"Looks like we've got us a dragon by the tail," announced NASA astronaut Don Pettit as the International Space Station's robotic arm reached out and grabbed the SpaceX Dragon capsule Friday morning.

Since the Dragon capsule launched from Cape Canaveral three days ago, NASA, SpaceX, and the public have been waiting for the capsule to reach the International Space Station. A large part of the project's success rested on whether the space station could snare the capsule, pull it into a 65-foot-wide "berthing box" and dock it.

Cheers erupted at the NASA space center in Houston at 9:56 a.m. ET when the space station captured its prize. The unmanned capsule is the first commercial spacecraft to reach the ISS. It docked a few hours later.

The Dragon capsule is delivering 1,000 pounds of food, clothing and technology to the orbiting laboratory. The space station crew then plans to load the empty vessel with about 1,300 pounds of unneeded cargo and hardware before sending it back to Earth on May 31.

John Holdren, President Obama's assistant on science and technology policy, released a statement noting the significance of this transfer:

That is exactly what the president had in mind when he laid out a fresh course for NASA to explore new scientific frontiers and take Americans even deeper into our solar system while relying on private-sector innovators -- working in the competitive free market -- to ferry astronauts and cargo to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station. It's essential we maintain such competition and fully support this burgeoning and capable industry to get U.S. astronauts back on American launch vehicles as soon as possible.

I could not be prouder of our scientists and engineers -- both government and private sector employees -- who have contributed to this historic mission. A passion for discovery and a sense for adventure have always driven this nation forward, and I join all Americans in watching what future possibilities are enabled by today's great achievement.

Check out past NewsHour reports on the SpaceX mission:

Miles O'Brien on SpaceX Launch: Space for the Rest of Us

Supporters of President Obama listen to him speak during a campaign event Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images.

As the nation prepares to spend a long weekend honoring the armed forces and gathering in backyards for barbecues, the economy continues to be the dominant issue in politics.

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that middle-class white voters who say they are struggling financially -- a key group that will influence who wins on Nov. 6 -- overwhelmingly favor Mitt Romney over President Obama on some economic matters. The survey shows 58 percent of these voters believe the presumptive Republican presidential nominee would do more to advance their families' economic interests, while just 32 percent think President Obama is better.

The Post's Jon Cohen and Karen Tumulty write that the poll results "underscore a continuing challenge for Obama and the Democratic Party with white voters, and particularly those without college degrees -- who, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are significantly more likely to be unemployed than those with higher education." It shows Romney "has a similar advantage on this question among white voters who have lost a job in recent years, or who have seen a family member or close friend face unemployment."

Whites and nonwhites -- as well as voters across party lines -- agree that Romney would do more than Obama to advocate for the economic interests of wealthy Americans. By a 23-point margin, voters say it's Romney, not Obama, who would do more to advance the interests of Wall Street.

The president also continues to lead with non-white voters.

The unemployment rate and the feelings voters have about the economy will continue to be critically important as the campaign plays out this summer and fall.

In response to a story starring Democrats worried about the re-election campaign's tactics, the president's team tells Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei of Politico that Mr. Obama "has focused like a laser on the top priority for the American people: restoring economic security for the middle class."

You can check out our Vote 2012 Map Center here or below to see how the unemployment rates look state-by-state.

And use the Electoral College calculator in the Map Center here or below to see how that overlaps with some of the battleground states.

THE DEBT DEBATE

Speaking at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday, President Obama took direct aim at Romney's contention that he had overseen a "prairie fire of debt" by arguing that his administration has allowed federal spending to increase at the slowest rate in 60 years.

Mr. Obama added that Romney's tax policies would worsen the country's debt problem.

"He hasn't told you how he'd paid for a new $5 trillion tax cut which includes a 25 percent tax cut for nearly every millionaire in the country," the president said. "Five trillion dollars in new tax cuts -- that is like trying to put a fire out -- a prairie fire with some gasoline."

The president's visit came nine days after the presumptive GOP nominee stopped in Des Moines and delivered a speech calling for fiscal restraint.

"A prairie fire of debt is sweeping across Iowa and our nation, and every day we fail to act that fire gets closer to the homes and children we love," Romney said May 15, putting the blame squarely on the president. "Rather than put out the spending fire, he has fed the fire."

The president shot back Thursday that Romney's "speech was more like a cow pie of distortion," adding, "I don't know whose record he twisted the most -- mine or his."

Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams responded in a statement Thursday: "When you listen to President Obama's campaign speeches, it's as if he's forgotten that he's been president for nearly four years and has a record to defend. President Obama has proven beyond all doubt that he is not serious about fixing our country's spending problem."

WRONGFULLY EXECUTED?

On Thursday's NewsHour, Ray Suarez talked with Columbia Law School professor James Liebman about his report, "The Two Carloses -- An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution".

Liebman detailed for Ray the overwhelming evidence that suggests Carlos DeLuna, who was executed in 1989 for the killing of a gas station clerk, was an innocent man. He called his report, the end of a several year effort, a "very big deal." He said:

[W]e see a lot of evidence that this actually is seeping into the public consciousness at a time of a great debate about the death penalty. Five states have abolished in the last five years. California is going to have a big referendum.

So we think that this is what scholarship is about and why, at a law school, it's our responsibility to put it out there for the public and let the public see. And we believe that, over time, this will become very much a part of the discussion, and it will be hard, very hard not to take it into consideration.

Watch the full segment here or below.

2012 LINE ITEMS

• Peggy Noonan scored a phone interview with Romney in which he waxed philosophical about his campaign.

• The Hill has the lead of the morning: "Mitt Romney has opened his checkbook for just one Senate race this cycle: Arizona, where one of his leading campaign surrogates is fighting with one of his cousins for the GOP nomination."

• The Associated Press' Steve Peoples writes that Romney faced "tough questions about how his education proposals would affect black communities" during a visit to an inner-city Philadelphia charter school Thursday. He writes that Romney "struggled to defend his view that class sizes aren't a major factor in educational success. Local African-American leaders also said his push for more two-parent families isn't realistic in their community."

• An AP review of campaign finance data "found that only a few hundred donors who contributed to candidates like Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum have changed course and gave to Romney's campaign or the Republican Party in April."

• Gingrich, meanwhile, will join Romney and Donald Trump at a fundraiser in Las Vegas.

• Obama campaign manager Jim Messina met with Senate Democrats to talk strategy, reports The Hill's Bernie Becker.

• Judy Woodruff writes about what she's keeping an eye on with five months to go until the election.

TOP TWEETS

RT @asmith83: A picture of Newt with a snake wrapped around his neck. I can't. politi.co/KKM0AV

— Janie Lorber (@SJLorber) May 25, 2012

Democratic South Carolina Congressional candidate arrested on drunken driving and gun charges huff.to/JAj430

— HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol) May 25, 2012

Hate good-bye's but #amazing #essential long-time @NewsHour Sr Producer for Foreign Affairs @MikeMosettig deserves next chapter - #bigloss

— Judy Woodruff (@JudyWoodruff) May 24, 2012

we can't believe it. It's ace @NewsHour foreign policy sr producer @mikemosettig 's last day. Much boo hooing.

— gwen ifill (@pbsgwen) May 24, 2012

OUTSIDE THE LINES

• Buzzfeed dubs this the weirdest campaign ad of 2012.

• The New York Times Magazine devotes a cover story to the Wisconsin recall election.

• Tom Barrett's campaign released internal poll numbers Thursday showing the Milwaukee mayor within striking distance of GOP Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin's June 5 recall election. The survey gave Walker a 50 percent to 48 percent advantage over Barrett. The margin is slightly closer than what has been seen in other recent polls, including one by Wisconsin Public Radio released earlier this week that put Walker up by five points. A Reason-Rupe survey released Thursday found Walker up eights points, 50 percent to 42 percent.

• Hotline on Call found Walker and GOP groups have outspent Barrett and Democratic groups "more than 3-1 on TV ad buys" over the last three months.

• Missouri taxpayers shelled out more than $1,100 for "a security camera to keep watch over a new bronze bust of conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh," the AP reports.

• Politico looks at Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry's attempt to influence political races and reassert his influence.

• Herman Cain "is applying the same relentless promotional skills he displayed on the campaign trail to building a sprawling political-business machine to rebuild his tarnished brand and keep his voice--and his trademark 9-9-9 tax plan--in the national conversation," Politico's Kenneth Vogel and Juana Summers report.

• Roll Call's John Stanton finds Democrats taking sides in the redistricting-fueled member-vs.-member House primary in New Jersey.

