Former Kerry campaign manager and longtime head of EMILY’s List, Mary Beth Cahill, is joining Priorities USA, the Obama-endorsed SuperPAC.

The first time outside groups played an outsized role in a presidential campaign was in 2004, the year Cahill ran Kerry’s campaign. Kerry got a big assist that year from a slew of outside Democratic groups, including the largest one known as Americans Coming Together (ACT).

It is that experience, knowing what outside groups do well and not so well, that is supposed to make her a valuable asset to the SuperPAC that is still struggling to match the power of the big Republican SuperPACs.

“Mary Beth brings an enormous wealth of experience in national campaigns and we couldn’t be happier that she’s joining us," said Priorities USA co-founder Bill Burton. "As the election draws closer, her expertise in strategy and targeting will be invaluable in ensuring the President’s reelection.”

President Obama warned leaders in Congress that he wouldn't tolerate another "self-inflicted political crisis" associated with the need to raise the nation's debt limit.

Over lunch Wednesday at the White House, Obama cautioned House Speaker John Boehner, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell against another standoff that plagued Washington last summer.

“We're not going to recreate the debt ceiling debacle of last August,” Press Secretary Jay Carney recounted the president saying during his lunch meeting with House and Senate leaders.

Boehner’s office released its own account of the meeting shortly after Carney began the White House daily briefing, saying that the House speaker had asked the president whether he would aim for a debt limit increase that didn’t include any spending cuts, to which the president responded, “Yes.”

According to Boehner’s office, the speaker responded, "As long as I'm around here, I'm not going to allow a debt ceiling increase without doing something serious about the debt."

Carney said Boehner asked whether the president was advocating “the clean debt ceiling,” which Carney argued was “a little different” than asking whether or not it would include spending cuts.

But, Carney continued, “The essence is the same. And the president's point was, we should not hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage to one party's political agenda.”

Obama and the four leaders in Congress dined on hoagies fetched earlier in the day by the president during a stop at Washington's Taylor Gourmet sandwich shop.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has opened up a 6-point lead over Democratic challenger Tom Barrett ahead of a closely-watched June 5 recall election.

Fifty percent of Wisconsin's likely voters said in a Marquette Law School Poll that they would support retaining Walker versus 44 percent of likely voters who said they would instead elect Barrett, Walker's challenger in the 2010 general election who will again face Walker after having won last week's Democratic primary.

The poll would seem to reflect what had been an anecdotal sense that Walker has opened up an advantage in the few weeks before the recall election.

A target of Democrats and organized labor since pushing a dramatic reform of collective bargaining rights for public employees through the Wisconsin state legislature, Walker has raised millions more than his challengers in order to fend off the recall effort.

If Walker were to win, it would be a symbolic victory not only for his efforts to curb labor rights, but also for a series of other Republican governors who have embarked upon the same path. It would also be a disappointing setback for organized labor.

It could also help put Wisconsin in play for this fall's general election between Mitt Romney and President Obama.

Among likely Wisconsin voters, Obama and Romney were tied at 46 percent in a hypothetical November matchup.

A poll preceding the Democratic primary in Wisconsin had showed Barrett and Walker virtually tied in the gubernatorial recall, suggesting that the tide might have turned back toward Walker in the weeks since then.

The Republican governor had a 50 percent approval rating, according to the most recent Marquette poll, versus 46 percent of Wisconsinites who disapporove of the way he is handling his job.

The remainder of the recall campaign is still expected to be a hard-fought campaign, with millions in ads sponsored by outside groups on both sides. But reflecting the stakes of the race, and prevailing sentiment in Washington, state Democrats had to complain publicly about a lack of support from the Democratic National Committee before eliciting a promise to help raise funds.

The Marquette Law School poll, conducted May 9-12, has a 4.1 percent margin of error for the sample of likely voters.

President Obama’s spiritual adviser, Rev. Joel Hunter, said he disagrees with the president’s support for gay marriage. “I can’t find this in scripture.” Hunter said on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" today.

