JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Obama is marking Gay Pride Month with a concerted push to mobilize lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters, who his re-election campaign believes are a key constituency in hotly contested swing states.

In a new five-minute, documentary-style campaign video, Obama appeals to his supporters by casting himself as the most progressive U.S. president on gay rights issues in American history.  He also reflects personally on how he was inspired to become an advocate through relationships with LGBT friends and family, U.S. military service members, and the mother of anti-gay hate crime victim Matthew Shepard.

“Meeting people like Judy Shepard, and not only hearing the heartbreaking tragedy of Matthew but also the strength and determination she brought to making sure that never happens to young people anywhere in the country again,” is what he says moved him.

Obama also said the stories of gay and lesbian service members who have fought and died for the country also “made me passionate.”

“I don’t think there was a single moment LGBT issues became important to me. It was an accumulation of a lifetime of friends, family and people I’ve met who have helped me understand how the fight for LGBT rights is consistent” with America, he said.

The film is narrated by actress Jane Lynch, who stars in the hit show Glee and is openly gay.

“That passion drove him to make more significant advances for LGBT Americans than any other president who came before him,” Lynch says.

Earlier Wednesday, the Obama campaign also kicked off a grassroots organizing campaign specifically targeting gay voters. “LGBT Americans for Obama” will focus on enlisting volunteers and turning out votes in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada and Michigan, the campaign said.

Obama campaign strategists believe the president’s achievements in gay rights, coupled with his newfound support for same-sex marriage, is one of the strongest selling points of his first term.

They regularly declaim the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” signing the Hate Crime Prevention Act into law, ceasing a defense of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and executive actions to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity in the federal government.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Joe Raedle/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Speaking before a crowd of Latino business leaders, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., lamented the state of politics, accusing politicians of fostering a culture of partisanship and campaigning on a message of division.  Without mentioning President Obama by name, Rubio swiped at the president for failing to deliver on his promise of “hope” that both sides of the aisle craved.

“The one that’s troubled me the most is this deliberate division of the American people against each other.  Last three and a half years after our elections, irrespective of how you felt about how they turned out, we all had hope that this nation would embark at a new moment, where somehow we would rise above the petty politics of the moment and have a real honest societal wide conversation about what kind of country we want to be, what kind of role we want to play in the world, and what kind of role we want our government to play in our lives. Well any hope of that is now gone,” Rubio said during his keynote address at the Latino Coalition’s Small Business Summit in Washington, D.C., Wednesday afternoon. “What you have today is nothing less than a wholesale effort to pit one group of Americans against each other on issue after issue.”

In recent weeks, Rubio has picked up his forceful criticism of President Obama. Last Saturday, Rubio called Obama the most “divisive figure in modern American history.” He previously has accused the president of using issues like same-sex marriage and student loan rates to “divide one group of Americans against another group of Americans for the purposes of getting him reelected.”

Rubio criticized politicians who stray from debating their opponents on the basis of merit and instead launch personal attacks at a time when the Obama and Romney campaigns are embroiled in a series of fights.

“We will never solve the issues that we face if all people want to do is debate how bad the other guy is as opposed to debate whether their ideas have merit or not, and whether your ideas are better than their ideas,” Rubio said.

Rubio, who was elected to the Senate in 2010, also critiqued Congress’ unwillingness to present meaningful policy proposals that could ease the burdens facing the country.

“I ran because I was frustrated by the political process.  Nothing has happened over the last year and half to change that frustration unfortunately,” he said. “Too often times, in the United States Senate especially, most of the votes we take are nothing but messaging points.  Bills are brought to the floor that people know are not going to pass for one purpose alone and that’s to give people talking points on the Sunday evening shows.  Our people deserve better. It’s not like we don’t have major issues to confront but they are not being confronted.  The only thing that’s being done in the Senate these days is creating material for television commercials in the fall, and it’s sad.”

Rubio spoke to the Latino business crowd hours after presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney addressed the same group, and Rubio, who often shares his personal story of using student loans to pay for college and law school, praised Romney’s efforts to lead in expanding access to affordable education.

“There also is our education system.  I understand that Governor Romney spoke to you about it earlier today.  The federal government has a limited role to play when it comes to education,” Rubio said.  “Education, the ability to learn a skill, in this century is indispensable.  There are going to be no jobs in the 21st century, literally, there will be no new jobs in the 21st century for people who do not have advanced education of some form.  We have to provide access to that as well as affordability, and I’m glad that the nominee of my party has taken the lead in that regard.”