• Indiana Democrats will criticize GOP Senate nominee Richard Mourdock, who unseated Sen. Dick Lugar, for apparently removing statements supporting the Republican "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan from his campaign site.

• While doing damage control to excuse away his most recent mishap, former Washington, D.C., mayor and current City Council member Marion Berry stepped in it again.

• A brawl broke out Thursday in the Ukrainian parliament over a bill to allow the official use of Russian in certain parts of the country.

• The NewsHour on Thursday bid a fond farewell to longtime foreign editor Mike Mosettig. Watch the tribute video shown in the newsroom here.

Katelyn Polantz and Alex Bruns contributed to this report.

ON THE TRAIL

All events are listed in Eastern Time.

• President Obama has no public events scheduled.

• Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks to families left behind by fallen military service members at the 18th annual TAPS National Military Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp in Arlington, Va., at 11:45 a.m.

• Mitt Romney has no public events scheduled.

All future events can be found on our Political Calendar:

For more political coverage, visit our politics page.

Sign up here to receive the Morning Line in your inbox every morning.

Questions or comments? Email Christina Bellantoni at cbellantoni-at-newshour-dot-org.

Follow the politics team on Twitter: @cbellantoni, @burlij, @elizsummers, @kpolantz, @indiefilmfan and @tiffanymullon.

An all-terrain vehicle exits the cargo bay of a Kentucky Air Guard C-130 onto the flight line at Fort Campbell, Ky. U.S. Air Force photo by Maj. Dale Greer via Flickr.

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. | Memorial Day weekend will feel a little different this year than any in the past decade in this small town in southwestern Kentucky.

After years of seeing thousands of local soldiers deployed from nearby Fort Campbell, Memorial Day 2012 finds most of the community's transient citizens home, present and accounted for. And that has had some big impacts on the area emotionally and economically.

The recession that has rocked the nation is playing out a little differently in Hopkinsville, a Military Bastion in Patchwork Nation's demographic/geographic breakdown of counties.

The effects of the economic downturn were accentuated in some ways by the upheaval of a steady stream of troop deployments and re-deployments, as tens of thousands of soldiers were often missing from the area's population -- and its retail establishments. In recent months, the economic recovery has been reinforced and sped along with the return of those men and women from overseas.

Companies Back Home in a Company Town

Even at the depths of the recession, things never got as bad as they could have in Hoptown, as locals call this burg of 42,000. Even if the town was missing soldiers, the base was one big employer -- $50 million in payroll -- that never shut down or faced massive layoffs. Hopkinsville sits in Christian County, the purple Military Bastion county at the bottom of the map below.

But it's back to full strength now, and you can feel it when you watch a steady stream of customers go in and out of the local Starbucks or fast-food establishments. The foot traffic is much heavier than it was just a few years ago when Patchwork Nation visited. As we have noted in more in-depth reporting, Military Bastions like Hopkinsville, with their high turnover, share a bit in common with big college towns -- with soldiers instead of students.

At DT's Last Call, a bar in Hopkinsville which says it is "proud to serve those who serve," bartenders and staff say soldiers usually come in groups and spend a good deal of time and money when they do. Usually they show up on the 1st and 15th, bartender Angie Barthlow says with a smile, referring to monthly paydays.

"When the soldiers come home, the single biggest beneficiaries are the area restaurants, groceries and auto dealerships," says Chuck Henderson, president of the Kentucky New Era, the local daily newspaper. "But the biggest winners are the rental properties. Most of the soldiers are renters."

Construction may be slow in Hopkinsville and Christian County, but there are new three new multi-family rental developments -- and another planned.

And, of course, the newspaper does better, as well. The ad package in the Fort Campbell Courrier, a newspaper for and about the base, is up 25-30 percent since the soldiers returned, Henderson says.

How much of that is just the recovery slowly working its way through community and how much is the soldiers? That can be hard to measure, but surely both are playing a role. City revenues and payroll, Kemp says, are up more than 5 percent in recent months compared to the same period the previous year.

Constant Change

With most everyone home, Hopkinsville and Christian County also feel less focused on the military in 2012. The soldiers and base are very much a part of this community, but the yellow ribbons that were once omnipresent present in the city and county are noticeably far fewer in number.

The soldiers, themselves, always ready to respond to the call of duty are more subdued locals say.

