Former Kerry campaign manager and longtime head of EMILY’s List, Mary Beth Cahill, is joining Priorities USA, the Obama-endorsed SuperPAC.

The first time outside groups played an outsized role in a presidential campaign was in 2004, the year Cahill ran Kerry’s campaign. Kerry got a big assist that year from a slew of outside Democratic groups, including the largest one known as Americans Coming Together (ACT).

It is that experience, knowing what outside groups do well and not so well, that is supposed to make her a valuable asset to the SuperPAC that is still struggling to match the power of the big Republican SuperPACs.

“Mary Beth brings an enormous wealth of experience in national campaigns and we couldn’t be happier that she’s joining us," said Priorities USA co-founder Bill Burton. "As the election draws closer, her expertise in strategy and targeting will be invaluable in ensuring the President’s reelection.”

President Obama warned leaders in Congress that he wouldn't tolerate another "self-inflicted political crisis" associated with the need to raise the nation's debt limit.

Over lunch Wednesday at the White House, Obama cautioned House Speaker John Boehner, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell against another standoff that plagued Washington last summer.

“We're not going to recreate the debt ceiling debacle of last August,” Press Secretary Jay Carney recounted the president saying during his lunch meeting with House and Senate leaders.

Boehner’s office released its own account of the meeting shortly after Carney began the White House daily briefing, saying that the House speaker had asked the president whether he would aim for a debt limit increase that didn’t include any spending cuts, to which the president responded, “Yes.”

According to Boehner’s office, the speaker responded, "As long as I'm around here, I'm not going to allow a debt ceiling increase without doing something serious about the debt."

Carney said Boehner asked whether the president was advocating “the clean debt ceiling,” which Carney argued was “a little different” than asking whether or not it would include spending cuts.

But, Carney continued, “The essence is the same. And the president's point was, we should not hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage to one party's political agenda.”

Obama and the four leaders in Congress dined on hoagies fetched earlier in the day by the president during a stop at Washington's Taylor Gourmet sandwich shop.

President Obama’s spiritual adviser, Rev. Joel Hunter, said he disagrees with the president’s support for gay marriage. “I can’t find this in scripture.” Hunter said on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" today.

Hunter said that the president’s announcement was likely prompted by Vice President Biden’s endorsement on "Meet the Press." When asked if he thought Obama’s announcement was personal or politically driven, the pastor said, “When you’re in that office it’s always political. But that doesn't mean it's devoid from a sense of personal responsibility and personal morality.”

When Hunter spoke with the president after last week’s announcement, Hunter said that the president told him he changed his views based on personal anecdotes, gay friends, and servicemen. Hunter said, “He wants to do the right thing. But for him, that doesn't come straight just from scripture.”

Hunter said he did not discuss politics, policy, or even gay marriage with the president before last week. “We had not talked about this specific subject.” Hunter said. “I just talk about his personal life and his understanding of the scripture.”

When NBC's Andrea Mitchell asked if the pastor would preach against gay marriage and what the president said, Hunter said, “I don't preach political matters. I preach scriptural standards. And so, when I preach about marriage, I will say that it's between a man and a woman. And give scriptural references for that. But I simply stay away from politics when it comes to preaching, because the word of God is too important on its own to communicate. And I can't really get detoured from that.”

Hunter’s admiration of Obama has not been changed by his announcement, “The president's a man. You know? And I love him. He's a friend. But with the rest of my congregation -- I never know how much of my counsel they're going to take or not take."

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Vice President Joe Biden launched a deeply populist argument for the president's re-election on Wednesday, deriding Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital and countering the GOP argument that Democrats hope to sow "envy" between the middle class and the wealthy.

Tony Dejak / AP

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at M-7 Technologies May 16 in Youngstown, Ohio.

"I resent when they talk about families like mine that I grew up in. I resent the fact that they think we're talking about envy, that's it's job envy, it's wealth envy. That we don't dream," he told a crowd of about 600 at a Youngstown manufacturing facility, deep in the nation's Rust Belt.