Hunter said that the president’s announcement was likely prompted by Vice President Biden’s endorsement on "Meet the Press." When asked if he thought Obama’s announcement was personal or politically driven, the pastor said, “When you’re in that office it’s always political. But that doesn't mean it's devoid from a sense of personal responsibility and personal morality.”

When Hunter spoke with the president after last week’s announcement, Hunter said that the president told him he changed his views based on personal anecdotes, gay friends, and servicemen. Hunter said, “He wants to do the right thing. But for him, that doesn't come straight just from scripture.”

Hunter said he did not discuss politics, policy, or even gay marriage with the president before last week. “We had not talked about this specific subject.” Hunter said. “I just talk about his personal life and his understanding of the scripture.”

When NBC's Andrea Mitchell asked if the pastor would preach against gay marriage and what the president said, Hunter said, “I don't preach political matters. I preach scriptural standards. And so, when I preach about marriage, I will say that it's between a man and a woman. And give scriptural references for that. But I simply stay away from politics when it comes to preaching, because the word of God is too important on its own to communicate. And I can't really get detoured from that.”

Hunter’s admiration of Obama has not been changed by his announcement, “The president's a man. You know? And I love him. He's a friend. But with the rest of my congregation -- I never know how much of my counsel they're going to take or not take."

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Vice President Joe Biden launched a deeply populist argument for the president's re-election on Wednesday, deriding Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital and countering the GOP argument that Democrats hope to sow "envy" between the middle class and the wealthy.

Tony Dejak / AP

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at M-7 Technologies May 16 in Youngstown, Ohio.

"I resent when they talk about families like mine that I grew up in. I resent the fact that they think we're talking about envy, that's it's job envy, it's wealth envy. That we don't dream," he told a crowd of about 600 at a Youngstown manufacturing facility, deep in the nation's Rust Belt.

"My mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams!" he said to mounting applause. "They don't get us! They don't get who we are."

Echoing the campaign's new TV ad hitting Romney's record as the head of Bain Capital, Biden accused the GOP nominee of gutting companies without regard for hundreds of employees who lost their jobs and benefits when they were shuttered.

"Romney made sure the guys on top got to play by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts, and the middle class lost," he  "And folks, he thinks this experience will help our economy? Where I come from, past is prologue, man. So what do you think he’ll do as president?"

The facility where Biden spoke, M-7 Technologies, conducts high-tech manufacturing as well as research and development. It was originally founded in 1918 as a producer of castings for the steel industry.

Biden argued that jobs in eastern Ohio are returning, highlighting the campaign's focus on revitalizing the manufacturing industry. "You know the difference between an economy that's built on making things rather than on collateralized debt, creative credit default-swaps, financial instruments subprime mortgages," he said. "That's not how you grow an economy."

Before his repeated criticisms of Romney's business record and a philosophy of letting workers "fend for themselves," Biden praised the Republican's character, including a reference to Romney's charitable giving to his church. (A Romney spokesman present at the event said he did not view the comment as a swipe as Romney's faith. Romney is a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints.)

"He's a patriot, a generous man, he gives to his church, he has a beautiful family," Biden said of Romney. "But he doesn't get it."

Speaking to reporters after the event, Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland was more blunt about Romney's ability to relate to the middle class.

"I sometimes feel sorry for Mitt Romney because I think he desperately tries to relate to ordinary people and he simply does not have the capacity to do so," he said of Romney's place among the "1 percent."

"He does not understand people who have to worry about putting gas in the car, or food on the table, or helping care for their families," he said. "Those aren't challenges that he has ever had to face. And consequently I think he is incapable of really showing empathy to average people.

Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams told reporters that Biden and Strickland's criticisms would fall on deaf ears, particularly in light of Obama's attempts to raise cash from wealthy Wall Street types.

"They're attacking industries that are creating jobs, that he himself is raising money from," he said. "So people can see the dishonesty of the attack."

President Barack Obama talked openly about his faith at the National Prayer breakfast and the help he gets from spiritual advisers such as the Rev. Joel Hunter, but the president has diverged from their path with his recent commitment to same-sex marriage. Hunter joins Andrea Mitchell Reports to discuss his conversation with Obama shortly after the announcement. 

Video edited by NBC's Matt Loffman.