Tanya Hatley, executive director of the Association of the U.S. Army at Fort Campbell, says that for many soldiers, there is simply relief at being home. "I can't speak for all the soldiers, but its obviously a huge hardship," she says. "There was more enthusiasm back in 2002. The soldiers who have been a few times are more subdued."

That seems to be particularly true when it comes to how the soldiers feel about Afghanistan, where conditions are harder.

"Ideally everyone who like to stay [in Afghanistan] until the job is done, but there are only so many soldiers in the Army," Hatley says. "It's the same people going back again and again."

The big question, in 2012 anyway, is what that attitude may mean for the presidential race. Some soldiers have been on as many as five deployments since 2002, and some recent polls have suggested that veterans in general seem weary with the prolonged war efforts, to the point where they may favor President Obama in the fall.

Here's a breakdown of the veteran population across the country:

But that kind of talk is not obvious in Hopkinsville, say those who know Fort Campbell well. November is still a long way off, and if you were wondering about the level of voter engagment here, turnout in Tuesday's primary was figured to be in the single-digits. Politics simply isn't on the minds of many here right now.

Instead, there is a feeling that this town is bouncing back and that it is finally, more-or-less, whole again -- for now. Over the next few months, another 10,000 or so soldiers will deploy again to Afghanistan. And Hopkinsville, like other Military Bastions, will experience first-hand the impact of the wars overseas.

Bill Couser inspects one of the first fields he planted with corn in mid-April on his farm near Nevada, Iowa.

The PBS NewsHour wants to hear from farmers: What have these changes in weather patterns meant for your crops? How have these changes affected your farm or agricultural business? Have warmer winters brought new plants, pests or diseases? How did you adjust to a late freeze or an early spring? Have you had more losses in recent years?

Please fill out the form below to share your insights. If you have an original photo of yourself or your farm that you can share with us, please do.

These insights will be used to inform our reporting, and some may be published directly to our website.

If you have any questions about this form, please contact Rebecca Jacobson rjacobson@newshour.org.

Paul Solman frequently answers questions from the NewsHour audience on business and economic news on his Making Sen$e page. Here is Thursday's query:

Name: Sam Katz

Question: Even though government bond prices fluctuate daily, wouldn't you get back your original investment if held to maturity plus interest along the way?

Paul Solman: Strictly speaking, yes, but suppose the interest rate on a government bond is weirdly low when you buy it? Then, if you're bond doesn't mature for a decade, say, you'll be getting back a lot less than you would have had you put your money elsewhere.

So let's take the three factors one at a time. The historical cost of impatience? A reasonable guess is in the vicinity of 2 percent per year. Default risk? Well, even for the United States, it's greater than zero, wouldn't you say, Sam, given all the talk about debt ceilings, downgrades and the like? Finally, inflation. It has been running at 2-3 percent per year of late.

To lend your money for a decade, then, wouldn't you suppose the United States should have to be paying you something like 4-6 percent in interest? Which, it just so happens, is the range in which the U.S. 10-year bond has fluctuated for more than a century?

And yet, as I write (let me go to Bloomberg.com for a moment), the United States would have to pay less than 1.8 percent a year to borrow for a decade.

Why so low? you well might ask. The answer would appear to be: because pretty much every other investment in the world looks like an even worse bet.

But your question is whether or not you get back your "original investment." Sure. But how much would that investment be worth if inflation accelerates in the meantime? What if the United States flirts with default and interest rates are driven sky high? Will you be content to get 1.8 percent a year while your fellow Americans can buy a US. bond that pays its usual 4-6 percent? Or, as happened in the early '80s, more than 10 percent? In Warren Buffet's February letter to shareholders, he quoted a comment made by professional investor Shelby Cullom Davis long ago: "Bonds promoted as offering risk-free returns are now priced to deliver return-free risk."

I must admit, and often do, that more than half the assets my wife and I hold for retirement are invested in a way to protect against inflation: in TIPS (Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities). At least that covers us if inflation spikes. But if the global economy becomes more secure and other investments seem less risky, our TIPS may lose value compared to what they're worth today. In other words, even they appear to be a risky investment.

A few months ago, my rightly revered friend Andy Tobias, a longtime TIPS enthusiast, wrote that not only had he exited bonds, but, "I'm even out of the TIPS that have appreciated so nicely -- because they have appreciated so nicely. When first suggested, they yielded a ridiculously good 4.25 percent above inflation. Today, depending on their maturity, they yield little or nothing above inflation (and, because they sell at a premium, may actually carry a small negative yield). Going forward, they may not hedge inflation as well as stocks or real estate."