"My mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams!" he said to mounting applause. "They don't get us! They don't get who we are."

Echoing the campaign's new TV ad hitting Romney's record as the head of Bain Capital, Biden accused the GOP nominee of gutting companies without regard for hundreds of employees who lost their jobs and benefits when they were shuttered.

"Romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts, and the middle class lost," he  "And folks, he thinks this experience will help our economy? Where I come from, past is prologue, man. So what do you think he’ll do as president?"

The facility where Biden spoke, M-7 Technologies, conducts high-tech manufacturing as well as research and development. It was originally founded in 1918 as a producer of castings for the steel industry.

Biden argued that jobs in eastern Ohio are returning, highlighting the campaign's focus on revitalizing the manufacturing industry. "You know the difference between an economy that's built on making things rather than on collateralized debt, creative credit default-swaps, financial instruments subprime mortgages," he said. "That's not how you grow an economy."

Before his repeated criticisms of Romney's business record and a philosophy of letting workers "fend for themselves," Biden praised the Republican's character, including a reference to Romney's charitable giving to his church. (A Romney spokesman present at the event said he did not view the comment as a swipe as Romney's faith. Romney is a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints.)

"He's a patriot, a generous man, he gives to his church, he has a beautiful family," Biden said of Romney. "But he doesn't get it."

Speaking to reporters after the event, Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland was more blunt about Romney's ability to relate to the middle class.

"I sometimes feel sorry for Mitt Romney because I think he desperately tries to relate to ordinary people and he simply does not have the capacity to do so," he said of Romney's place among the "1 percent."

"He does not understand people who have to worry about putting gas in the car, or food on the table, or helping care for their families," he said. "Those aren't challenges that he has ever had to face. And consequently I think he is incapable of really showing empathy to average people.

Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams told reporters that Biden and Strickland's criticisms would fall on deaf ears, particularly in light of Obama's attempts to raise cash from wealthy Wall Street types.

"They're attacking industries that are creating jobs, that he himself is raising money from," he said. "So people can see the dishonesty of the attack."

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has opened up a 6-point lead over Democratic challenger Tom Barrett ahead of a closely-watched June 5 recall election.

Fifty percent of Wisconsin's likely voters said in a Marquette Law School Poll that they would support retaining Walker versus 44 percent of likely voters who said they would instead elect Barrett, Walker's challenger in the 2010 general election who will again face Walker after having won last week's Democratic primary.

The poll would seem to reflect what had been an anecdotal sense that Walker has opened up an advantage in the few weeks before the recall election.

A target of Democrats and organized labor since pushing a dramatic reform of collective bargaining rights for public employees through the Wisconsin state legislature, Walker has raised millions more than his challengers in order to fend off the recall effort.

If Walker were to win, it would be a symbolic victory not only for his efforts to curb labor rights, but also for a series of other Republican governors who have embarked upon the same path. It would also be a disappointing setback for organized labor.

It could also help put Wisconsin in play for this fall's general election between Mitt Romney and President Obama.

Among likely Wisconsin voters, Obama and Romney were tied at 46 percent in a hypothetical November matchup.

A poll preceding the Democratic primary in Wisconsin had showed Barrett and Walker virtually tied in the gubernatorial recall, suggesting that the tide might have turned back toward Walker in the weeks since then.

The Republican governor had a 50 percent approval rating, according to the most recent Marquette poll, versus 46 percent of Wisconsinites who disapporove of the way he is handling his job.

The remainder of the recall campaign is still expected to be a hard-fought campaign, with millions in ads sponsored by outside groups on both sides. But reflecting the stakes of the race, and prevailing sentiment in Washington, state Democrats had to complain publicly about a lack of support from the Democratic National Committee before eliciting a promise to help raise funds.

