"President Obama and I came into office determined to end the war in Iraq responsibly, and today our troops are home," Biden said, underscoring a point he and Obama often make on the campaign trail.

– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

Biden also hailed Obama's strategy in Afghanistan, saying a renewed focus on al Qaeda has hurt the militant Islamist organization.

"In Afghanistan, President Obama laid out a clear strategy," Biden said. "Our commanders re-focused and re-doubled their efforts on disrupting, dismantling and ultimately destroying and defeating al Qaeda. Reversing the Taliban's momentum and training the Afghan security forces to prevent extremists from gaining ground. Since then, we've taken out – you have taken out – more than half of al Qaeda's senior leadership."

Biden also hailed the killing of Osama bin Laden, saying the May 2011 raid sent a message to the world: "If you harm America, we will follow you to the end of the Earth."

Biden's commencement address came as he and Obama face an expected tough fight against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Recent polling, including an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey out Tuesday, shows voters give the president better marks for his handling of foreign affairs than the U.S. economy, consistently the top issue for voters.

At West Point, Biden made brief mention of the economy, saying economic competition with countries like China would continue to help American companies succeed.

"The most critical relationship to get right is that between the United States and China. Every day the affairs of our nations, and the livelihoods of our citizens, become more connected," Biden said. "How we manage this relationship between the world's two largest economies – though we're still almost three times as large as they are – how we do this will help shape the 21st century."

Biden said there was "no doubt America can compete and America will win" in challenges from abroad.

In his address, Biden referred to the incoming second lieutenants as members of the "9/11 generation," saying their decision to enlist reflected a particular dose of courage.

"Every single generation that's preceded you at West Point has faced daunting challenges upon receiving their commission, especially in times of war. But your generation, the 9/11 generation, is more than worthy of the proud legacy you'll inherit today," Biden said.

The vice president continued, "That tragic day need not have shaped your lives, but for so many of you, it did just that. As you and your immediate predecessors came of age, 2,800,000 of you were moved to join our military, knowing full well that you were likely to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan."

That was the question posed by CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger to Romney's senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom Friday.

– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

"I can't speak for Donald Trump, but I can tell you that Mitt Romney accepts that President Obama was born in the United States," Fehrnstrom said on CNN's "The Situation Room."

Fehrnstrom, it turns out, doesn't need to speak for Trump. The celebrity business magnate spoke out for himself in a Friday interview with The Daily Beast, saying he still had questions about Obama's birthplace.

"Look, it's very simple," Trump said in the Daily Beast interview. "A book publisher came out three days ago and said that in his written synopsis of his book."

The interview continued, "He said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia. His mother never spent a day in the hospital."

Trump was referring to literary agency who, in a promotional catalogue from the 1990s, listed Obama has having been born in Kenya. An employee of the agency recently acknowledged that it was her mistake.

Trump isn't buying it.

"Now they're saying it was a mistake," he told the Daily Beast. "Just like his Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and she pointed down the road to the hospital, and after people started screaming at her she said, 'Oh, I mean Hawaii.' Give me a break."

Obama released the long-form version of his birth certificate in April 2011, showing he was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. Soon after it was released, Trump announced he would not make a bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

Trump's latest foray into birtherism comes just days ahead of a big campaign event with Romney in Las Vegas. The event, which will also feature former candidate Newt Gingrich, is set to take place Tuesday at Trump's International Hotel on the Strip.

Romney's campaign is also raffling a chance to have dinner with Trump for supporters who donate $3 to the campaign.

"I want you: Dine with the Donald," a campaign flier proclaims, along with a drawing of Trump in the post of Uncle Sam.

The campaign offers: "Airport transportation in the Trump vehicle; Stay at the Trump International Hotel & Tower New York; Tour the Celebrity Apprentice Boardroom; Dine with Donald Trump and Mitt Romney."

Will such close proximity to an avowed birther damage Romney's credibility? Their rivals certainly hope so. Obama's campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt labeled Trump the "birther in chief" on MSNBC Friday.

But Fehrnstrom, quoting a member of the Obama White House, said a politician's supporters don't speak for the candidate himself.