But, Tobias notwithstanding, I continue to ask myself: What's safer than TIPS? I still don't have a good answer. Meanwhile, Vanguard's TIPS mutual fund (and ours), VAIPX, has appreciated by nearly 1.5 percent since Andy wrote the above, while it also yielded an interest rate that matches inflation and gets reinvested in the fund, in effect buying us more shares.

But if I was nervous before reading Andy's post, which I just came upon recently, I'm even more nervous, post-post.

This entry is cross-posted on the Making Sen$e page, where correspondent Paul Solman answers your economic and business questions.

Follow @paulsolman

At the close of World War II, in Princeton, N.J.'s Institute for Advanced Study, an extension of the Manhattan Project was busy building a bomb that would be a thousand times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagaski, Japan.

With a contract from the U.S. military and under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer, John von Neumann, a Hungarian American mathematician, and a team of mathematicians, physicists and engineers began working on a better, faster computer that could run the calculations needed to build the hydrogen bomb.

While all this was happening, George Dyson and his sisters were running around the grounds of IAS while their mathematician parents Freeman Dyson and Verena Huber-Dyson were busy researching and writing papers.

In the book "Turing's Cathedral," George Dyson recalls his childhood at IAS, the dawn of the computer age, and the mathematicians who turned "numbers that meant things" into "numbers that did things."

Dyson described the atmosphere of IAS as more like a start-up in a garage than a university, where people like Albert Einstein worked night and day with limited resources. Von Neumann shared his designs openly with scientists across the country, even though their work was reprehensible to many on the project, including Oppenheimer.

And the pressure was on to move faster. The United States was in an arms race with the Soviet Union, whose spy Klaus Fuchs had already infiltrated the Los Alamos laboratory during the construction of the plutonium bomb.

Dyson sat down recently with the NewsHour's Hari Sreenivasan to discuss how the computer he grew up with used five kilobytes of memory to start building a digital universe.

Mitt Romney addresses the Latino Coalition in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.

Mitt Romney continues to frame his campaign as the answer to a simple question: What would his presidency be like on Day One. A new television ad out Thursday -- like his first, also released in Spanish -- details three things the Republican would do on Jan. 20, 2013.

But unlike the first ad, in which said Romney he would approve the Keystone Pipeline, introduce tax cuts and repeal "Obamacare," the followup spot is more vague.

A narrator says Romney would announce "deficit reductions," demand China "play by the rules" on trade and repeal regulations "that are costing the economy billions." It offers no specifics.

Over hopeful music, the narrator declares: "Day One, President Romney announces deficit reductions, ending the Obama era of big government, helping secure our kids' futures."

The campaign did not disclose in which states the ad would air or the size of the ad buy.

Watch the spot here or below.

POLL MADNESS

A fresh batch of poll numbers out Wednesday show President Obama with an advantage over Romney in three key battleground states.

Mr. Obama leads the presumptive GOP nominee in Ohio , Florida (48-44) and Virginia (48-44) among registered voters, according to NBC News-Marist. The Florida numbers contrast with a Quinnipiac University survey released Tuesday that put Romney up 47 percent to 41 percent on the president in the Sunshine State.

All three states went for Mr. Obama in 2008 and George W. Bush in 2004. For Romney, his path to 270 electoral votes likely starts with moving them back to the GOP's column.

But it appears adding a home-state politician does little to change the dynamic in these states for Romney. In Florida, an Obama-Biden ticket defeats a Romney-Marco Rubio pairing 48 percent to 44 percent. A Romney-Jeb Bush team would lose to the Democrats 47 percent to 45 percent.

The Democratic team would win Ohio by a 47 percent to 42 percent margin if Romney picked Sen. Rob Portman. And in Virginia, with Gov. Bob McDonnell on the GOP ticket, the Democrats hold a 46 percent to 44 percent advantage.

NBC-Marist also surveyed the Senate races in those three swing states and found the Democratic candidates in better shape than their Republican opponents among registered voters.

In Ohio, Sen. Sherrod Brown leads state treasurer Josh Mandel by 14 points, 51 percent to 37 percent.

In Florida, Sen. Bill Nelson is up on Rep. Connie Mack by four points, 46 percent to 42 percent.