As he outlined issues currently plaguing the country, from the debt to stifling energy policies, Rubio voiced his belief that optimism pervades the American way of life.  Rubio, whose own parents emigrated to the United States from Cuba, reached out to the immigrant community by sharing how their daily struggles reflect the hope ingrained in this country as they provide a better future for their children.

“The greatness of America can be seen in the people who served you your lunch today, who have children somewhere else in school even as we speak and if you ask them, they’ll brag to you about how their son’s going to be a lawyer, and their daughter’s going to be a doctor.  They are proud to work with their hands, they are proud to serve you your lunch and your dinner because they know that their sacrifice is paving the way for someone that they love,” Rubio said to a loud round of applause from the crowd.

As he departed the Chamber of Commerce, Rubio ignored questions from reporters about whether he would consider being vetted for the vice presidential position if asked.

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Mario Tama/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Mitt Romney unveiled his education plan on Wednesday, vowing to make sweeping changes to the public education system by expanding school choice by assigning federal money to low-income students who will then, in turn, be able to take that money to a school of his or her choice or use it for tutoring or digital education.

“I’ll be blunt,” Romney said during an address to The Latino Coalition’s Annual Economic Summit. “I don’t like the direction of American education, and as president, I will do everything in my power to get education on track for the kids in this great land.”

Romney, who said students in the U.S. are receiving a “third-world education” where “minority children suffer the most,” outlined Wednesday for the first time the specific steps he would take toward education reform.

“As president, I will pursue a very bold policy of change that will restore the promise of our nation’s education system,” he said, standing in front of a banner that read, “A Chance for Every Child.” “For the first time in history, federal education funds will be linked to the student, so that parents can send their child to any public or charter school of their choice.”

Romney outlined that states would have to provide students with “ample school choice” and that digital schools could not be barred from receiving the federal funds.  Students would be able to take the money to a school outside his or her district, but schools would have to be empowered to address capacity issues should they arise.

Mentioning the Bush-area education plan known as “No Child Left Behind,” Romney said that the legislation “helped our nation take a giant step forward in bridging the information gap,” but was “not without its weaknesses.”

“As president, I am going to break the political logjam that has prevented successful reform of the law,” said Romney.   “I’ll reduce federal micro management, but I’m going to redouble efforts to ensure that schools are held responsible for results.”

Romney’s plans will shift the responsibility of school report cards from the federal level to the state level in an attempt to give parents a clearer understanding of their child’s education. Additionally, Romney said he would consolidate the more than 80 federal programs that focus on teacher evaluation and provide incentives to states that “regularly evaluate” their teachers and reward those who are the most successful in the classroom.

“As president, I will make it my goal to ensure that every classroom has a quality teacher,” Romney said.

In a briefing call prior to Romney’s speech, the campaign’s domestic policy director, Oren Cass, said that the education plan would not involve any new spending.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Chris Keane/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Republicans are trying to capitalize off a recent video featuring a South Carolina AFL-CIO leader bashing a piñata bearing the face of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Haley sent out a donation request via Twitter, calling on people to stand with her against what she calls “bullying” from union leaders.

“Stand with me and help fight back now against the bullying of Liberal unions. Donate here,” Haley tweeted along with a link to a fundraising page featuring the video.

And the Republican Governors Association released a one minute video called “Does President Obama Condone This?” linking Obama to the incident.  The video features a clip of President Obama from March when he condemned the controversial comments Rush Limbaugh made about Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student and contraception activist, inter-spliced with footage of the piñata smashing incident.

“I thought about Malia and Sasha and one of the things I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about…and I don’t want them attacked,” the clip shows President Obama saying, followed by video of Donna Dewitt, the outgoing S.C.  AFL-CIO president, wailing away at the piñata as someone shouts, “Wait till her face comes around and whack her.”

“Or called horrible names because they’re being good citizens,” the clip of Obama continues. “Being a part of a democracy involves argument and disagreements and debate and we want you to be engaged and there’s a way to do it that doesn’t involve you being demeaned and insulted.”

The video ends with the phrase “Does President Obama condone this kind of behavior from union bosses?” emblazoned across the screen as Dewitt continues to pound the Haley piñata.

Dewitt told ABC News Tuesday that there was “no ill intent” behind the incident.