"You know, not too long ago, Jay Carney, the spokesman for the White House made a statement which I think is correct, and that statement was that a candidate can't be responsible for everything that their supporters say," Fehrnstrom said. "And in this case, Mitt Romney has made it clear that the place of the president's birth is not an issue for him. He accepts the fact that he was born in Hawaii. And we have many important challenges facing our country, and that's what we'd rather talk about."

Barrett, the Milwaukee mayor, is facing Walker in a recall election after Walker made the controversial decision in 2011 to cut most collective bargaining rights for state employees. Two polls released Thursday put Walker ahead of his Democratic challenger by single digits.

– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

In Friday's debate, Barrett said that move, which sparked massive protests at the state Capitol in Madison, amounted to a "civil war" declaration.

"This election is not a rematch or do-over, because we can't do-over the decision by Scott Walker to start a political civil war which resulted in this state losing more jobs than any other state in the country in 2011," Barrett said in his opening statement. "A decision that tore apart this state, and made it impossible in some instances for neighbors to talk to neighbors, for relatives to talk to relatives, and for co-workers to talk to co-workers. Because it was too bitter a fight."

Walker framed his decision as necessary to restore the state's fiscal well-being.

"If you look at the last year and a half, we've documented more than a billion dollars in savings because of our reforms," Walker said. "That led to the first time in 12 years that the property taxes on a median-valued home went down."

Walker and GOP allies in the Wisconsin state legislature voted in January 2011 to limit raises for public employees, except police and firefighters, to the rate of inflation. They also moved to bar unions from deducting dues from workers' paychecks.

That bill was signed into law in March, following the protests at the Capitol.

Unions argued that collective bargaining - a process of negotiations meant to regulate working conditions - has served to protect their wages and health care, as well as enforce workplace safety and serve as a means to arbitrate employee grievances.

Walker, along with other supporters of the measure, asserted union contracts constrain efforts to address Wisconsin's swelling deficit.

In Friday's debate, Walker said his reform effort took courage.

"What I've done is stand up and take on the powerful special interests," he said. "That's why they poured money in since last year. That's why they brought money and bodies into the state, because I did something that hadn't been done before."

Barrett, who ran against Walker in Wisconsin's 2010 gubernatorial election, said the Republican incumbent was using Wisconsin's financial woes as a springboard to national fame.

"He wants this state to be the prototype for the tea party nationally," Barrett said. "That's why he's such a rock star, they love him. The conservatives love him, the right wing loves him, because he's doing exactly what they want him to do. He's not doing what the people in Wisconsin want him to do, and he's pleasing these billionaires."

Walker acknowledged the national attention he's received following the Wisconsin protests, saying people were responding to his tough stance on debt.

"What you've seen is people from across the state, and yes from across the country, who say here's a governor who's willing to take on the powerful special interests and instead do something unique: put the power back into the hands of taxpayers," Walker said.

On Friday, House GOP leaders unveiled their summer agenda with an eye on the fall campaign, including those and other items that probably won't become law, but will highlight the party's message on the economy.

The Michigan Republican may not be on the ballot.

– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

"I have been apprised my campaign may have submitted insufficient petition signatures to appear on the August primary ballot as a candidate for the 11th Congressional District's Republican nomination," McCotter said in a statement Friday evening.

The Michigan Secretary of State's Office required congressional candidates to submit 1,000 valid signatures by May 15 to qualify for their party's ballot.

State law dictates those signatures be collected no more than 180 days before the petition is filed, and candidates may submit up to 2,000 signatures to cover any ruled as invalid.

McCotter's statement said his campaign would "review our petition signatures for their sufficiency or insufficiency," and respect "the accuracy and integrity of the Secretary of State's office."

It provided no information as to why the campaign may not have submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures.

McCotter was first elected in 2002 and would be seeking his sixth term this year. He previously served in the state Senate, and in September, ended a short-lived run for the Republican presidential nomination.

The Michigan primary will be held August 7.

– CNN's Robert Yoon and Gregory Wallace contributed to this report

"Memorial Day is more than a three-day weekend," Obama said. "In town squares and national cemeteries, in public services and moments of quiet reflection, we will honor those who loved their country enough to sacrifice their own lives for it."

– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

Jenkins, a Republican whose Kansas district includes Fort Leavenworth, called Memorial Day "a time to pause and thank the brave men and women of our Armed Forces who have died in the defense of our country."

She and Obama also recognized the sacrifices of those serving in the armed forces.

"As we honor the fallen, we pray for our sons and daughters who are risking their lives so that we may live in freedom and security," Jenkins said.

An important way to honor their service, she continued, is by building the economy so that they can find jobs when they return home.

"Unfortunately, roughly 22 million of our fellow citizens are struggling to find a good-paying full-time job in President Obama's economy," she said, and touted a GOP-backed set of measures called the "Republicans' Plan for America's Job Creators."

"This week, as part our jobs plan, my Republican colleagues and I spread out across the country to highlight the economic potential of our domestic energy resources. As part of this American Energy & Jobs Tour, I visited an oil well in Girard, Kansas – a small town whose proud energy workers make a big contribution to our region's economy," Jenkins added.

She called for removing "government barriers to all forms of domestic energy production," as well as repeal of the president's health care law and congressional passage of a federal budget.

Obama also called for efforts on the home front "to let these families and veterans know that they are not alone."

"We have to serve them and their families as well as they have served us," he said. "By making sure that they get the health care and benefits they need, by caring for our wounded warriors and supporting our military families, and by giving veterans the chance to go to college, find a good job, and enjoy the freedom that they risked everything to protect."

More than 6,400 U.S. military personnel have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, including Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn in Iraq. An additional 48,000 service members have been wounded in those operations.

At least 3,100 of those deaths were due to improvised explosive devices, the U.S. military said.

Obama said his position includes "no higher honor than serving as ... commander-in-chief."

"But with that honor comes a solemn responsibility - one that gets driven home every time I sign a condolence letter, or meet a family member whose life has been turned upside down," he said. "No words can ever bring back a loved one who has been lost. No ceremony can do justice to their memory. No honor will ever fill their absence."

He visited Afghanistan in May, landing under the cover of night to sign a Strategic Partnership Agreement that laid out terms between the U.S. and Afghanistan after U.S. and other NATO troops withdraw by the end of 2014. Approximately 90,000 U.S. troops are among the 130,000 NATO troops in the nation.

Operations in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001 with airstrikes, and the U.S. military first acknowledged a ground operation 12 days later.

The last U.S. combat troops left Iraq in December 2011. President George W. Bush announced U.S. troops were entering the country on March 19, 2003, 48 hours after issuing an ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the United States deploying a significant military presence in Vietnam. In 1962, the U.S. sent some 10,000 military advisers to join the 900 U.S. military advisers already in the country.

"It's another chance to honor those we lost at places like Hue, Khe Sanh, Danang and Hamburger Hill," Obama said in his address.

Obama said he would mark Memorial Day with tributes at Arlington National Cemetery and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

"The state was in recession, in many ways the circumstances of the economy were similar to what the nation is facing now. We were losing thousands of jobs every month, the budget was completely unbalanced," he said. The Obama campaign points to 26 consecutive months of job creation, which began shortly after President Barack Obama took office.

"After four years, Mitt Romney had turned that situation completely around. The budget had been balanced four years in a row without raising taxes," Fehrnstrom said.

Regular unleaded dropped to a national average of $3.71 per gallon this week, 23 cents below an April high of $3.94, according to the federal government.

DEVELOPING… Obama campaign defends raising money from Bain employees to CNN’s Dana Bash: "No one aside from Mitt Romney is running for president highlighting their tenure as a corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation, when in fact, his goal was profit maximization," Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt told CNN...

TRAIL TRIVIA
(Answer below)
“Never before has the voice and understanding of a concerned woman been so needed.” What famous female Senate candidate used this as her campaign slogan?

MARK (@PrestonCNN) & MICHELLE (@MJaconiCNN)
What caught our eye today in politics

On Fridays, we like to take a step back and learn from the “masters of the political class” to see things from a different perspective.

Our question this week stems from President Obama framing his argument against Mitt Romney as a choice of political fairness vs. private equity.

Do you think the man who won running on "hope" is wise to run this time on the mantle of "fairness"? Why or Why not?