And in Virginia, former Gov. Tim Kaine bests former Sen. George Allen by six points, 49 percent to 43 percent.

You can check out our Electoral College calculator in the Vote 2012 Map Center or below to see what happens if Ohio, Florida or Virginia swing for the president or Romney.

ROMNEY: BAIN TAUGHT ME TO LEAD ECONOMY

Romney spoke with Time Magazine's Mark Halperin to defend himself against the president's attacks on Bain Capital, offering a similar line he's used as the issue bubbled up and saying Mr. Obama is "simply not up to the task of helping guide an economy."

"[T]he American people are interested in, not so much in the history of where I was at Bain Capital, or that I have understanding of the private sector, but instead, has the President made things better for the American people? Are they better off than they were four years ago? Has he established the revitalization he promised he would bring to us? Did he hold unemployment below 8%?" Romney said, promising he would lower the unemployment rate to 6 percent by the end of his first term.

He added: "The fact is that I spent twenty five years in the private sector. And that obviously teaches you something that you don't learn if you haven't spent any time in the private sector. If you were to say to me, tell me what you learned from your schooling that would help you be a President, it's like, how do I begin going through a list like that? You learn through life's experience. The President's experience has been exclusively in politics and as a community organizer. Both of those are fine areas of endeavor, but right now we have an economy in trouble, and someone who spent their career in the economy is more suited to help fix the economy than someone who spent his life in politics and as a community organizer."

Here is a transcript and see video here.

ROMNEY OUTLINES EDUCATION PLAN

NewsHour reporter-producer Tiffany Mullon covered Romney's speech Wednesday to the Latino Coalition's Annual Economic Summit, a meeting of Hispanic businessmen and women at the U.S Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

She reports that as the Time interview was released, Romney sought to refocus attention on his policy priority for the week: education.

Romney made only passing reference to the Bain controversy, telling the crowd, "[I]n recent days we've heard a lot about business from the president and if you're feeling like you deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act, I can't blame you."

Standing beneath a sign reading "A Chance for Every Child," Romney outlined his education plan: a voucher-like plan to guarantee that federal education funds would allow low-income and disabled students to attend any school of their parents' choice. In some cases children would be allowed to attend private schools with public money -- with permission from the state. Similar plans have been vehemently opposed by many teachers' unions. But, according to Romney: "[T]he teachers' unions are one of the Democrats' biggest donors -- and one of the president's biggest campaign supporters. So, President Obama has been unable to stand up to union bosses -- and unwilling to stand up for kids."

Appealing to the largely Hispanic audience, Romney reiterated that his reforms would level the playing field for minority students: "Here we are in the most prosperous nation, but millions of kids are getting a third-world education. And, America's minority children suffer the most. This is the civil-rights issue of our era. It's the great challenge of our time."

It was Romney's first major education policy speech, warmly received by the assembled crowd of nearly 250, with only one minor hitch. Toward the end of his remarks a young woman could be heard questioning the candidate aloud, before being drowned out by the sound of applause and escorted out. Romney will continue his education push Thursday with an education roundtable at a Philadelphia charter school.

OBAMA TEAM FOCUSES ON GAY PRIDE EFFORTS

On Wednesday, the president's team unveiled "Obama Pride: LGBT Americans for Obama." NewsHour politics desk assistant Alex Bruns was on the call with Obama for America's LGBT national vote director Jamie Citron and national campaign co-chair Joe Solmonese, formerly of the Human Rights Campaign.

Solmonese said they said they plan to register voters at gay pride events and detail the efforts the president has made since taking office, which include signing a hate crimes bill, bringing the International AIDS conference to Washington and promoting anti-bullying measures, in addition to ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning gays serving openly in the military.

"Mitt Romney would fight against our equality because he thinks we do not deserve it," Solmonese added.

2012 LINE ITEMS

• Julie Creswell writes in the New York Times that the recent ads focused on Romney's tenure at Bain don't tell the full story of private equity.

• Arizona's secretary of state said that officials in Hawaii have officially verified the president's birth records, clearing the way for Mr. Obama's name to appear on the Grand Canyon State's ballot in November.

• The Obama campaign has a new web video reminding voters of Romney's "corporations are people" line in Iowa last year to help drive turnout to an event the president will hold at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Thursday. Watch it here.

• Gallup found that Americans are evenly divided in their views of Vice President Joe Biden, with 42 percent having a favorable opinion of him and 45 percent having an unfavorable one.