“We’ve been the brunt of her comments now for two years and that’s what the whole thing was.  She’s been whacking at us over the last two years,” Dewitt, who has been president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO for the past 16 years and will retire at the end of June, continued. “Anyone that knows me knows there was no ill intent at all.  Our folks don’t go to speeches with guns and things like that.  We have very loving people in our unions who will take up money for people or a vet.  We just heard these comments by the governor for over the two years.  They were using a memoir of the last two years I’ve lived under her leadership.”

“Kids use piñatas all the time,” she added.

The piñata bashing incident occurred on Saturday during a state AFL-CIO staff retreat in Columbia, S.C.  The video was posted on Sunday but circulated widely on Tuesday.

An AFL-CIO official denounced the actions in the video Tuesday.

“By now many of you have seen the video of the outgoing president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO. While it was meant as fun, there is absolutely no place for that kind of joke in a conversation that is extremely serious about how to rebuild our middle class and our country. There’s plenty to talk about in Gov. Haley’s awful record. We do not believe that’s an appropriate joke — working people deserve a better conversation,” Alison Omens, director of media outreach at AFL-CIO, said in an e-mail.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- While Mitt Romney brushed off a question regarding the attacks on his experience at Bain Capital Wednesday morning, one of his senior advisors did respond, saying that the campaign “likes” that the discussion is focused on the economy and will continue to drive the conversation in that direction.

“We’re happy to compare Gov. Romney’s record of success both at the state house in Massachusetts and as a businessman for 25 years in the private sector to the lack of real world economy experience of President Obama,” said senior advisor Eric Fehrnstrom during a conference call with reporters ahead of Romney’s speech to the Latino Coalition’s 2012 Small Business Summit Luncheon.

"At Bain capital during the period of time that Mitt Romney was leading that company, Bain invested in approximately 100 companies, many of them are big brand names that your familiar with like Staples and Sports Authority and some of them were struggling and some of them could not be saved,” said Fehrnstrom. “That’s the nature of our free enterprise system."

"But we like the fact that the discussion is centered on jobs and the economy and we intend to continue to talk about the plight of 23 million Americans today who are faced with either no employment or they’re stuck in part-time jobs when what they really want is full-time work,” he added. The economy has undoubtedly been the pillar of Romney’s campaign since it was launched last spring.

Earlier Wednesday, Romney was asked about the Bain attacks aboard a charter flight to Washington D.C., to which he did not respond.  

The candidate has not spoken publicly since President Obama said earlier this week that his time at Bain is “not a distraction” and is “what this campaign is going to be about,” releasing only a written statement condemning the president’s remarks.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- RYAN ON ROMNEY: HE WILL ‘SAVE THIS COUNTRY’ Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., made his first speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. Tuesday night and spoke of Mitt Romney’s ability to change the course of the country, ABC News’ John R. Parkinson reports:

“During a Q&A session following his address, the moderator wasted no time before he asked Ryan the million-dollar question on everybody’s mind: Would Ryan accept an offer from Mitt Romney to join him on the GOP’s ticket this fall,? ‘Next question,’ Ryan answered to laughter. ‘You know, that is someone else’s decision months away, and you know, that’s a question I would have to have with my wife before I have it with all of you. I like what I’m doing, I’m doing what I’m doing. Don’t underestimate how important Congress is.’ Asked what his sense of Romney is and whether he could be a great president, Ryan praised the presumptive nominee, predicting he will defeat President Obama this fall and Republicans will ‘save this country.’”

RUBIO GIVES ROMNEY LITTLE BOOST IN FLA. – A new Quinnipiac Poll released Wednesday morning shows that Sen. Marco Rubio, R- Fla., only gives Mitt Romney a slight boost with voters in Florida.  Adding Rubio to the ticket brings Romney to 49 percent over Obama at 41 percent among Florida voters.  Without taking a running mate into consideration, Romney already has a 6 percentage point lead at 47 percent over Obama’s 41 percent. Rubio’s approval rating in Florida sits at 54 percent and his favorability rating is 44 percent.

RUBIO TO SPEAK TO LATINO GROUP: Rubio will deliver the keynote address at the Latino Coalition’s 2012 Small Business Summit at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., Wednesday afternoon.  Romney will speak at the same event at noon.

CHRISTIE HELPS HAUL IN $5 MILLION FOR ROMNEY: N.J. Gov. Chris Christie helped haul in $5 million for Romney by attending a fundraiser at the Park Hyatt Ballroom in New York City Tuesday evening, according to the pool report.  “We’re here tonight to let everybody know we need to do everything we can together to make sure that this November we show Barack Obama the door, and we open the door for Mitt and Ann Romney to the White House, and your support here is extraordinarily important,” Christie said. “Governor Romney needs to make sure he has every dollar that he can to get his message out to the people of this country.”

