was serious about Medicare reform, entitlement reform, shrinking the size of government, and doing so in a courageous way," Jindal said of a Romney presidency.

Ryan is chairman of the House Budget Committee and the author of a controversial plan that Democrats have attacked over its cuts to federal entitlement programs. 

Romney, who won Ryan’s endorsement in March, has spoken favorably of the plan, pleasing conservatives who have helped to make Ryan’s name a nationwide brand.

Still, some at the conference here clearly had another veepstaker in mind.

“I was going to God bless you and pray that our nominee has you and your first lady on the list to be vice president,” an audience member said as Jindal took questions.

Jindal, brushing aside the compliment, responded that he has a “bias” toward the executive experience earned by governors, before adding that Ryan is an exception to that rule.

Asked later if he was making an endorsement of a Romney-Ryan ticket, Jindal said no.

“It’s certainly not my place to be making endorsements. I mean, it’s really up to Governor Romney to pick who he wants,” Jindal told NBC News.  “I just think Paul Ryan brings a lot to the table.”

“Paul's a friend.  Paul's been a great leader. I think he’s an example of a great choice,” Jindal added later.  “I think there are several other examples of great candidates out there as well.”

Jindal earlier told the crowd that he also admired Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Texas Gov. Rick Perry– whom Jindal backed for president during the Republican primaries.

Perry, who dropped out of the race in January, announced for president at last year’s Red State Gathering, held in Charleston, S.C.

Charles Dharapak / AP

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney greets Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, and Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, right, on Thursday as he campaigns at Basalt Public High School, in Basalt, Colo.

BASALT, Colo. – Fresh from a foreign trip marked by a number of stumbles, Mitt Romney was back in his element late Thursday.

It was a Republican governors’ love fest outside the resort town of Aspen as the presumptive GOP nominee was joined on stage by 10 prominent Republican governors.

“I want to learn from these ladies and men if I become president of the United States on each policy, each major piece of legislation on how it affects them and their people instead of just dropping it in their lap,” Romney told several hundred people inside Basalt Public High School’s auditorium.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer all accompanied Romney on his first day back campaigning in America since his trip overseas.

Each took turns praising the man they hope will defeat President Barack Obama in just a few short months.

“We need a president that believes in the free enterprise system. And we need a president that can deliver the goods,” Brewer said. “I will tell you, Gov. Romney, you can do it, and I am behind you.  America is behind you.”

Perry, who ended his own run for president in January, had one simple message: This election is about trust.

“The difference between the current president of the United States and the next president of the United States is that this man trusts you. Barack Obama does not trust you,” Perry said. “He does not trust you to make decisions about your health care.  He does not trust you to make decisions about your children's education.  He does not trust you in Colorado to make decisions about your energy policy.”

The event spurred plenty of vice presidential buzz too.  Among the ten governors here in Basalt, Jindal, McDonnell, Christie and Martinez have each stirred speculation.

“It's a treat to be here from the Commonwealth of Virginia that's going from Obama blue to Romney red in 90 days,” McDonnell, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said.

The RGA has been holding closed meetings in Aspen for two days.

Jindal took several minutes to boost Romney’s education platform, which he said would include a school voucher system of the kind he is instituting statewide in Louisiana this fall.

“Our sons and daughters deserve nothing less than the best education we can give them -- the best education that any child will receive in the entire world. We'll get that Number 1 ranking back by electing Gov. Romney as the president of these great United States,” he said.

But just who should be Romney’s VP?  

The consensus by the governors in attendance: whomever Romney wants.

“There are a lot of really capable ones, but I will leave that up to Mitt, he will have it all figured out,” Perry told reporters about the handful of governors rumored to populate Romney’s shortlist.

“His decision,” Martinez said. “There is only one vote and that is his [Romney’s].”

Andrew Goodman / Getty Images file

Foster Friess

ASPEN, CO – Wyoming millionaire Foster Friess said on Wednesday that he plans to tamp down on donating to Super PACs before the fall election, saying he’d open the spigot more sparingly and selectively across a wider range of candidates and private charities to whom he could give money anonymously.

