OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN: Obama defends attacks on Romney’s Bain record

Romney snapped back in a statement.

{mosads}“President Obama confirmed today that he will continue his attacks on the free enterprise system,” he said. “What this election is about is the 23 million Americans who are still struggling to find work and the millions who have lost their homes and have fallen into poverty. President Obama refuses to accept moral responsibility for his failed policies. My campaign is offering a positive agenda to help America get back to work.”

Team Obama found itself in a tough spot with Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker (D), who defended Bain Capital on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and criticized the Obama campaign’s tactics in attacking Romney’s record there.

“It’s nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity,” he said on Sunday. “If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, they’ve done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses. And this to me, I’m very uncomfortable with.”

Booker on Monday said he was criticizing negative campaigning on both sides. But Republicans used his words to attack Obama.

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod gently chastised Booker on Monday, telling MSNBC that the Newark mayor “was just wrong.”

“I love Cory Booker,” Axelrod added. “He’s a great mayor. If my house was on fire, I’d hope he was my next-door neighbor.”

Meanwhile, Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom went on MSNBC to note Romney created “well in excess of 100,000” jobs as an executive at Bain Capital, and an additional “30,000 to 40,000” in his time as governor of Massachusetts.

“With respect to Mitt Romney’s period of time as the governor of Massachusetts — in that four years as governor he created between 30k and 40k jobs,” Fehrnstrom said. “That is more than president Obama has created for the entire nation.”

TOMORROW’S AGENDA TODAY: Vice President Biden is in Keene, N.H., on Tuesday for a campaign rally at the Young Student Center at Keene State College. Then he heads to Boston for a fundraiser.

TWEET OF THE DAY: @Barack Obama, the president’s campaign Twitter account, tweeted a photo of Obama throwing a football in Chicago’s Soldier field with the line from “Friday Night Lights”: “Clear eyes, full hearts.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “It’s especially tone-deaf to plan a pricey conference after the GSA debacle.” — Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), in a letter to a 9Th Circuit Court of Appeals judge about the circuit’s plan to hold a conference in Hawaii this August that could run up a tab of $1 million or more and includes a schedule of sport fishing, yoga, surfing lessons and Zumba dancing lessons. 

AD WATCH:

The Obama campaign released a video attacking Mitt Romney‘s former company Bain Capital for killing jobs at an Indiana office supply company.

Romney’s campaign released a Web video showing clips of Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker and former Democratic congressman Harold Ford Jr. hitting Obama’s campaign for its Bain attacks.

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE:

Arizona: The Democrat and Republican vying to replace former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) took their battle over taxes to the Arizona airwaves, with each side unveiling a new attack ad accusing the other of wanting to raise taxes.

Arizona Part II: Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) is out with a new ad portraying himself as a leader in the fight against reckless government spending. His primary opponent, Rep. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.), isn’t mentioned by name, but a remark by the narrator that some politicians have rubber-stamped the GOP leadership agenda is a clear swipe at Quayle.

New Jersey: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a television figure running for the House as a Republican, used the occasion of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s death to blast Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) for saying in 2009 that Boteach and others should be good neighbors to Moammar Gadhafi. The former Libyan leader owned tax-exempt land next door to Boteach’s home and famously tried to set up his tent there in 2009 for a visit to the United Nations.

Rothman will be formally endorsed by top Obama aide David Axelrod on Wednesday at a banquet hall in Wood-Ridge, N.J. Rothman’s primary opponent, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), has already secured the endorsement of former President Clinton.

SENATE SHOWDOWN:

Connecticut: Former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, in her second bid for the Senate in Connecticut, is calling on her Republican opponent to bow out and support her after winning the GOP endorsement at the state party convention.

Indiana: The Indiana Democratic Party is up with its first ad of the election cycle against Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R), who beat Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) in a primary two weeks ago. The ad compares Mourdock to a “schoolyard bully” for his opposition to bipartisan compromise.

Missouri: Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) missed the deadline to pay her property taxes on her Washington condo by three weeks, incurring a nominal penalty for filing late.

Montana: Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) released his seventh ad already of the cycle — he’s been debuting a new positive ad every Monday for the last seven weeks.

New Jersey: Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) officially began his reelection campaign Monday with a rally in Union City, N.J. Menendez told a crowd of high-school students that life for the middle class in the United States is like needing 20 yards for a first down, while the other team needs just five. Menendez didn’t mention his likely GOP opponent, state Sen. Joe Kyrillos.

Ohio: Majority PAC, a super-PAC backing Democratic candidates, has doubled its spending in Ohio’s Senate race, according to an independent expenditure report filed with the Federal Election Commission. Majority PAC is now up to $600,000 in its efforts to support Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and attack his opponent, state Treasurer Josh Mandel (R).

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Bringing in Cheney: Former Vice President Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, will host a fundraiser for Romney at their Jackson Hole, Wyo., home on July 12.

Religion is sacred: Priorities USA, a super-PAC that supports President Obama, won’t touch on Mitt Romney‘s Mormonism in its attacks. “We are ruling that out,” Priorities USA senior strategist Bill Burton said.

Money, money: Priorities USA also saw its fundraising plummet in April to $1.6 million, down from $2.5 million that raised in March.

Bringing in the feds: The Justice Department has launched a probe into an unusual pattern of maxed-out contributions to Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) and Ohio state Treasurer Josh Mandel, the Republican Senate nominee. 

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