• Former GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is conducting a "money bomb" to pay off his campaign debt. In an email to supporters, Santorum said he and his wife Karen "have both personally contributed the maximum amount we could to retire this debt."

• The president's latest fundraising effort mixing politics and entertainment will see a campaign donor and a guest join the president and first lady Michelle Obama at actress Sarah Jessica Parker's home in New York City. Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour will co-host, according to a campaign e-mail.

• In the latest veepstakes push, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio gets profiled by the Washington Post.

• Talking Points Memo posts its second in the series of spokespeople profiles, focusing on Team Romney.

TOP TWEETS

Ask me whatever. Chat today at 1 pm EST via @washingtonweek ! pbs.org/weta/washingto...

— gwen ifill (@pbsgwen) May 24, 2012

White House reporter @donovanslack is pretty handy with a camera phone, wouldn't you say? She's in Colorado today: politi.co/Lqah1g

— POLITICO (@politico) May 23, 2012

Centerpieces at Romney event: bottles of tequila. Courtesy the company owned by Latino Coalition chair. twitter.com/tiffanymullon/...

— Tiffany Mullon (@tiffanymullon) May 23, 2012

OUTSIDE THE LINES

• Fox News Radio's Chad Pergram looks at the debt ceiling fight through the lens of Professor Harold Hill.

• "There is a growing sense among New York political insiders that next month's primary could mark the end of 81-year-old Rep. Charlie Rangel's storied Congressional career," Roll Call's Joshua Miller writes.

• GOP Sen. Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren are locked in a tight race for the Massachusetts senate seat with each garnering 46 percent of the vote, according to a poll conducted earlier this month by Harstad Strategic Research for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. A new Suffolk University poll found Brown with a narrow one-point lead over Warren, 48 percent to 47 percent.

• The New York Times' Katharine Seelye and Abby Goodnough report on how Massachusetts voters are reacting to the controversy surrounding Warren's Native American heritage.

• Maine independent Senate candidate Angus King is drawing criticism from his Republican rivals for donations he made to the president's re-election team and the Democratic National Committee before he announced his candidacy, reports the Portland Press Herald.

• The Democratic Governors Association is sending an additional $1 million to the group Greater Wisconsin to support statewide television ads and get-out-the-vote efforts against GOP Gov. Scott Walker. That brings the DGA's total investment there to over $3 million.

• In addition to the new Marist poll, a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows GOP Rep. Connie Mack with a wide lead over his rivals in Florida's Senate primary, former Sen. George LeMieux and Tea Party favorite Mike McCalister.

• There are questions about the investigation into the Cartagena, Colombia, prostitution scandal reports Carol D. Leonnig in the Washington Post.

• Secret Service director Mark Sullivan publicly apologized for the scandal during a Senate hearing Wednesday.

• Roll Call's Kyle Trygstad looks at Sen. Orrin Hatch's GOP primary race in Utah.

• The buck stopped this week. A Harry S. Truman impersonator ceremoniously paid off a debt the former president had at a newspaper in Kansas.

• The NewsHour looked at what went wrong with the Facebook IPO.

Cassie M. Chew and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.

ON THE TRAIL

All events are listed in Eastern Time.

• President Obama attends a campaign event in San Jose, Calif., at 11:30 a.m., delivers remarks on clean energy in Newton, Iowa, at 5:15 p.m. and speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, at 7:55 p.m.

• Vice President Biden attends campaign events in Charlotte, N.C., at 12:45 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., and helps raise money for Democratic Senate candidate Tim Kaine in McLean, Va., at 6:30 p.m.

• Mitt Romney visits Universal Bluford Charter School in Philadelphia at 8:45 a.m.

All future events can be found on our Political Calendar:

For more political coverage, visit our politics page.

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With this week's presidential election representing the end of the transition from a military to civilian government, many Egyptians will be watching not only the results but for a clean process as well.

Egyptians are voting in the first round of elections on Wednesday and Thursday for a number of reasons: the economy, security, and an end to military rule, said Erin Cunningham, GlobalPost's reporter in Cairo. But "the most crucial thing is people see Egypt moving forward [and] away from being ruled by a group of generals."

Overall, people are excited about the elections, she told us by phone. "People are debating in the streets, there are posters everywhere.