“I’m going to reduce the amount of money I’m giving to Super PACs for (Mitt) Romney, and I’m going to increase the amount of money I give to support his and other candidacies – the governors, the senators,” Friess said.

“The Super PAC money is going to be like $10,000 here, $5,000 here, $10,000 here,” he added.

Donations to the tune of $2.3 million to the Super PAC supporting Rick Santorum during Republican primaries vaulted Friess into national headlines, which he says he and his wife didn’t appreciate.

“I enjoy anonymity,” he said on Wednesday during an interview with NBC News.

Friess is in this vacation community for the Republican Governors Association “Executive Roundtable” event, which offers high-dollar donors a chance to interact with noted governors – some of whom are rumored to be on Romney’s vice presidential list.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are among the veepstakers on hand.

They, along with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, will participate in a panel hosted by the Aspen Institute later Wednesday.

Friess said his decision not to fund the Super PAC supporting Romney at the same level he supported Santorum’s is not an indication of lack of enthusiasm for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

“You think I’m going to give away $2.3 million in every month of my life?  I don’t think so,” he said.

He predicted the general election will swing 55 percent in Romney’s favor, an outcome he describes as a “landslide.”

“I’m convinced this guy loves our country,” he said of Romney.

NBC News intersected Friess as he walked with other donors from the lobby of an Aspen hotel to a nearby restaurant.

He wore a white straw-style cowboy hat and paused to ask directions of locals.

A group of women pointed him in the right direction. 

“Women are God’s most beautiful creatures,” he said as they walked away. “After the white-tailed deer and the swan.”

Friess was scheduled to meet on Wednesday afternoon with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, to whom he said he would write a check.

Orlando, Fla. -- Speaking before a crowd of more than 2,000 Tuesday at the University of Central Florida, First Lady Michelle Obama listed President Barack Obama’s initiatives during his first term – including his recent executive order to stop deporting undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children – and said those policies are all “on the line” in November’s election.

“In the end, it all boils down to one simple question. Are we going to continue the change we begun, the progress we made?” Obama said. “Are we going to let everything that we fought for to just slip away?”

“We cannot turn back now,” she added. “We need to keep moving forward.”

The reference to President Barack Obama’s announcement last month that he had moved to block the deportation of hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants was perhaps an indication of how crucial Florida – rich in Latino votes – has become in an increasingly tight election.

“He knows and believes that it is time to stop denying responsible, young people opportunities in this country because they’re the children of undocumented immigrants. It’s time to stop that,” Obama said of her husband’s support for the DREAM act, which would offer a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who have graduated from high school.

The measure has been held up in Congress since 2010.

According to pool reports earlier in the day, Obama made a quick surprise visit to  the Blanchard Park YMCA in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood in Orlando. Many children recognized her – one girl covered her grin with both hands but could not hide it. Another asked for a hug.

At the university, Obama spoke for about 25 minutes inside the basketball arena.  A state fire official estimated there were 2,251 people in the bleachers and on the gym floor.

There was no mention of the president’s opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, or of class and money – prominent themes in the attack ads released by both sides.

Still, Obama made a careful pitch of her husband as an ordinary man, whose origins as the son of a single mother “who struggled to put herself through school and pay the bills” leavens his judgment in office.

“I have seen how as president you are going to get all kind of advice for all kinds of people,” Obama said. “But at the end of the day, let me tell you when it comes time to make that decision as president, all you have to guide you are your life experiences. All you have to direct you are your values.”

"We all know who my husband is, don’t we?" Obama added. "We all know what Barack Obama stands for, don’t we?” 

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Doubling down on his controversial effort to purge non-United States citizens from voter rolls, Florida Gov. Rick Scott dismissed criticism by civil rights advocates Tuesday, saying the state has a “very good process to make sure that U.S. citizens have the right to vote.”

That right is at the crux of a debate here over Scott’s initiative, which has spurred lawsuits by civil rights groups and a suit by the Department of Justice – which says the purge violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Most Florida counties have backed out of Scott’s directive but two counties have continued to accept it, according to media reports. There, U.S. citizens removed from voter rolls will be given a 60-day period to respond, and after that will be able to vote using a provisional ballot.

“Your vote’s always going to count,” Scott said, saying that he speaks from experience.

