The Obama re-election team is distancing the president from comments made by a key surrogate on Tuesday.

During a cable television interview Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, said "There's something about raping companies and leaving them in debt and setting up Swiss bank accounts and corporate businesses in the Grand Caymans. I have a serious problem with that."

The Obama campaign's response to Clyburn's comment was terse. "We strongly disagree with Congressman Clyburn's choice of words- they have no place in this conversation," said Obama Campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith.

However the Obama Camp isn't backing off the Bain Capital line of attack. Smith added, "But we do believe that Mitt Romney should come clean about his record as a corporate buyout specialist and how, contrary to his claims of creating jobs, his focus was on reaping quick profits for investors at the expense of workers and middle class families."

Private equity and Mitt Romney's time as the CEO of Bain Capital has been dominating the presidential campaign trail lately. On Monday President Obama defended attacks on Mr. Romney's time at Bain Capital, saying the subject "is not a distraction. This is part of the debate that we're going to be having this election campaign."

Both President Obama and Mitt Romney saw their fundraising numbers drop in recently. President Obama's re-election campaign raised $25.7 million in April, almost $10 million less than he raised in March.

Mitt Romney's team raised $11.7 million in April, down from more than $13 million in March.

However, President Obama has a staggering lead when it comes to cash on hand; Mr. Romney has $9.2 million while President Obama has $115 million.

Both of the Super PACs supporting the campaigns also had a lackluster April. Restore Our Future, which supports Mr. Romney raised $4.6 million for the month which is down from $8.7 million in March.

Meanwhile, the pro-Obama political action committee Priorities USA raised only $1.6 million in April.

Federal Election Commission records show that Newt Gingrich ended his presidential campaign with a little more than $800,000 in cash on hand and nearly $4.8 million in debt.

Mitt Romney called President Obama's campaign "off target" in their vamped up attacks over his Bain Capital record, while talking to conservative radio talk show host Ed Morrissey yesterday.

This marks the first time Romney responded to President Obama camp's ads characterizing him as a corporate vulture rather than job creator.

The TV ads- which aired in five swing states this week- features testimonials from employees at steel mill, GSI, acquired by Romney's former private equity firm that shut down in 2001. They tell stories of cut jobs, lost healthcare and reduced pensions after Bain Capital failed to successfully reconstruct the company.

Romney called the rhetoric "misguided" and pointed to the fact that he had left the company two years prior to the factory's closure.

"They said, 'Oh gosh, Gov. Romney at Bain Capital closed down a steel factory,'" Romney told Morrissey. "Their problem, of course, is that the steel factory closed down two years after I left Bain Capital. I was no longer there, so that's hardly something that should be on my watch."

Romney countered by touting the number of jobs Bain Capital investments created, citing 100,000 jobs, while urging Obama to look at his own record of job loss in the auto-manufacturing sector.

"We were able to help create over 100,000 jobs...On the president's watch, about 100,000 jobs were lost in the auto-industry and auto dealers and auto manufacturers, so he's hardly one to point a finger. (read more)

One day following the endorsement from Former President George W. Bush, Mitt Romney slips him into his stump, but not by name and with no acknowledgment of his backing at an event today in St. Petersburg, FL.

Romney refers to President Obama's "predecessor" repeatedly, while slamming Obama for calling the $4 trillion dollar debt acquired during Bush's term "unpatriotic."

"I find it incomprehensible that a president could come to office and call his predecessor's record irresponsible and unpatriotic and then do almost nothing to fix it," Romney stated. "[Obama] said he would cut the debt in half if he became president. Instead he doubled it, alright, he doubled it," Romney exclaimed pointing to the huge 'debt clock' mounted behind him offering a real time calculation of the national debt registering over $15 trillion dollars.

"It's going to be 16 coming soon," Romney quipped.

Former President Bush's endorsement was tepid at best yesterday, uttering four words to an ABC reporter after delivering a speech on human rights in Washington, DC.

"I'm for Mitt Romney," Bush replied. The Former President's office was tight-lipped yesterday when asked for confirmation of the endorsement, responding to Fox News' inquiry with "Yessir, this is right." (read more)

Following President Obama's comments in a TV interview expressing his support for same-sex marriage, his likely GOP rival Mitt Romney said Wednedsay he maintains his opposition to it -- the same position he's had since he "started running for office"

"I have the same view on marriage that I had when I was governor and that I expressed many times. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman," he told reporters following an event at the Oklahoma Republican Party headquartersk, where he garnered the endorsement of Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin.

