President Obama and Former President Bill Clinton will team up next month for yet another joint big dollar fundraiser. But you don't have to be a rich celebrity to attend the New York City event. The campaign is inviting two grassroots supports for as little as 3 dollars!

Similar to the successful fundraiser with George Clooney, every small dollar contribution will be automatically entered to win a seat at the June 4th event with Clinton. The campaign promises to pay for travel for the two winners and their guests. Earlier this month, the Obama campaign raised over $8million from supporters hoping to be invited to Clooney's house.

The former president appeared at a joint fundraiser in April for Mr. Obama, contributing to the $43.6 million raised by the campaign in April alone. Clinton's New York City event in June is the second of three events the former president will hold for the sitting president. (read more)

Rick Santorum's wife Karen was very reluctant when her husband started thinking about running for president; but, a year and a half later, she says it was impossible to ignore "God's will."

Karen Santorum, in an interview with Fox News, said it took a very long time to make the decision, because she had originally "totally closed the door to the idea." The former senator was focused on being a father-- coaching little league and watching softball games. So, her husband asked her to start praying about it. "In the end, despite my resistance, when God asks something - you do it. And so we are on the path."

That path has been a long one.

And now, Mrs. Santorum says they are "in it for the long haul." In fact, she is looking ahead to Tampa. In an interview with Fox News, Mrs. Santorum dialed back expectations in Rick Santorum's home state, saying they are "hoping for the best" in the Pennsylvania in a few weeks. But she did point out Pennsylvania is a blue state, and "it's important to remember there were four races before the last one, that we won." She is referring to her husband's failed Senate re-election bid in 2006. (read more)

SEOUL, South Korea - President Obama made light Tuesday of the hot microphone moment he had the day earlier with Russian President Medvedev, where he said that after the November election, he'd have more "flexibility" on the issue of missile defense.

Just as leaders were greeting one another and about to sit down at the opening session of the Nuclear Security Summit, Obama spotted Medvedev, looks over at him, puts his hands over the microphone in front of him with a big smile, and then goes to greet the Russian president.

Obama was asked about the "flexibility" statement later while making remarks to the press about a nuclear safety agreement, and said "Arms control is extraordinarily complex, very technical, and the only way it gets done is if you can consult and build a strong basis of understanding both between countries as well as within countries."

The open microphone comments he made Monday after a bilateral meeting with Medvedev happened right as journalists were being let into the room.

Obama could be heard saying, "On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it's important for him to give me space."

Medvedev responds in English, "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you..." (read more)

The Supreme Court is taking at a hard look at the constitutionality of President Obama's health care law this week.

Monday marked the first day of arguments and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum appeared outside the Supreme Court, making a case that he, not Mitt Romney, is the best candidate to take on Obama in the fall.

"There's one candidate who's uniquely disqualified to make the case. That's the reason I'm here and he's not," Santorum told reporters gathered outside the Supreme Court

Mitt Romney routinely says that he would repeal Obama's health care law if he is elected president. However, Santorum maintains that Romney is disqualified because of the health care law he put in place in Massachusetts when he was the governor of the Bay State.

"He is uniquely disqualified on the biggest issue of the day," Santorum told Fox News earlier on Monday. "On the one that pinpoints and summarizes all that's wrong with Washington, all that's wrong with government involvement in our life he can't make, in fact doesn't and won't make the case." (read more)

The Club for Growth political action committee has made what it calls a "substantial" TV ad buy in Indiana.

"If you live in Indiana, you will see this ad," says Club For Growth PAC spokesman Barney Keller.

The ad will run on both broadcast and cable outlets in the Hoosier State. 

Keller would not disclose the amount of the buy from the political arm of fiscally conservative advocacy group.

The Howry Politics blog puts the number at $1.8 million.
The ad asks Hoosiers to call Lugar's Senate offices about his record which includes votes for increased taxes on gasoline and social security and against spending cuts.

The ad buy helps cut into Lugar's big cash advantage in this suddenly hotly contested primary battle against State Treasurer Richard Mourdock.

In the most recent quarterly filing on December 31st, 2011; the Lugar campaign reported $4 million cash on-hand.

By contrast, The Mourdock campaign had just a little over $360,000.