The Marquette Law School poll, conducted May 9-12, has a 4.1 percent margin of error for the sample of likely voters.

Video edited by NBC's Matt Loffman.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Mitt Romney continued to drive a debt-oriented message here on Wednesday morning, extending his "prairie fire" of debt metaphor with the assistance of a prop.

In a nod to the independent voters who pushed the Sunshine State into the Democratic column in 2008, Romney noted that both parties were responsible for pushing the debt to the "incomprehensible" levels – which were represented on a giant prop debt clock behind him.

Mary Altaffer / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign stop May 16 in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"There was another area during [President Obama's] campaign, he said he would focus on. You see, he was very critical of his predecessor for the debts his predecessor put in place. And sure it's true you can't blame one party or the other for all the debts this country has, because both parties in my opinion have spent too much and borrowed too much when they were in power," Romney said in this key swing state.

(Interestingly, Romney danced around the actual name of that predecessor, George W. Bush, who on Tuesday endorsed the former Massachusetts Governor when asked a question by an ABC News reporter.)

"[President Obama] was very critical of his predecessor because the predecessor put together $4 trillion of debt over eight years," Romney continued. "This president however - oh by the way, he said that doing that was unpatriotic, irresponsible and unpatriotic. And he said he would cut the debt in half if he became president. Instead he doubled it, alright, he doubled it."

Democrats answered those charges quickly.

“In Florida today, Mitt Romney continued to make dishonest claims- both about President Obama’s record and his own," Obama spokesperson Lis Smith said in a statement. “While President Obama has put forward a plan to reduce the deficit by more than $4 trillion by making responsible spending cuts and asking every American to pay their share, Mitt Romney refuses to say what spending cuts or tax increases he’d make to cover the cost of giving $5 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. Mitt Romney simply wants to return to the same policies that caused the economic crisis and weakened the middle class."

Meanwhile, Romney used his prop clock like a battering ram against the president.

"Gosh, when we put that clock up, we made that clock back in the New Hampshire primary days and it began with 14 back then. Now its fifteen, six eighty five, it'll be sixteen coming soon. It is not at all what he promised," Romney said. "This presidency has been a disappointment, and the people who have been hurt by this disappointment are the American people."

The presumptive Republican nominee did not mention his plan to reform entitlements here in senior-heavy Florida, but repeat his plans to increase military spending -- a portion of Romney's fiscal vision not easily squared with his plans to cut spending broadly.

"I'd like to take shipbuilding from 9 to 15 a year, by the way that will help put people to work. And I want to buy more aircraft and I want to have more active duty personnel and I want to make sure we give our veterans the care they richly deserve," Romney said.

House Speaker John Boehner today denied he was threatening default when he called yesterday for equal or greater spending cuts to accompany a future increase in the debt ceiling.

"I'm not threatening default," he said in response to a question by NBC News. "What I'm trying to do is encourage people on both sides of the aisle on both sides of the Capitol and on both ends of Pennsylvania Ave to be honest with the American people and to be honest with ourselves to begin to tackle this problem in an adult manner."

NBC News: Speaker Boehner? Why are you threatening default on the debt limit in May of 2012?

BOEHNER: "I'm not threatening default."

NBC NEWS: But you said yesterday cuts must match debt limit increase no matter what...

BOEHNER: "Let's remember something, the issue here is the debt, almost $16 trillion dollars worth of debt, $1.3 trillion dollar budget deficit this year, one only has to read the publications that many of you write for to realize that the situation in Europe is becoming grimmer every day. We have time to deal with our problems and what I'm trying to do is encourage people on both sides of the aisle on both sides of the Capitol and on both ends of Pennsylvania Ave to be honest with the American people and to be honest with ourselves to begin to tackle this problem in an adult manner."