PORTMAN READY FOR VP SPOT? Real Clear Politics’ Erin McPike examines why Rob Portman’s resume and experience makes him a potential VP contender who would be ready to step into the job on day one.  “Rob Portman has been preparing for this for years,” McPike writes.” Although the Ohio senator offers the standard line that he doesn’t expect to be picked as Mitt Romney’s running mate, the trajectory of his career and his political conduct in Washington have made nearly everyone in politics almost certain that he’ll be plucked for this year’s Republican presidential ticket.”

THUNE EYES JUMP UP LEADERSHIP LADDER: Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., sits on several potential VP lists, but the South Dakota senator has his eyes set on moving up the leadership ladder in the Senate, Roll Call reports: “Sen. John Thune may have just been elected Senate Republican Conference chairman in January, but he is still eyeing a move up the leadership ladder this year with either a run for whip or for National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman. When asked Tuesday about his plans to pursue either position this fall, the South Dakota Republican said: ‘I haven’t ruled any options in or out. We’ll make a determination at some point, probably after the election.’”

AFL-CIO LEADER BASHES HALEY PIÑATA: South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s unpopularity with some union leaders showed Tuesday when a video surfaced of Donna Dewitt, the state AFL-CIO president, using a baseball bat to smash a piñata bearing Haley’s face.  Dewitt said there was “no ill intent” behind the action but instead was an example of the frustration they have with Haley’s stance on unions.  “She’s been whacking at us over the last two years,” Dewitt told ABC News, adding later, “Kids use piñatas all the time.” Haley reacted to the video on twitter, sending out a link to the video with the message: “Wow. I wonder if the unions think this kind of thing will make people take them seriously. Check this out.” You can see the video here.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Win McNamee/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Are “job destroyers” sitting on President Obama’s jobs council? There could be, if you believe the argument from Democrats and the Obama campaign that private equity executives are profit seekers who often run roughshod over workers, companies and communities.

Two Obama-appointed members of the White House Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, an advisory committee, are leading figures in the private equity industry.

Richard Parsons, chairman of Citigroup, is a senior advisor at Providence Equity Partners, “a leading private equity investment firm, specializing in media, communications and information companies,” according to his bio on the White House website.

He joined the firm in 2009 shortly after it completed what news reports describe as the “biggest leveraged buyout in history,” the $51 billion acquisition of Bell Canada.

Mark Gallogly, the co-founder of Centerbridge Partners and formerly with Blackstone Group, the nation’s largest private equity firm, also sits on the panel.  He served on Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, his official bio states.

Gallogly is also a major Obama campaign contributor and fundraiser, collecting more than $500,000 for the 2012 race.

Obama’s inclusion of these men on his Jobs Council highlights a potential sticking point in his case against GOP rival Mitt Romney, a former private equity executive who says his 15-year experience in the industry qualifies him as a “job creator,” a claim that is a cornerstone of his campaign.

While neither Gallogly nor Parsons is running for office, Democrats and the Obama campaign have sought in some ways to demonize the industry itself, part of an aggressive effort to discredit Romney’s top selling point.

They have highlighted Bain investments that led to layoffs and outsourcing and devastated some communities. One Obama campaign TV ad attacking Romney’s record called him a “job destroyer.”

“If your main argument for how to grow the economy is ‘I knew how to make a lot of money for investors,’ then you’re missing what this job is about,” President Obama said of Romney on Monday.

“It doesn’t mean you weren’t good at private equity, but that’s not what my job is as president,” he said. “My job is to take into account everybody, not just some. My job is to make sure that the country is growing not just now, but 10 years from now and 20 years from now.”

Independent industry experts agree that private equity executives are focused on wealth creation, not job creation, but insist politics have clouded a more nuanced view of the industry that Obama himself seemed to accept in appointing Parsons and Gallogly to his jobs council.

“All of those guys on the jobs council want a stronger economy. They know a lot about what it means to transform businesses and also to create a new enterprise and create more jobs,” said Colin Blaydon, director of the Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.

“That’s why a lot of these guys are on government commissions – because they understand what it takes to build companies, to transform companies and know what the outcomes mean,” he said.

Moreover, academic studies on the impact of private equity investing are ambivalent at best on measuring the overall direct impact on jobs – something both the Romney and Obama campaigns have sparred over.