Todd Harris, Republican Media Consultant (@dtoddharris)

“For all the talk in the media about Bain and private equity, this attack on Romney has nothing to do with either of them. This is all about the Obama campaign trying to undercut Romney’s credibility as a job creator, and his character as a leader. It would likely be an effective attack if it was true, which it’s not, and if Obama himself hadn’t taken millions from the so-called “vampires” of private equity. I also have a hard time believing this race will be more about hypothetical job creation under a President Romney than it is about the very real lack of job creation under President Obama.”

Neera Tanden, President of the Center for American Progress (@neeratanden)

“Between 2008 and now, the country faces a near-cataclysmic economic dislocation, brought on by some decisions by Wall Street and overleveraging in the housing market. Those decisions hurt almost all Americans economically. And while we have had economic growth, that growth hasn't been broadly shared. Indeed, in 2010, 93 percent of income growth went to the top 1 percent. In the face of these facts, Republicans have chosen to double down on the policies they championed before the economic crisis: large scale taxes for the wealthy, and cuts to programs for the middle class. Despite the fact that from 2000 to 2008, we had both massive tax cuts, and the lowest average growth rate for the period of any decade since the 1950s, the GOP's only answer for growth is tax cuts and austerity. All of which disproportionately favor the rich and well-connected. So the President's focus on fairness is the right principle for the times and the right answer to the Republican party's insistence that really the only solution for growth is to make rich people richer through the tax code and other means.”

the LEDE
Did you miss it?

Leading CNNPolitics: The big tryout: VP possibles playing attack dog for Romney
Wanted: A political attack dog ready to tear into President Barack Obama. Must play by team rules, be able to withstand the pressure of a presidential campaign and pass a rigorous vetting process. – By Shannon Travis

Leading Drudge: Another Jobless Summer For Teens
Did somebody say McJobless? The American job market is no place for students as the number of employed high schoolers has hit its lowest level in more than 20 years, according to new figures from the National Center for Education Statistics. – By Ben Wolfgang

Leading HuffPo: Rick Scott's Florida Unemployment Reform Shortchanges the Jobless: Formal Complaint
Two legal groups want the federal government to investigate Florida's treatment of jobless workers following reforms that made the Sunshine State's unemployment insurance program the most stingy in the nation. – By Arthur Delaney

Leading Politico: Perry tests his strength in Texas
After a disastrous 2012 presidential campaign that left his national political profile in tatters, Rick Perry is now embarking on an all-out effort to revive his standing in Texas and prove he’s still a dominant force in the Lone Star State. – By Alexander Burns

Leading New York Times: Both Campaigns Seize on Romney’s Years at Bain
Mitt Romney’s campaign sees the time he spent at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he co-founded and ran for more than a decade, as a positive experience that highlights his leadership skills and his ability to turn around companies and create jobs. President Obama’s campaign, meanwhile, views Mr. Romney’s Bain Capital years as a political liability that underscores his image as an out-of-touch multimillionaire, concerned only with turning profits for his wealthy investors. – By Ashley Parker

Leading Boston Globe: Filings raise more questions on Warren’s ethnic claims
U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has said she was unaware that Harvard Law School had been promoting her purported Native American heritage until she read about it in a newspaper several weeks ago. But for at least six straight years during Warren’s tenure, Harvard University reported in federally mandated diversity statistics that it had a Native American woman in its senior ranks at the law school. According to both Harvard officials and federal guidelines, those statistics are almost always based on the way employees describe themselves.

TRAIL MOMENTS
The political bites of the day

– Memorial Day Weekend Gut Check, Biden edition –
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN AT A SEMINAR FOR MILITARY FAMILES WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED A DEATH IN THEIR FAMILY: “When I was a 29-year-old kid I got elected to the United States Senate out of nowhere on November 7 and I got a phone call like you guys got or someone walking up to me. On December 18, I was down in Washington. I'm the first United States senator I ever knew and I was down in Washington hiring my staff and I got a phone call saying that my family had been in an accident and just like you guys know, by the tone of the phone call, you just knew, didn't you? You knew when they walked up the path. You knew when the call came. You knew. You just felt it in your bones something bad happened and I knew. I don't know how I knew but the call said my wife was dead. My daughter was dead and wasn't sure how my sons were going to make it. Christmas shopping and a tractor trailer broadsided them in one instant.”