Here we go again: Boehner raises prospect of another debt-ceiling showdown… That carries potential risks and rewards for Boehner and the GOP… Romney focuses on cutting spending, but where’s the beef?... Bain Capital story chases Romney as he campaigns in Florida… Biden to blast Bain, too, in remarks in Youngstown, OH… Crossroads GPS goes up with anti-Obama ad… Obama camp raises $43.6 million in April (down from February and March)… And Fischer pulls off the upset in Nebraska.

Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, speaks at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's 2012 Fiscal Summit, Tuesday, May 15, 2012, in Washington.

*** Here we go again: Last summer’s debt-ceiling fight ended like a typical Tarantino flick -- with casualties and blood everywhere and no real winners. President Obama’s approval ratings sunk to the low 40s, from which he’s somewhat recovered. Congress’ number fell much more, and they remain at historic lows. Standard & Poor’s lowered its credit rating for the United States. Economic activity stalled, and economic confidence tanked. And guess what: House Speaker John Boehner is now vowing for a sequel. Call it “Kill Bill (and Everyone Else), Vol. 2.” In remarks he delivered yesterday in DC, Boehner demanded that the next debt-ceiling increase -- slated for early 2013 -- have commensurate spending cuts and no tax increases. “I will again insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase," Boehner said, per NBC’s Mike O’Brien. "This is the only avenue I see right now to force the elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal imbalance."

*** Risky Business: Given what took place last year, Boehner’s call for a sequel is risky. On the one hand, this could give the Republican Party some leverage in the lame-duck session, with President Obama and the Democrats holding the cards on the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the defense-spending sequester. In addition, attention on another debt-ceiling fight could help Mitt Romney, because it would force Obama to have to engage Congress, which is never pretty for an incumbent president. And another round of self-inflicted economic uncertainty could hurt the U.S. recovery and thus Obama’s re-election chances. (We remind you that job creation pretty much stalled last summer.) But on the other hand, another debt showdown could spotlight all the negative feelings the public has toward Congress and the Republican Party. What’s more, while the debt-ceiling fight hurt Obama in the short term, it arguably made him stronger by giving him someone to run against. After all, he’s campaigning as much against House Republicans as he is Mitt Romney.

*** Romney also focuses on cutting spending, but where’s the beef? On the same day that Boehner made his remarks about the debt ceiling, Romney was also talking about deficits and debt while campaigning in Iowa. (One thing is clear this week: The GOP is coordinating as well as they have in years. The entire GOP message machine has turned toward the debt issue, from Boehner to Romney to Crossroads.) "This debt is America's nightmare mortgage… This is not just bad economics; it is morally wrong and we must stop it," Romney said, per NBC’s Garrett Haake. "The people of Iowa and America have watched President Obama nearly four years now. Much of that time, with Congress controlled by his own party. And rather than putting out that spending fire, he’s been feeding it… The time has come for a president, a leader, who will lead. I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno.” It was a strong speech by Romney. But he still hasn’t provided details how his promises -- like reducing tax rates for the wealthy, keeping the Bush tax cuts, and increasing defense spending -- will actually reduce the deficit and debt. He’s been clear about his plans for entitlements (like Medicare and Social Security), but the details are lacking elsewhere. Romney wants to avoid filling in the blanks because to make his numbers work, it’s going to take some real massive cuts into domestic programs. By the way, as the jobs picture improves slightly, and even more so in many of the key battleground states (see OH, VA, and IA in particular), it’s not surprising that the economic pitch of the GOP has moved from “where are the jobs?” to “the debt.”

*** The Bain story continues to chase Romney: Romney today campaigns in Florida today, holding an event in St. Petersburg and two fundraisers in Tampa and Miami. And the problem for him with all the attention on Bain is that the story chases him from state to state. Here’s the Tampa Bay Times: “In advance of Mitt Romney's fundraising swing through Florida tomorrow Democrats are highlighting one of the business ventures of Bain Capital while Romney was in charge: Dade Behring, which, saddled with debt, wound up shuttering two medical technologies facilities in Miami. Some 850 jobs were lost, while Bain walked away with $242-million - an 800 percent return on its investment. The Dade Behring case has been well-documented, but here's a new wrinkle: The company under Bain's leadership sought and received millions of dollars in tax breaks for creating jobs in Puerto Rico - shortly before closing its facilities, costing nearly 300 jobs.”