“What all those studies do is measure for the particular company being affected, what happens to those jobs. They do not try to assess whether a company had not been improved and made more competitive, what would have happened to those jobs,” said Blaydon.

“And very possibly the story would have been a lot worse for the employment picture but there wouldn’t have been anyone to point the finger at other than the incumbent management,” he added.

Obama seemed to acknowledge as much Monday during his press conference in Chicago, saying, “there are folks who do good work in that area, and there are times where they identify the capacity for the economy to create new jobs or new industries.”

A senior White House official, who asked to speak on condition of anonymity, also noted the point of the jobs council was to have a group of only job creators but an independent, outside advisory board that represented all the different sectors of the economy.

Bottom line, say sources on both sides of the debate, it’s Romney’s record in private equity that will remain a primary focus of debate and is largely fair game.

“I think that the Bain record as a whole is fair game,” said Romney surrogate and former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu on Tuesday – provided it be considered as a whole and not “cherry picked,” he said.

“No one aside from Mitt Romney is running for president highlighting their tenure as a corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation,” said Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said.  "The president has support from business leaders across industries who have seen him pull the economy back from the brink of another depression.”

But Romney “made profit at any cost for himself and his partners by outsourcing jobs and bankrupting companies,” he said.

There are signs, however, that when it comes to Bain Capital and private equity most voters don’t care. The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll found just 21 percent of voters say Romney’s Bain experience is a reason to support him. An equal number called it reason to oppose him. In the poll, 54 percent of voters said Bain wasn’t a major factor.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- With the rise of super PACs, big-dollar donors and celebrity and Wall Street fundraisers, the 2012 presidential campaign is the most cash-driven in history.  On Wednesday, Hank Brown, a former U.S. senator from Colorado and a Romney backer, called the amount of money in politics a “national scandal.”

On a conference call sponsored by the Republican National Committee,  Brown at first criticized President Obama for attending a fundraiser in Denver, but when asked about team Romney’s fundraising in his state, including a $500 a plate event  that Ann Romney held last Friday, also  in Denver, Brown said the “explosion in campaign donations was a tragedy.”

Mitt Romney spent the past three days raising money in Connecticut and New York, and according to his National Finance Chairman Spencer Zwick, the campaign was expected to bring in $15 million, up from the original estimate of $10 million. The campaign earned $5 million at a Tuesday evening fundraiser in New York City alone, and at least $3 million in one day in Connecticut.

“If you look at historic records, the amount of money we’re looking at is astronomical,” Brown told reporters on the call. “And I think part of the reason is not that political leaders are that much more charming these days than they used to be. The reason is government has expanded so much that many people have come to believe their economic success in this world is dependent on government. … But the explosion in campaign donations is a tragedy because it reflects the fact that people feel they have to donate to survive economically. That’s really not what you want America to be all about. ”

The conference call was intended to focus on education, not campaign fundraising, to coincide with Obama’s commencement address at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs Wednesday. Brown took the opportunity to blast the president for rising college tuition costs, and the college graduates now struggling to find jobs in the current economy.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Jeff Fusco/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Sarah Palin abandoned her tendency to go with the Tea Party choice, instead backing six-term incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch over state Sen. Dan Liljenquist in the Utah Senate GOP primary and calling him “Mr. Balanced Budget for Utah” in a Facebook post Tuesday night.  Liljenquist is backed by several Tea Party groups including FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth.

“Orrin Hatch is part of the 1 percent,” the statement reads.  “No, not that 1 percent you’ve heard about.  He’s part of the 1 percent of national politicians who I think should be re-elected.  Orrin Hatch is a life-long conservative whose dedication and devotion to the conservative cause and to his beloved and beautiful state of Utah is well documented.”

“Orrin was a Utah state campaign chairman for a fledgling and failing presidential candidate deemed ‘too conservative’ and ‘unelectable’ by the media.  Ironically, that candidate was the man who restored our country to be a ‘shining city on a hill’ -- Ronald Reagan,” the statement went on to say.

The photo with the endorsement is of a young Hatch with Reagan.

Palin praised Hatch in the post, writing “long before the issue of debt was on the forefront of Americans’ minds, Orrin Hatch knew our government would face insolvency if we did not get our budget under control.”

“We know he will use his seniority and influence to dissuade politicians from continuing to raise the debt ceiling without any plan to balance the budget and end these dangerously unsustainable deficits,” Palin says.

Palin has been on a mini-streak of backing upstart candidates over the establishment choices, including the Tea Party’s Richard Mourdock over Sen. Dick Lugar in Indiana (Lugar lost) and Deb Fischer’s surprise primary win in Nebraska.  She has also backed the underdog in the Texas Senate GOP primary, Ted Cruz.