– Future politicians: Watch Elizabeth Warren Not Answer 101 –
WARREN AND MYFOXBOSTON REPORTER SHARMAN SACCHETTI GO BACK AND FORTH ON WARREN’S HERITAGE IN TENSE EXCHANGE YESTERDAY: Sacchetti: Elizabeth, can you put this issue to bed and tell us whether or not, as a matter of fact, you are a member of a minority group. Warren: Middle-class families are getting hammered. I have been out here talking about this all across the Commonwealth. And what they care about are what Washington are going to do about that. My Republican opponent–Sacchetti: Members of the Cherokee Nation want to know. They say you should come clean.
Warren: I have made the facts clear and what I am trying to do is talk about in this Senate race, what matters to Americas families….

– Dear diary, It’s Me Mitt …. (Paging Bob Graham)–
PEGGY NOONAN WRITES ABOUT MITT ROMNEY’S CAMPAIGN JOURNAL IN HER LATEST WALL STREET JOURNAL COLUMN: “He keeps a campaign journal on his iPad: "Now this is going to make my iPad a subject of potential theft!" He used to speak his entries, but now he types them on an attached keyboard. "I've kept up pretty well, actually." He writes every two or three days, so that 10 years from now he can "remember what it was like," but also to capture "the feelings - the ups the downs, the people I meet and the sense I have about what's going to happen. It's kind of fun to go back and read, as Ann and I do from time to time.”

– Conan jokes about Congress’ lackluster speaking level –
CONAN O’BIREN JOKES ABOUT CONGRESS ON HIS LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW ‘CONAN’: “Speaking of children, I couldn't believe this. A new study shows current members of Congress speak at a 10-grade level. That's true. They speak at a 10-grade level. When reached for comment, Eric Cantor said, ‘nuh-uh!’”

TOP TWEETS
What stopped us in 140 characters or less

They have Clooney, Ricky Martin. We have Trump. It's a damn good thing vote not based on who hosts fundraisers or worse yet, the host's hair

—
Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) May 24, 2012

Most negative campaign ever? Not yet. Since the prez gen elex effectively began on 4/10, 51% of broadcast TV ads have been pos, 49% neg.

—
CMAG (@CMAGAdFacts) May 25, 2012

Why is #Dragon trending? @SpaceX became 1st private company to reach #ISS. A new era for U.S. & commercial space! go.nasa.gov/J3iDIl

—
  (@NASA) May 25, 2012

Gov. Brown has issued proclamation declaring Golden Gate Bridge Day...And they say Calif is ungovernable.

—
David M. Drucker (@DavidMDrucker) May 25, 2012

Political donations by text message? The day appears near: ow.ly/b8DDA #source2012

—
Dave Levinthal (@davelevinthal) May 25, 2012

TRIVIA ANSWER

Lenore Romney’s campaign for U.S. Senate was truly a family affair. According to a lengthy story released by Time Magazine, Lenore was nearly forced into the race by her kin – especially after a family meeting on Christmas in 1969, where Lenore’s husband and former Michigan governor, George Romney, called the family together to implore their mother to run.

Of course one of those family members was the 2012 presumptive Republican presidential nominee – Mitt Romney, her son and close campaign confidant.

“Mitt Romney, the youngest of four children, was deeply engaged in his mother's campaign, far more than the ones his father ran when Mitt was young,” reads the Time article. “He accompanied her on hundreds of campaign stops, driving together across all 83 Michigan counties in a blue truck festooned with Lenore signs.”

Despite her pedigree, Lenore Romney’s campaign stumbled. “She had a hard time articulating what she was about. Nobody to this day is really sure what Lenore Romney was really for,” Bill Ballenger, editor of the political newsletter Inside Michigan Politics, told The Washington Post earlier this year.

Lenore went on to lose that campaign by a large 2-to-1 margin. According to the great Time magazine piece by Barton Gellman, Lenore was embarrassed, her husband blamed “everyone but himself,” and the young Mitt learned from the loss.