*** Biden to blast Bain, too: In remarks he’ll deliver at noon ET in Youngstown, OH, Vice President Biden will also bring up Romney’s record at Bain. “He thinks that because he spent his career as a ‘businessman,’ he has the experience to run the economy. So let’s take a look at a couple of things he did,” Biden is expected to say, according to excerpts of his speech. “In the 1990s, there was a steel mill in Kansas City, Missouri.  It had been in business since 1888. Then Romney and his partners bought the company. Eight years later, it went bankrupt.” More Biden: “Romney’s management team added debt on the company. When they bought the company it had only $13 million of debt.  By the time it filed for bankruptcy, its debt had increased 40 fold to over $533 million… And when the company finally filed for bankruptcy, they reneged on their contract with the workers. No health care, lower pensions. Everyone lost their jobs. But not everyone got hurt. The top 30 executives walked away with $9 million. And Romney and his partners walked away with at least $12 million. Romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts, and the middle class lost.  And folks, he thinks this experience will help our economy?”

*** Crossroads goes up: After the Obama campaign unveiled its massive ad buy, the Karl Rove-backed Crossroads GPS (the 501c4 that doesn’t have to disclose its donors) is up with a very large buy hitting Obama. And here’s the ad. As we noted above, it’s on the GOP message theme of the week: the debt. Again, we ask: Is this a subtle shift from jobs, because of the facts on the ground in many of the battleground states? Note the themes in this ad: debt and housing; more powerful arguments perhaps in places like Florida and Nevada. The states where the ad is running: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

*** Obama camp raises $43.6 million in April: NBC’s Carrie Dann reports that the Obama campaign announced it raised $43.6 million in April -- for the campaign, DNC, and other committees. That amount, however, is down from the campaign’s $45 million combined haul in February and $53 million haul in March. In February, the Obama campaign raised $21 million, with the DNC/OFA/other committees raking in the rest. And in March, the campaign brought in $35 million, with the committees raising the rest. Also in March, Romney's campaign raised $13 million. The FEC filing deadline for last month’s numbers is May 20.

*** Romney’s 155 delegates away from 1144: As expected, Romney easily won last night’s GOP presidential primaries in Nebraska and Oregon. The latest delegate count, per NBC’s Katie Primm: Romney 989, Santorum 265, Gingrich 130, Paul 106.

*** Fischer pulls off the upset in Nebraska: As we alluded to yesterday, there was an upset in last night’s Nebraska Senate GOP primary. The Lincoln Journal Star: State Sen. Deb Fischer’s “late surge, perhaps unprecedented in modern-day Nebraska political history, upended a Senate race that appeared to be settled as recently as 10 days ago with the GOP prize within the grasp of Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning.” More: “Fischer suddenly gained momentum with late endorsements from 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Lincoln, then rode the momentum of a weekend TV ad blitz mounted by Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts and his political action committee. The super PAC ads purchased by Ending Spending supported Fischer and roughed up Bruning with attacks on his character and ethical behavior as attorney general. Within days, his support collapsed and the race was scrambled.”

*** Did the NRSC back into its strongest candidate? While we and others have cast Fischer’s surprise win as an outsider victory against an establishment insider (Bruning), the Cook Political Report’s Jennifer Duffy has a different take: “Bruning’s problem [wasn’t] necessarily that he is the establishment candidate; it’s that there are all these questions about his finances and ethics,” she told First Read. “It’s about the only story about the primary race the World Herald has written.” So Senate Republicans may very well have backed into their strongest candidate. We’ll know in a week or so if Fischer is for real or whether Democrats (and Bob Kerrey) will have a true shot in this red state in November. More times than not, the candidate who comes out on top in a three-way race sails to victory in the general election (see Feingold/Mosely-Braun/Palin/Gray Davis). Yet the question mark surrounding Fischer is that she isn’t well known. But barring something unknown, Democratic hopes of keeping this seat may actually be fading faster than they would have had the GOP nominated either of the two men.