But not this time.  In her post, she writes that perhaps Hatch can show them around the Senate, if they all get there.

“We need Orrin’s conservative Reagan-like leadership -- and our new crop of conservative senators Richard Mourdock, Deb Fischer, and Ted Cruz might need some friendly advice finding their way around the Senate,” Palin writes.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Mitt Romney will speak to the Latino Coalition’s annual economic summit in the nation's capital Wednesday afternoon, the latest attempt by the presumptive Republican nominee to make inroads into the country’s fastest-growing voting bloc.

He’s got his work cut out for him.  The latest polls show Romney trailing far behind President Obama among Latino voters.  In an ABC News/Washington Post poll taken earlier this spring, 73 percent of Latinos supported Obama compared with 26 percent for Romney.  If  Obama can get Latinos to head to the polls in droves and back him by that type of margin, the White House will almost definitely be his for another four years.

Even members of his own party acknowledge that Romney faces an uphill battle with Latinos.  Only months after he mentioned New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, as a possible running mate, Martinez said Latinos “have been alienated” over the course of the GOP campaign this past year, even taking aim at Romney’s immigration policy of “self-deportation.”

”Self-deport?  What the heck does that mean?” Martinez told Newsweek.  “I have no doubt Hispanics have been alienated during this campaign.  But now there’s an opportunity for Gov. Romney to have a sincere conversation about what we can do and why.”

Whether or not Romney will seize that opportunity after doing so much damage to his standing with Latinos during the primary is a real question.  The former Massachusetts governor vowed to veto the Dream Act, praised Arizona’s controversial new anti-immigrant law and touted the endorsement of controversial activist Kris Kobach. 

If Romney cannot boost his standing among Latinos to around 40 percent support, then according to Republican strategist Ana Navarro, “he can kiss the White House goodbye.”

Wednesday’s speech, scheduled for noon, could help.  So too could the attack dog work of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a possible VP pick for Romney, who has aggressively gone after Obama in recent weeks.

Rubio is expected to hammer Obama’s record when he addresses the Latino Coalition hours after Romney.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(MADISON, Wis.) -- With just under two weeks to go until the recall election in Wisconsin, Democrats appear to be facing rising odds in their quest to unseat Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

The race is still competitive, but Walker, 44, appears to have an edge in fundraising, recent polls and party enthusiasm in his challenge from Democratic candidate Tom Barrett.

“I think it’s still competitive, I think there’s still a chance for Barrett to win.  But right now most of the forces are pushing in favor of Walker,” said Barry Burden, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Democrats face a large fundraising disadvantage in the state, as Walker has pulled in over $25 million in fundraising since the recall efforts first began.

The reason for Walker’s fundraising advantage is two-fold.  First, Walker benefited from a quirk in Wisconsin state election law that allowed him to raise unlimited funds beginning in early November when a recall committee first registered with the state’s accountability board, through the time when the board certified the recall election on March 30.  Second, Democratic fundraising was split as a result of a hard fought primary between top officials in the state.

The Democratic primary was mostly contained to Barrett and former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.  Although Barrett, 58, eventually defeated Falk by more than 20 points in the primary, Falk was seen as the preferred candidate for many labor unions, the original driving force behind the recall.  Barrett and Falk split the fundraising support, with Falk receiving the majority of union donations.

Walker had the backing of the Republican Governor’s Association, the committee which oversees gubernatorial races, since the signatures were first turned in back in January.  The Democratic Governor’s Association stayed neutral during their party’s primary.

By the time Barrett won the nomination, Walker enjoyed a 25 to 1 fundraising advantage over the Milwaukee mayor, with just four weeks until the election, according to figures from the non-partisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.  The party has since rallied around Barrett, and the DGA is running ads on his behalf, but time is simply not on the Democrats side.

The latest polling from Marquette Law School showed Walker with a six point lead among likely voters over Barrett -- 50 percent to 44 percent -- outside of the polls margin of error of +/- 3.8 percent.

Republicans appear to have an enthusiasm advantage over Democrats in the recall as well, polling indicates.  According to Marquette Law School polling, 91 percent of Republicans say they’re “absolutely certain” to vote on June 5, while only 83 percent of Democrats and Independents responded the same way.