Gut Check’s Winner’s Circle
(Why Aren’t you In it)

Congratulations to self-describted Star Wars enthusiast Jason Warner ‏(@JasonEWarner) for correctly answering today’s trivia question. Birthday boy Jonathan Gormley ‏(@JonathanGormley) must have been partying or else he would have answered correctly.

Since no one got the trivia right, we are going to salute Michelle’s dad, Joe, instead, who is in the winner’s circle for getting a hole-in-one this week on a golf course in Los Angeles. This was his second career hole-in-one but his first in his native California.

GOT NEWS?
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Tips or comments? Send them to Michelle; send complaints to Preston, because he is already in a bad mood. We also want to give a shout out to Dan Merica, who runs our Twitter account @gutCheckCNN and enriches this product every single day.

Judge Catherine C. Eagles said she may need to speak with attorneys Tuesday about an undisclosed issue involving a juror.

"They closed it down. They filed for bankruptcy," said a somber former employee of GST steel in a recent Obama campaign ad.

– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

"They're like a vampire. They came in and sucked the life out of us," said another worker testimonial.

The irony is that some of the money to pay for these Obama television ads may have come from inside the very company team Obama is demonizing: Bain Capital.

It turns out employees of Bain Capital have given $124,900 in donations to the Obama campaign this election cycle.

Three of those Bain Capital donors – Mark Nunnelly, Stephen Pagluica and Jonathan Lavine – have given $35,800, the maximum amount allowed by law, to President Barack Obama's re-election efforts.

In the case of Lavine – he didn't just write his own check to the president – he's a bundler, someone who also helps the Obama campaign raise money from others.

$124,900 is a good chunk of change from people who work at a company the Obama campaign and its allies, like pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA, vilify.

"Bain Capital always made money. If we lost, they made money. If we survived they made money. It's as simple as that," said a man standing outside a closed plant, in a Priorities USA television ad.

All of the nearly $125,000 in donations to the Obama campaign from Bain Capital employees were made in 2011 – well before the president's team started accusing Romney of killing jobs while at the venture capital firm.

Still, the Obama campaign told CNN they do not intend to return any campaign cash from Bain Capital employees.

"No one aside from Mitt Romney is running for president highlighting their tenure as a corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation, when in fact, his goal was profit maximization," Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt told CNN.

But it begs the question: isn't it hypocritical for the president to keep campaign cash from employees of a company his campaign goes after as job killers?

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz answered that question this way: "Accepting a contribution from a particular person involved in venture capital and criticizing Mitt Romney who has made his record as a venture capitalist at Bain the essential focus of his credibility and qualification for being president are completely different things."

CNN put calls into the Bain Capital employees who donated to the president to ask if they will demand their money back. The calls were not returned.

However, a spokesman for Bain Capital said, "We are not a political organization and take no position on any candidate."

"We celebrate the fact that our employees are active in civic affairs and philanthropy across a range of organizations with various policy and political views," said Bain Capital spokesman Alex Stanton.

– CNN's Adam Levy contributed to this report.

President Barack Obama has ratcheted up his criticism of certain Republican opponent Mitt Romney, using a campaign speech Thursday in Iowa to accuse the former Massachusetts governor of a "cow pie of distortion" about the records of both men.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry spoke from experience Friday when he argued the recent Democratic attacks against Mitt Romney's private equity career will fail to carry much weight in the long run.

– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

A former presidential candidate, Perry was one of the first this election cycle to use Romney's former firm, Bain Capital, to knock the former Massachusetts governor. Perry made headlines when he accused Romney of "vulture capitalism" and repeatedly targeted him as a greedy corporate raider.

Newt Gingrich also jumped on the Bain train during the primary, though he soon backed down, following a backlash of Republican scorn over attacking the business world.

Now, Democrats, including the president, are using Romney's private sector experience to cast the presumptive GOP presidential nominee as unqualified for the Oval Office, arguing the job of the president is to look out for all Americans, not simply maximize profits.

Weighing in on the strategy, Perry said Friday the president's re-election campaign won't have much luck with their latest approach.

"I don't think Barack Obama wants to go there," Perry said in an interview to air on CNN's "John King, USA."

Pressed on whether Perry firmly stood behind his Bain offense earlier this year - or if it was simply a political strategy - the governor said he was merely trying to "score points."