House Speaker John Boehner today denied he was threatening default when he called yesterday for equal or greater spending cuts to accompany a future increase in the debt ceiling.

"I'm not threatening default," he said in response to a question by NBC News. "What I'm trying to do is encourage people on both sides of the aisle on both sides of the Capitol and on both ends of Pennsylvania Ave to be honest with the American people and to be honest with ourselves to begin to tackle this problem in an adult manner."

NBC News: Speaker Boehner? Why are you threatening default on the debt limit in May of 2012?

BOEHNER: "I'm not threatening default."

NBC NEWS: But you said yesterday cuts must match debt limit increase no matter what...

BOEHNER: "Let's remember something, the issue here is the debt, almost $16 trillion dollars worth of debt, $1.3 trillion dollar budget deficit this year, one only has to read the publications that many of you write for to realize that the situation in Europe is becoming grimmer every day. We have time to deal with our problems and what I'm trying to do is encourage people on both sides of the aisle on both sides of the Capitol and on both ends of Pennsylvania Ave to be honest with the American people and to be honest with ourselves to begin to tackle this problem in an adult manner."

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Mitt Romney continued to drive a debt-oriented message here on Wednesday morning, extending his "prairie fire" of debt metaphor with the assistance of a prop.

In a nod to the independent voters who pushed the Sunshine State into the Democratic column in 2008, Romney noted that both parties were responsible for pushing the debt to the "incomprehensible" levels – which were represented on a giant prop debt clock behind him.

Mary Altaffer / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign stop May 16 in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"There was another area during [President Obama's] campaign, he said he would focus on. You see, he was very critical of his predecessor for the debts his predecessor put in place. And sure it's true you can't blame one party or the other for all the debts this country has, because both parties in my opinion have spent too much and borrowed too much when they were in power," Romney said in this key swing state.

(Interestingly, Romney danced around the actual name of that predecessor, George W. Bush, who on Tuesday endorsed the former Massachusetts Governor when asked a question by an ABC News reporter.)

"[President Obama] was very critical of his predecessor because the predecessor put together $4 trillion of debt over eight years," Romney continued. "This president however - oh by the way, he said that doing that was unpatriotic, irresponsible and unpatriotic. And he said he would cut the debt in half if he became president. Instead he doubled it, alright, he doubled it."

Democrats answered those charges quickly.

“In Florida today, Mitt Romney continued to make dishonest claims- both about President Obama’s record and his own," Obama spokesperson Lis Smith said in a statement. “While President Obama has put forward a plan to reduce the deficit by more than $4 trillion by making responsible spending cuts and asking every American to pay their share, Mitt Romney refuses to say what spending cuts or tax increases he’d make to cover the cost of giving $5 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. Mitt Romney simply wants to return to the same policies that caused the economic crisis and weakened the middle class."

Meanwhile, Romney used his prop clock like a battering ram against the president.

"Gosh, when we put that clock up, we made that clock back in the New Hampshire primary days and it began with 14 back then. Now its fifteen, six eighty five, it'll be sixteen coming soon. It is not at all what he promised," Romney said. "This presidency has been a disappointment, and the people who have been hurt by this disappointment are the American people."

The presumptive Republican nominee did not mention his plan to reform entitlements here in senior-heavy Florida, but repeat his plans to increase military spending -- a portion of Romney's fiscal vision not easily squared with his plans to cut spending broadly.

"I'd like to take shipbuilding from 9 to 15 a year, by the way that will help put people to work. And I want to buy more aircraft and I want to have more active duty personnel and I want to make sure we give our veterans the care they richly deserve," Romney said.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., warns America that it's headed for a Greek-like European debt crisis "if we don't stop the trajectory that we're on." Ryan also explains the differences between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney's budget plans.

On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO met with the company's shareholders and addressed the company's $2B loss. The shareholders voted to keep Dimon in his role and approved his $23M pay package. Meanwhile, the FBI has opened a probe into the $2B loss. The New York Daily News' Mort Zuckerman joins the conversation.

Sen. Barbara Boxer talks about pending debt ceiling talks on Capitol Hill and touches on California's debt crisis.