Democratic officials in the state point out that the polling was conducted May 9-12, just days after Barrett won his party’s nomination on May 8.  In the time since the primary, Barrett has gained ground in fundraising and spending.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

ABC News(SIMI VALLEY, Calif.) -- Rep. Paul Ryan, one of the top contenders floated in GOP circles as a potential running mate to Mitt Romney, addressed a sold-out audience Tuesday evening at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library, telling the friendly audience that he believes Romney will “save this country.”

The 42-year-old Wisconsin Republican, who serves as chairman of the House Budget committee, delivered an address titled “A Rendezvous with Reagan’s Legacy: Lessons for 2012.”  In a speech where President Reagan was named at least a dozen times, Ryan contrasted the GOP’s proposals to reform entitlements and taxes with President Obama and the Democrats’ policies.

It’s one of the hottest invitations in politics, and in recent years it has almost become a rite of passage for any politician seeking to make a mark in conservative politics.  Ryan was invited to deliver the address by former first lady Nancy Reagan, although Mrs. Reagan was unable to attend the speech per her doctor’s orders that she stay home and watch the speech from there.  Fred Ryan, chairman of the Board of Trustees at the library, said that Mrs. Reagan was in general good health, and those orders stemmed from an earlier health issue from weeks ago.

During a Q&A session following his address, the moderator wasted no time before he asked Ryan the million-dollar question on everybody’s mind: Would Ryan accept an offer from Romney to join him on the GOP’s ticket this fall.

“Next question,” Ryan answered to laughter.  “You know, that is someone else’s decision months away, and you know, that’s a question I would have to have with my wife before I have it with all of you.  I like what I’m doing, I’m doing what I’m doing.  Don’t underestimate how important Congress is.”

Asked what his sense of Romney is and whether he could be a great president, Ryan praised the presumptive nominee, predicting he will defeat Obama this fall and Republicans will “save this country.”

“He is a very sincere, very smart, very committed man,” Ryan said.  “What I see in Mitt Romney are the kinds of skills, tools, character attributes that you need in a leader!  He makes decisions.  He doesn’t pander.  So what I see is a person who understands the moment our country is facing, and a person who is willing to do what it takes to get out of the path we are on and on to the path to prosperity.”

“I think that he is going to beat Barack Obama and I think that we are going to save this country,” he added.  “And he is actually really funny as well!  He has a quick wit, he is a funny guy, has a great sense of humor.”

Ryan said that Americans “are uncertain and worried about their future” as unemployment and decreasing wages hamper economic growth, drawing on Reagan’s familiar diagnosis of what was wrong with America.

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to the problem,” Ryan said.  “Government is the problem.”

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Joe Raedle/Getty Images(KEENE, N.H.) -- Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday said Mitt Romney’s economic policies bring to mind Kentucky Derby and Preakness champ I’ll Have Another, “except the horse is a real winner.”

On the stump in Keene, N.H., Tuesday afternoon, Biden said the economic values Romney would bring to the White House were displayed during his tenure at private equity firm Bain Capital and manifest on the campaign trail, particularly in his calls to roll back Democrats’ health care overhaul, Wall Street reforms and other consumer protections.

“The governor’s philosophy seems to be whatever the last administration does, let’s do it and do more.  Literally, think about anything new he has suggested that deviates from the policies that got us into this hole except more of the same,” Biden said, referring to the administration of George W. Bush.

“Ladies and gentlemen, these are the guys that ran us into the ditch.  And they begin to sound a little like the horse who just won the Preakness, I’ll Have Another.  Except the horse is a real winner.”

Biden told a crowd of students and blue collar workers at the Keene State College rally that Romney’s private business experience meant “making money regardless of the consequences for the workers, the companies they acquire and the communities that got wasted.”

The Republican nominee’s Bain Capital “trump card” is a rational argument, but is not a qualification for the presidency, he said.

“Making money for your investors, which Romney did very well, is not the president’s job,” Biden said.  “When you’re president, your job is to see to it that companies can make a profit -- but not at everyone’s expense.

“It’s not the same job requirement.  So it’s totally legitimate for the president to point this out,” he added.

The Obama campaign, claiming not to attack the private equity sector as a whole, has mounted an aggressive effort to define Romney as an out-of-touch corporate raider more interested in profits than creating jobs.

Romney, who has made his Bain Capital experience the focus of his bid for the nation’s highest office, says his investments created thousands of jobs and that attacks on his record amount to a “distraction” from President Obama’s shortcomings on the economy.

“Vice President Biden today claimed the Obama administration’s economic progress ‘cannot be denied,’” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.  “He must not be talking to the millions of Americans who are suffering from declining incomes, fewer jobs, and skyrocketing household costs in the Obama economy.”