*** Veepstakes watch: And here’s the Chris Christie-Cory Booker web video everyone is talking about today. 

Countdown to WI recall: 20 days
Countdown to GOP convention: 103 days
Countdown to Dem convention: 110 days
Countdown to Election Day: 174 days

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*** Wednesday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) on the renewed debt fight, California’s budget breakdown and more… U.S. Senate candidate Craig James on whether the GOP primary race in Texas will have surprises like Nebraska and Indiana… More 2012 headlines with former Clinton 2008 Campaign Manager Patti Solis Doyle, former Gingrich 2012 and Perry 2012 Campaign Manager Rob Johnson and Financial Times’ Anna Fifield.

*** Wednesday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru, MSNBC Contributor Richard Wolffe,  former CBO Director Doug Holtz-Eakin, former Biden economic adviser Jared Bernstein, Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), attorney Hampton Dellinger, and NBC News Chief Legal Analyst Savannah Guthrie.

*** Wednesday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up:  MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks with USA Today’s Jackie Kucinich, Doug Thornell, J.P. Friere, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), CNBC Contributor Ron Insana and Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s Andrew Romano.

*** Wednesday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include former New York Gov. George Pataki, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, NBCLatino.com’s Alicia Menendez, Pulitzer Prize-winning Author David Wood of The Huffington Post, and James Wright, author, “Those Who Have Borne the Battle”

*** Wednesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews NBC’s Chuck Todd, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), President Obama’s faith advisor Rev. Joel Hunter, Obama campaign co-chair and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, NBC’s Stephanie Gosk, the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart and author and journalist Gayle Lemmon.

*** Wednesday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall interviews Rep. James Clyburn on the President’s lunch with congressional leaders, Michael Smerconish, AB Stoddard and Jimmy Williams.

Crossroads GPS says it’s going up with a $25 million ad buy on broken Obama promises. The ad focuses on housing, taxes, health care, the deficit. “We need solutions not just promises,” an announcer says.

“When the head of JPMorgan Chase met with shareholders to answer for a trading loss of more than $2 billion Tuesday, it was against an evolving political backdrop: Donors from big banks are betting on Mitt Romney to defeat President Obama and repeal new restraints on risky, large-scale investments,” the Boston Globe reports.

“President Barack Obama pushes his legislative ‘to-do list’ on Wednesday,” the AP reports. “He'll start with a visit to a company in the Washington area where he'll stress the need to invest in small business and increase new hiring. He wants Congress to pass a bill that would give a 10 percent tax credit to companies that create new jobs or increase wages this year. The president also will press the list when he has lunch with the congressional leadership.”

“President Obama’s total assets in 2011 were as high as $8.3 million in 2011, according to an annual financial disclosure filing released by the White House Tuesday,” the Boston Globe reports, adding, “Much of the president’s wealth is in the form of US Treasury bills and notes, which total between $1.6 million and $6.25 million… The Obamas also have $500,001 to $1 million in a checking account at JPMorgan Chase, the bank currently under FBI scrutiny for a $2 billion trading loss.”

NBC’s Carrie Dann reports Biden today in Ohio will say: "Romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts, and the middle class lost. And folks, he thinks this experience will help our economy? Where I come from, past is prologue.” And he'll define "Romney economics" as "as long as the government helps the guys at the very top do well, workers and small businesses and communities can be left to fend for themselves."

A Super PAC ad out on Romney’s record at Bain “relies, in part, on the dubious assertion that Bain Capital always turned a profit, no matter what happened to the businesses in which it invested,” the Boston Globe writes.