"The point was we were looking for ways to score points, and it didn't work," Perry told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King.

Without naming names, he pointed to several Democrats who have raised concerns in recent days over Team Obama's approach, which includes aggressive attack ads featuring laid off workers from companies that went bankrupt after being purchased by Bain.

In Friday's interview, Perry also addressed the upcoming Texas Senate primary battle, fighting back against criticism that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the leading candidate in the race, may not win the conservative vote in Tuesday's primary.

Dewhurst faces a crowded field of GOP challengers, with tea party favorite Ted Cruz at the top of the pack. While Dewhurst has been polling ahead of Cruz, political observers question whether he can survive the 50% threshold needed to avoid a run-off contest this summer.

National conservative groups and leaders, such as Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum, may support Cruz, but Perry argued the Texas conservative base stands with Dewhurst.

"There's, you know, people who come from out of state and make their endorsements known," Perry said. "But Texas conservatives are lining up behind David Dewhurst."

– Watch the full interview at 6 p.m. ET on CNN's "John King, USA."

Well guess what: Now that the general election's underway, the television ads have been much more positive.

– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

– Follow Paul Steinhauser on Twitter: @psteinhausercnn

According to Kantar Media/Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political ad spending, 51% of broadcast TV spots in the race for White House have been positive, while 49% have been negative, since April 10. That's the day former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania suspended his presidential campaign. Santorum was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's main rival for the Republican presidential nomination, and when he left the race, Romney became the presumptive GOP nominee.

The spots counted in the CMAG data include ads by the campaigns, party committees and independent groups.

"We may look back in November and see that 2012 was the most negative campaign ever, but thus far, that's not the case. Since the Republican primary dust settled, the early phase of the general election air war has been marked by a basically even tonal split," CMAG Vice President Elizabeth Wilner told CNN.

That 51%-49% positive to negative ratio is a world of difference from the primaries. According to a political advertising analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project (which used CMAG data), 70% of presidential campaign commercials that ran during the primaries, from the start of last year through mid-April, were negative in nature.

Contrast those figures to 2008 when less than one-in-ten of the ads that ran during the same time period criticized an opponent.

Also see:

Obama campaign expands Bain attack and general election ad buys

Poll: Romney takes lead in Florida

Palin endorses Utah's Hatch in Senate race

Arkansas, Kentucky primaries pose challenge for Obama

Asked Friday in a guest appearance on ABC's "The View" if he was interested in joining Mitt Romney's presidential ticket, Donald Trump asked, "Who would turn it down?"

– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

"A lot of people are asking that question," he added. Not known for his modesty, Trump said, "A lot of people are asking that question. I think probably that won't happen, but I'll do anything I can to help this country get balanced again because we are a mess."

Trump endorsed Romney in February, and is scheduled to participate in a fundraiser on Tuesday at his Las Vegas casino with Romney and former GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

Trump has become a vocal and effusive backer of Romney in television appearances and on social media. Before endorsing Romney, he met with several of the GOP presidential candidates and even announced a presidential debate, which was later canceled when several candidates declined the invite.

He said Friday that he was performing well in polling at the time. Although he briefly fared well in national polls early in the election cycle, several surveys from last spring showed a majority voters ultimately disapproving of a Trump candidacy. One released hours before he announced he would not seek the White House showed seven out of ten Americans saying he had "no chance" of winning the election.

Trump brings perceived baggage to the Romney campaign, including his questioning of President Barack Obama's birthplace and birth certificate. He and other prominent conservatives have raised questions about Obama's birth, as "natural born" U.S. citizenship is a requirement for the presidency.

"Donald Trump has become the 'birther' in chief," Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Obama's re-election campaign, said on MSNBC Friday.

Though Trump tweeted as recently as last Friday "Let's take a closer look at that birth certificate," Kevin Madden, a Romney adviser, said Friday that questions about Trump's views on Obama's nationality should be a thing of the past.

"When you endorse someone, you are basically signing onto their views," Madden said on MSNBC.

Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to Romney, on Friday said, "I can't speak for Donald Trump ... but I can tell you that Mitt Romney accepts that President Obama was born in the United States."