While Biden conceded there’s “much more to do” on the economy, he raised the stories of layoffs, eliminated pensions and devastated communities in the wake of Bain investments as reminders of the consequences of Romney’s “economic philosophy.”

The cases of Ampad, GST Steel and others once owned by Bain and since bankrupt have been the focus of an online and TV ad campaign by Obama and the Democratic super PAC, Priorities USA Action.

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Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Alex Wong/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Mitt Romney’s victories Tuesday night in Arkansas and Kentucky may have been foregone conclusions, but besides two more batches of delegates on his way to the 1,144 he needs to clinch the Republican presidential nomination, they also gave him something else -- bragging rights over President Obama.

In Kentucky, Romney, who is expected to clinch the nomination after the Texas primary on May 29, received a higher percentage of the vote in the Republican presidential primary than Obama received in the Democratic presidential primary. With 99.9 percent of precincts reporting, Romney had 67 percent of the vote, while Obama had 58 percent.  

Obama did receive more votes than Romney in Kentucky -- 119,284 to 117,599.

In Arkansas, results are still in the early stages of being counted, but with 33 percent of precincts reporting, Obama has 61.5 percent of the vote, and his Democratic challenger, John Wolfe, a lawyer from Tennessee, has 38.5 percent. Romney, comparatively, has received 69.5 percent of the vote.

Arkansas and Kentucky are not considered competitive states in the general election; ABC News rates both states as solid Republican. Nevertheless, the strong showing by “uncommitted” and a relatively unknown candidate in his own party’s primary could be viewed as an embarrassment for Obama, particularly coming on the heels of the strong performance of federal inmate Keith Judd in West Virginia’s primary earlier this month.

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Chris Keane/Getty Images(COLUMBIA, S.C.) -- A video has surfaced showing Donna Dewitt, the outgoing president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO, bashing a piñata of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s face while Dewitt and her colleagues were at a retreat in Columbia, S.C. Saturday afternoon.

“Well I will say, she looks like a tough old girl here,” Dewitt says as she gears up to swing at the piñata.

She repeatedly hits the piñata, which bears the phrase “Unions are not needed, wanted or welcome in South Carolina” below Haley’s face.  In her State of the State address this year, Haley said, “We’ll make the unions understand full well that they are not needed, not wanted and not welcome in the state of South Carolina.” Dewitt whacks the piñata down and continues to wail away at it once it’s fallen. Onlookers cheer her on, urging her to continue hitting the piñata.

“Give her another whack. Whack her again,” a woman screams.

“Hit her again,” another man says.

Dewitt told ABC News she has no regrets about the incident and said there was “no ill intent” in what she was doing.  Dewitt said her colleagues brought the piñata and were using it as a “memoir” of Haley’s words and actions towards unions in her time as governor.

“They made it and I would have played the game with them no matter it would have been pin the tail on the donkey with Nikki Haley’s face on it.  I still would have played,” Dewitt told ABC News over the phone.  "There was no ill intent....I’m not mad or angry.”

“We’ve been the brunt of her comments now for two years and that’s what the whole thing was.  She’s been whacking at us over the last two years,” Dewitt, who has been president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO for the past 16 years and will retire at the end of June, continued. “Anyone that knows me knows there was no ill intent at all.  Our folks don’t go to speeches with guns and things like that.  We have very loving people in our unions who will take up money for people or a vet.  We just heard these comments by the governor for over the two years.  They were using a memoir of the last two years I’ve lived under her leadership.”

“Kids use piñatas all the time,” she added.

Nikki Haley even reacted to the video, tweeting the link and this message: “Wow. I wonder if the unions think this kind of thing will make people take them seriously. Check this out.”

“There is no place for that in civil public discourse, and that video no more represents the people of South Carolina than union bosses represent our workers,” Rob Godfrey, spokesman for Haley, said in an email.

Rick Wiley, political director for the RNC, reacted to the video by tweeting back to Haley as he called the group “a pathetic bunch.”

Alison Omens, director of media outreach at AFL-CIO, emailed this comment on Dewitt’s actions: "By now many of you have seen the video of the outgoing president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO. While it was meant as fun, there is absolutely no place for that kind of joke in a conversation that is extremely serious about how to rebuild our middle class and our country. There’s plenty to talk about in Gov. Haley’s awful record. We do not believe that’s an appropriate joke -- working people deserve a better conversation.”

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