Obama made the groundbreaking news in an interview with ABC.

"It is important for me personally to go ahead and affirm that same-sex couples should be able to get married," Obama stated. He previously had said he supported equal rights for same-sex couples but stopped short of endorsing gay marriage.

When asked if he believed the president had flip-flopped on the issue, Romney said it's up to the public to be the judge.  (read more)

Ron Paul has been a thorn in the side of Mitt Romney's presidential run for years, but a new poll suggests that should the Texas congressman launch an independent candidacy it would actually help Mitt Romney.

The Rasmussen survey of a hypothetical three-way race for the White House shows Romney with 44%, President Obama with 39% and Ron Paul with 13%.

Ron Paul has not pulled out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination, although his chances of capturing the nomination are becoming increasingly remote.

The national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on May 6-7, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

During a campaign rally in Cleveland a woman in the audience was asking Mitt Romney a question, but also commented that she thought President Obama should be tried for treason.

Romney answered the woman's question about the US Constitution but did not address her assertion that President Obama should be tried for treason.

After the event Romney answered a reporter's question on the subject by shaking his head and saying "no, of course" President Obama should not be tried for such an offense.

President Obama's re-election team suggests Romney's original silence on the matter spoke volumes. "Time after time in this campaign, Mitt Romney has had the opportunity to show that he has the fortitude to stand up to hateful and over-the-line rhetoric and time after time, he has failed to do so," said Obama Campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith.

Fox News Producer Nicole Busch contributed to this report.

Gingrich officially dropped out of the presidential race at an event in northern Virginia on Wednesday but refrained from actually endorsing the GOP's presumptive nominee Mitt Romney.

"Today I am suspending my campaign. However, suspending the campaign does not mean suspending citizenship." Gingrich went on in a long speech to talk about numerous subjects, including his infamous moon colony comment. However, the one subject he steered away from for the most part was Mitt Romney.

"This is not a choice between Mitt Romney and Ronald Reagan," said Gingrich, in what was not exactly a full throated endorsement. "This is a choice between Mitt Romney and the most radical leftist president in American history."

However, Gingrich has said that he is committed to help the effort to oust President Obama

The Obama Campaign is out with a new web ad asking the question, "Newt Gingrich is throwing his support behind Mitt Romney?" The ad goes on to show numerous times during the campaign when Gingrich attacked Romney, including one on-camera instance where the former House Speaker was asked if he was calling Romney a liar, to which Gingrich answered simply, "Yes." (read more)

Fox News has confirmed Newt Gingrich met with Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades on Monday to talk about how the former House Speaker can assist as a surrogate and fundraiser for the presumptive Republican nominee.

At the meeting, the Romney campaign also offered to connect Gingrich with their network of donors as a way to help retire some of his campaign debts. The March FEC filing shows Gingrich holding $4.3 million in debts at the end of the month, although the campaign emphasizes that half a million has since been paid off and there is a plan in place to pay the rest.

"The Romney campaign will give us access to some of their networks but it will be our responsibility to raise the money," said Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond. "While campaigning in support of Romney, the party, and congressional candidates, we will also hold separate events to raise money to pay off debts."

Gingrich will announce the suspension of his presidential campaign on Wednesday at the Hilton in the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia.

The face-to-face meeting with Rhoades took place just across the street from the hotel at Gingrich's campaign headquarters. The meeting came after nearly two weeks of talks between the campaigns, including conversations between Gingrich and Romney adviser Ed Gillespie.

At the meeting, Gingrich offered some of his ideas and suggestions to the Romney campaign, especially on the importance of minority outreach. (read more)

Richard Grenell, Mitt Romney's openly gay Foreign Policy and National Security spokesman, has resigned from his post after the Romney campaign allegedly silenced him.

In a statement, Grenell said:

"I have decided to resign from the Romney campaign as the Foreign Policy and National Security Spokesman. While I welcomed the challenge to confront President Obama's foreign policy failures and weak leadership on the world stage, my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign. I want to thank Governor Romney for his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team."

According to a source close to Grenell, his decision to resign came after the Romney campaign "put Ric on the shelf and wouldn't let him engage on anything with the media," while national security issues became the focus this past week. The source said Grenell wanted to "take the fight to Obama" over accusations by the President and his campaign that Romney would not have ordered the risky operation to take out Bin Laden last year. But the Romney campaign became too "squeamish", instead only allowing surrogates like John McCain to respond. (read more)