Scott revealed during a radio interview last week that he voted by provisional ballot during two elections in 2006 because an election worker in Naples confused him for a man who had died. 

“They just said I got to vote on a provisional ballot,” Scott told reporters Tuesday. “The nice thing about our state – when something like that happens, we have a good process. So my vote still counted.”

But just how much a provisional ballot counts is debated by voters’ rights groups, which point out that provisional ballots aren’t counted until after Election Day. 

(Scott’s story, ostensibly meant to show that the system works, also seemed to suggest just how easily a registered voter can be thrown from the rolls.)

The remarks Tuesday came during a brief discussion with reporters after Scott addressed a lunch meeting of the Board of Governors, the body overseeing Florida’s university system. 

The meeting had drama of its own, as the board votes later this week on tuition hikes.

Scott opposes the increases and is pushing for a review of the university budgets.

While university budgets have put the governor at odds with his state’s university system, the voter purge has created friction with the federal government.

Florida has filed its own suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, saying the department refused to share a database containing immigration information. 

Scott says the state was forced to rely on a motor vehicle database instead, which critics say has outdated and bad information.

Still, the governor's aides believe the project is necessary and has proved successful.

Reached by phone, Lane Wright, the governor's spokesman, said the Florida DMV identified 180,000 people as potential non-citizens. A "small sample" -- 2,600 names -- was selected for verification. 

Of that number, at least 107 people have come forward to say they are not U.S. citizens, Wright said, adding that half had already voted in a prior election.

Asked Tuesday what he’d say to a woman in Central Florida whose eligibility was challenged even though she had a voting record dating back to Eisenhower’s 1956 re-election run, Scott shifted the blame to the federal government.

"What I'd say is she should be disappointed that the Department of Homeland Security didn't do their job," Scott said.

Jim Young / Reuters

Sources close to the Romney campaign said Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is expected to endorse the Republican presidential hopeful at a campaign event on Thursday sources close to the campaign say.

Orlando, Fla. and Pentagon City, Va. – Michele Bachmann will endorse Mitt Romney during a campaign event Thursday in Portsmouth, Virginia, sources within the Romney campaign told NBC News.

The news comes at the tail end of a string of endorsements secured by Romney in recent weeks, following the departure of his chief rival in the race, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

Party leaders, including House Speaker John Boehner, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry – a former fellow candidate – all soon fell in line.

But Bachmann’s endorsement may represent another kind of victory for Romney, who has tried for months to woo support from the same Tea Party Republicans who found a hero in Bachmann last summer, propelling her own brief run for President. 

In Bachmann, he has one of their leaders in his corner.

Bachmann’s former campaign manager, Keith Nahigian, insists the endorsement is outside the realm of politics, pointing to a friendship that developed between the two candidates last fall.

“She really liked Romney during all the debates.  Really liked him behind the stage, behind the scenes,” Nahigian said. “He was so polite to her every time they saw each other.”

Nahigian was reached by telephone tonight as he left a fundraiser for Romney at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pentagon City.

“Ever since she got out of the race, he’s called her,” Nahigian said.

For Bachmann, the endorsement represents the end of a journey from fiery presidential candidate slinging arrows at the establishment to self-described unifier.

“I want my voice to be one of uniting our party, the independents, the mainstream, the conservatives, evangelicals, the Tea Party movement,” she said during a recent appearance on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’"

“I’m waiting,” Bachmann said, “for our party to come together and help in that process.”

That moment seems to have arrived.

The mission to unify her party was not always evident during Bachmann’s run, when she made headlines for asserting Romney and another high-soaring candidate at the time, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, were each complicit in laying the groundwork for President Barack Obama’s national health care plan.

Bachmann created a single moniker for the candidates – “Newt Romney” – and during a bus tour in late December warned crowds that neither candidate could mount an attack on the issue.

“It's not going to happen with Mitt Romney,” Bachmann told a crowd inside a diner in Onawa, Iowa, on Dec. 27^th. 

“He put that system into effect in Massachusetts,” she continued, referencing the health care plan he launched as Governor in 2006.

Bachmann dropped out of the race on Jan. 4, a day after finishing last among the candidates competing in the Iowa caucuses.