“In a general election-style speech at Lawrence University in Appleton Wisconsin Friday, Mitt Romney delivered one of his most fundamental critiques of Barack Obama of the campaign so far. The president, Romney said, was elected in 2008 on the strength of his personality, and despite his failures remains surrounded by true believers who are poised to attack anyone who challenges their hold on power.

“‘This is a president who was elected not on the strength of a compelling record of accomplishment but by a compelling personality and story,’ Romney said. But while the president’s persona appealed to many voters, Romney said, his actual performance in office led to widespread disappointment. Now, Romney continued, ‘though the reality has failed the hope and change he promised, [Obama] remains surrounded by true believers who attack anyone who challenges their power. And, as we see each day, they will fight even more fiercely to hold on to that power.’…

“Part of Obama’s story, Romney reminded the audience, was his time as a community organizer — an experience that Obama often cited as a key qualification for him to be elected president. But Romney said Obama’s time as an organizer taught him precisely the wrong lessons about the economy. ‘Barack Obama once said that his work as a community organizer motivated him to help ‘communities that had been ravaged by plant closings,” Romney said. ‘His desire to help others could not be more admirable, but it’s clear that he saw free enterprise as the villain and not the solution.’ The ‘ironic tragedy’ of Obama’s time in office, Romney said, ‘is that the community organizer who wanted to help those hurt by a plant closing became the president on whose watch more jobs were lost than any time since the Great Depression.'”

“Following a front-page Wall Street Journal article Thursday reporting that employees at Bain Capital, Romney’s former private-equity firm, were allowed to invest their retirement money in companies the firm acquired through a special share class, the Obama camp is seeking Romney’s old tax returns to see if they contain information about the investment arrangement…

“‘Today’s report raises additional questions about Gov. Romney’s manipulation of the tax laws,’ Ben LaBolt, an Obama spokesman, told The Journal, adding that Romney ‘may have engaged in questionable maneuvers to drive up the value of his IRA.’…

“‘The Obama campaign is playing politics, just as he’s doing in his conduct of foreign policy,’ Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul wrote. ‘Obama should release the notes and transcripts of all his meetings with world leaders so the American people can be satisfied that he’s not promising to sell out the country’s interests after the election is over.'”

“The conventional thinking has been that after a long and divisive primary campaign, the challenge of uniting the GOP would force Romney to pick a running mate with strong appeal to tea party activists and evangelicals. But Romney’s team thinks he may be liberated from that pressure if he can finish off remaining rivals Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul in the next few weeks…

“His advisers said they do not believe geography will play all that important a role, and that he seems unlikely to choose someone to court a single state or constituency. He does not, so far, appear to have discussed the need to pick a minority or a woman, for example, to appeal to certain kinds of voters…

“‘Knowing Mitt as I do, I think he’s going to be very much of the school that we need a vice president who can become president,’ said the adviser, who like others interviewed demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the vice presidential search process.”

“By some measures, Mr. Obama’s re-election drive, which at one point was projected as perhaps the first $1 billion campaign in U.S. history, has collected tens of millions of dollars less than President Bush’s campaign had at the same point in 2004, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) figures…

“At times, Mr. Obama’s top aides have openly fretted about the level of resistance they are encountering from some Democratic donors, especially in the face of the challenge posed by the pro-GOP super PACs. The president’s fundraising team has tried to highlight in stark terms what it sees as the consequences of Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney winning the White House…

“‘Too many Obama supporters are falling into a trap,’ he wrote. ‘They’re waiting to donate until we have a clear opponent. There’s too much at stake, and not enough time, to be doing that.'”

“The gender gap in presidential politics is not new. Democratic candidates have gotten more support from women than men for more than 30 years. Even so, Barack Obama’s advantages among women voters over his GOP rivals are striking.

“In the Pew Research Center’s most recent national survey, conducted March 7-11, Obama led Mitt Romney by 20 points (58% to 38%) among women voters. It marked the second consecutive month that Obama held such a wide advantage over Romney among women (59% to 38% in February). In both February and March, Obama ran about even with Romney among men.”

“President Obama is sharpening his campaign rhetoric, saying tonight that Republican plans to return to economic policies of the George W. Bush years is ‘madness.’…

“Obama prefaced that comment by saying, ‘we won’t win the race for new jobs and new businesses and middle-class security if we cling to this same old, worn-out, tired ‘you’re on your own’ economics that the other side is peddling.'”