"The last year and half has brought so many surprises for Egyptian politics," and people have resigned themselves to not being able to predict who will win or get the most votes in the first round, said Cunningham. "But they're really enthusiastic and I think more so than during the parliamentary elections, at least from what I'm seeing and hearing on the streets."

Pre-election polls are unreliable because so many Egyptians are undecided, but some candidates have risen to the surface, including former foreign minister Amr Moussa, independent Islamist Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh and the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, Mohammed Morsi.

Cunningham said although the Islamists won "hands down" in last winter's parliamentary elections, they might not take the presidency. "A lot of people have grown wary of them in the time since they were elected, and people voted for the members of parliament for a lot different reasons [mainly local politics] than they're voting for a candidate for president," she said.

"For the presidency, people are taking pride in the fact that they're choosing a leader for the nation. And a lot of people have said that 'this isn't about me, this is about the entire country and how we're perceived abroad,'" she added.

If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two candidates will go to a runoff on June 16 and 17.

Cunningham assessed the mood in Cairo for us in January, a year after Egypt's revolution started. On Wednesday's NewsHour, we'll have more on the presidential elections.

The NewsHour has a partnership with the international news website GlobalPost. View all of our World coverage and follow us on Twitter.

A pair of responses to my austerity/stimulus post of a few days ago illustrate the current conflict in economic ideology quite nicely.

tedmc writes on behalf of austerity:

"Doesn't the medicine of austerity arrive only after the binge? It is the 'binge' that puts the death spiral into action. Ie: group A gets [government benefits] provided by funds removed from group B -- and the promises that more is available...just vote for it. If you don't binge you don't wake up with a hangover. Now you have the hung over brother asking their more prudent brother (Germany) for just one more drink (stimulus) to get over the shakes. If they don't give them the money, Greece cries that Germany is cold hearted and evil. What is needed is tough love and the courage to say 'No. No more stimulus, No more free lunch. Nothing in life is free.'"

In contrast, consider the comment from Invisible Backhand, who defines his/her role as "Exposing Cafe Hayek, Don Boudreaux and Russ Roberts for all their Koch funded propaganda":

"Austerity is not about growth, it's about making the bondholders whole. The campaign to convince the little people it's to their benefit is just advertising funded by the rich and their paid lackeys."

Let me respond to "Invisible Backhand" first, if only because the moniker is so memorable.

Austerity is surely about "making the bondholders whole." You do see their POV, don't you? Suppose you had loaned money to a friend from Greece? Would you not expect to be repaid? Would you do nothing but shrug? I don't know you, so the answer might be forgive and forget, but you can understand how such compassion, universally practiced, might undermine the lending process, can't you?

Futhermore, the "campaign to convince the little people it's to their benefit" is not just "advertising." It's the genuine conviction of many, like "tedmc" above, who may legitimately fear a total and devastating end to all lending if bondholders are wiped out. Any country with a budget deficit must borrow to close it. The only alternative is to print more money, at the risk of disastrous inflation. But if the country can no longer borrow, the budget will have to be cut and those most dependent upon it -- those living closest to the bone -- will suffer. Their health and education will suffer. Therefore, the human capital of their country won't develop. Economic growth will be stunted.

On to "tedmc."

Dear ted:

While your inebriation analogy will be odious to some, let's run with it. Greece is the binge drinker. But it could only afford the hooch because "Grosse bruder" loaned it the money. Greece became an alcoholic and will now suffer the shakes if forced onto the wagon. Are you telling us that Germany bears no responsibility for Greece's dependency?

More to the point, is it in Germany's national interest to see Greece crumble? Should it not be worried about Portugal, Spain and Italy -- the other prominent members of the AU ? If they all go cold turkey, will German exports not take a hit? Worse, will extremist parties not make further headway in Europe? And what happens to the ideal of a trading bloc, united both economically and -- do not forget -- politically? Does no one remember World War II? World War I? The Franco-Prussian War? Napoleon? The Thirty Years War?

Dear emailers (and the rest of you):

Binges do tend to beget austerity. But it's not at all obvious that they should. Economics is the discipline of weighing costs against benefits, not some moral exercise. Because its actors are human beings, uncertainty rules. Economic policy is thus the process of weighing costs against benefits, never being sure of the outcomes. There are rarely simple answers. There are almost never sure ones.

This entry is cross-posted on the Making Sen$e page, where correspondent Paul Solman answers your economic and business questions.

Follow @paulsolman