"He doesn't view the place of his birth as an issue in this campaign," Fehrnstrom said on CNN's "The Situation Room."

Obama released the long-form version of his birth certificate in April 2011 that shows he was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. Soon after it was released, Trump announced he would not make a bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

Trump made light of the issue in his appearance on "The View," when one of the co-hosts handed him a slip of paper and called it her birth certificate.

"I'd like to see Obama's," he quipped.

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Being qualified to be president is a definite plus.

Democratic Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, where Romney stopped the day prior to talk with teachers at a charter school, leveled heavy charges at the candidate, saying his policies were "out of touch," "misguided" and "backwards."

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"He certainly left an impression here in the city that he has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to education," Nutter said on a conference call with reporters Friday organized by the campaign.

The mayor also described Romney's meeting in Philly as a "drive-by visit" due to its short length.

When Romney stopped at a local school Thursday, he pointed to studies that countered common thought that smaller class sizes contributed to increased learning for students.

He cited a 2007 analysis by the McKinsey Global Institute that argues "evidence suggests that, except at the very early grades, class size reduction does not have much impact on student outcomes," based on the 112 studies the group examined for the report.

"Just getting smaller classrooms didn't seem to be the key," Romney said.

Teachers attending the roundtable Thursday morning quickly fired back, arguing smaller class sizes are always preferable to larger ones.

Piling on, Obama campaign officials on Friday pointed to other studies, namely the widely-cited Project STAR study in Tennessee, that concluded smaller student-to-teacher ratios benefited student learning.

Nutter, going further, argued one doesn't even need to look to studies on this issue, saying the concept should be common sense.

"Any parent knows that's easier to keep track of two kids as opposed to 10," he said. "Some of this is just common sense, so let us not get so sophisticated that we can't keep track of what is plainly evident right in front of us."

Earlier this week Romney laid out his education plan, which calls for dramatically expanding school choice for low-income and disabled children by using a voucher-type system.

Romney's point on Thursday, his campaign maintains, was the quality of teaching should be emphasized over class size.

"If President Obama is as focused on class size as his campaign seems to be, his outdated view of education reform puts him at odds with leaders like Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates, and his own secretary of education – all of whom have said that improving teacher quality gives kids the best opportunity to learn," campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement Friday.

She went on: "President Obama should be ashamed that his campaign is launching such cheap political attacks at the expense of a serious discussion about education policy."

– CNN's Kevin Liptak and Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this report.

His message may be grounded in policy but in this election season it’s also about the politics.

While former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist has been railing against Hatch in recent weeks for declining to take part in a televised debate, Liljenquist held back from raising the issue again in his latest commercial.

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"Sen. Hatch has repeatedly voted to raise his own pay. He's voted for bailouts," Liljenquist says in the 30-second spot, titled "Record."

He then goes on to make the case that if elected senator, he would "balance the budget, cut wasteful spending and eliminate pensions in Congress."

Liljenquist, an underdog attempting to take down a six-term senator, has stepped up his attack line on Hatch in recent weeks, urging the incumbent to agree to a televised debate. He released his first ad earlier this week and devoted the entire spot to trumpeting his debate challenge.

While Hatch has consented to a radio debate in June before the primary, he has cited scheduling issues as a reason for declining a TV showdown and points to two previous debates he took part in earlier this cycle.

But several newspapers in the state, as well as Liljenquist's campaign, have attempted to pressure Hatch into changing his mind.

"As Senator Hatch continues to hide from televised debates, it is clear we are going to have to debate his record for him," Liljenquist said in a statement promoting the ad.

But Hatch's campaign labels the debate push as a campaign gimmick and suggests the senator won't change his mind on the issue.

"Voters are concerned with the economy and the fiscal future or our country, not trivial campaign rhetoric," Hatch's communications director, Evelyn Call, said in a statement this week.

Hatch's campaign scored big points Tuesday when it landed a highly-coveted endorsement from Sarah Palin, who claimed Hatch was part of the "one percent" of national incumbents she thinks deserve re-election.

The nod came as a big swipe against Liljenquist, a candidate with strong tea party backing in the state.

Liljenquist's new ad will run statewide in rotation with his first ad until the June 26 primary, according to his campaign.