The most recent polls on this race suggest Lugar's lead over Mourdock is down to a single-digit margin with the primary set for May 8th.

The Governor of Puerto Rico is confident Puerto Ricans will vote to make the U.S. territory a state this fall, and despite recent comments from GOP Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, English will not need to be made the primary language for that to happen.

As a territory, Puerto Ricans cannot vote in the general election November 6th. But, they will vote on a statehood referendum on that day. Gov. Luis Fortuno tells Fox News it will be a process but he is confident it will happen.

"It just makes sense. We have been part of the United States since 1898. Natural-born citizens since 1917. Our men and women have served in greater numbers than most states since then. And I believe that it's the right thing to do in the 21st century to allow almost 4 million American citizens to express our will and then to work with the White House and hopefully President Romney to address this issue."

All four of the GOP Presidential hopefuls would like to see Puerto Rico become a state. But it is Mitt Romney's more aggressive posture that helped him win Fortuno's endorsement. (read more)

BALLWIN, Mo. - Rick Santorum is now claiming the race for the GOP nomination is closer than you might think.

"We're looking at the rules, we're looking at how things are stacking up, and we're in much better shape in these caucuses and some of these apportioned states or winner take all states which in fact are not winner take all states," Santorum told caucus-goers here.

"We've got some new delegate math that we're going to be putting out that shows this race is a lot different than what the consensus is."

According to the latest math from the Associated Press, Mitt Romney has secured 495 delegates. Santorum trails with 252. A total of 1,144 are needed to win the Republican nomination.

Santorum did not say when his campaign will release their own numbers, but during a later visit to a caucus site in Hazelwood, he did make another claim that caught Team Romney's attention.

"All of the Midwest is one color. It's our color. We've won every state in the Midwest," Santorum declared.

Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul has a much different take, and released the following statement in response. (read more)

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney backed off comments that were construed as calling GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich a liar when he claims that if elected president, he would lower gas prices to $2.50 per gallon.

Carney said Monday that anyone who claims to be able to get gas prices down to $2.50 quickly is "lying." But on Tuesday, he backed away from that assertion.

"I said yesterday that anybody who said that would be a liar and I shouldn't have gone in motivations, I should have said anybody who says that doesn't know what he's talking about," Carney said at the daily press briefing.

President Obama has criicized the assertion that as president, Gingrich would lower gas prices to $2.50.

"First of all, while there are no silver bullets short term when it comes to gas prices," the president said during a February speech at the University of Miami. "And anybody who says otherwise isn't telling the truth," he added.

Gingrich lashed out at Carney's original comments Monday night, challenging the president to a debate on energy, giving suggestions for a location.

"I'd be glad to meet you at a oil rig somewhere, at a refinery, I'd be glad to meet you at a gas station, I'd even go to a university campus where you feel comfortable," Gingrich said.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Rick Santorum misstated his qualifications to lead America's armed forces during a campaign stop here, telling reporters "I'm the only person in this race that has any experience as commander in chief."

The statement came after a question on how he is appealing to voters in Alabama, but was far from accurate.

The former senator has never served in any commander in chief capacity. His GOP rival Mitt Romney however has, when he commanded the Massachusetts National Guard as governor of the Bay State.

Santorum spokesperson Alice Stewart was quick to clarify the flub, saying, "he meant he was the only candidate that has any experience "to be" commander in chief. She added the Santorum was referring to the time he spent on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In a shot aimed directly at one of GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's primary talking points, White House spokesman Jay Carney amped up the rhetoric during Monday's press briefing saying a politician who promises $2.50 gas is lying.

"What he is not willing to do is to look the American people in the eye and claim that there is a strategy by which he can guarantee the price of gas will be $2.50 at the pump," Carney said of President Obama. "Any politician who does that is lying, because ... that strategy does not exist. It is a simple fact that there is no such plan that can guarantee the price of oil or the price at the pump."

While the White House has tip-toed up to the line of suggesting Gingrich is lying when he says he could quickly drop gas prices to $2.50 per gallon, neither the president, nor his spokesman had actually used the word lying before Monday's briefing. But during an energy speech in Miami last month, the president did question the truthfulness of Gingrich's campaign promise. (read more)