(CBS News) President Obama's re-election campaign on Wednesday reported raising $43.6 million in donations in April in conjunction with the Democratic Party, cash the campaign is using to set up a ground game in key swing states and run ads against the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

In a video released on Wednesday, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina announced that the $43 million haul came 437,323 "grassroots supporters," including 169,500 first-time supporters. The average donation size was $50.23, with 98 percent of the donations $250 or less.

The figure is down from March, when the Obama campaign raised $53 million, but it doesn't include the money raised at recent lucrative events, such as the Hollywood fundraiser at George Clooney's house last week that brought in $15 million.

In his video message, Messina stressed that the Obama camp isn't just running against Romney, but also against well-funded conservative super PACs. He pointed out that groups opposed to the president have spent $60 million so far.

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(CBS News) Nebraska state Senator Deb Fischer pulled off a surprise upset victory against Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning in the state's Republican Senate primary Tuesday, marking the second contest in two weeks in which an establishment favorite was upended by a dark horse candidate in a Senate primary.

Fischer, a rural rancher from the state's 43rd legislative district, eked out a 5-point victory over Bruning, winning 41 percent to the Attorney General's 36 percent with nearly all the votes counted. State Treasurer Don Stenberg earned 19 percent.

As of just a few weeks ago, Bruning was widely considered the favorite in the race, and was expected to handily defeat Fischer and Stenberg to face off against Democratic candidate Bob Kerrey in November.

In recent days, however, some signs suggested the tides might be turning in Fischer's favor. While Bruning was hit with a series of scathing attack ads -- a number of which were funded by outside groups supporting Stenberg -- some polls showed Fischer surging.

Romney wins primaries in Nebraska, Oregon

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Updated: May 16, 10:41 a.m. ET

(CBS News) Mitt Romney on Tuesday won GOP presidential primaries in Oregon and Nebraska, putting the former Massachusetts governor ever closer toward officially clinching the Republican presidential nomination.

In Nebraska, with nearly all of the votes counted, Romney led by an overwhelming 71 percent support. Rick Santorum, who ended his presidential bid last month, earned 14 percent support.

In Oregon, with 62 percent of the votes in, Romney earned 73 percent. Ron Paul came in second place with 12 percent.

Despite his two victories Tuesday, Romney was not be able to earn the number of delegates needed to make his nomination official. Oregon had 25 delegates at stake in its primary, while Nebraska, which will be sending 32 delegates to the national convention, held a non-binding primary.

In upset victory, Fischer wins Nebraska Senate primary

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(CBS News) Former President George W. Bush voiced his support for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign for the first time today, ABC News reports.

In a decidedly underwhelming fashion, the former president said to a reporter, "I'm for Mitt Romney," as the doors of an elevator closed on him. Mr. Bush was in Washington to deliver a speech on freedom and democracy at the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

The presumptive Republican nominee has already been endorsed by Mr. Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush. The former president officially announced his endorsement in his Houston office with Romney at his side. Mr. George W. Bush's brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, also officially endorsed Romney in a statement.

Andrea Saul, a spokesman for the Romney campaign, said of the latest unofficial endorsement, "We welcome the president's support, as we welcomed his father's."

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Acknowledging that Mitt Romney is in a strong position to win the Republican nomination, Ron Paul campaign Chair Jesse Benton said Tuesday that Paul's famously loyal and enthusiastic fan base will be represented at the Tampa convention by the hundreds, with "a very, very strong message that we're here," but in a way that's "respectful."

"We're going to respectfully show that our people are here and we're the way to the future, and we're here to work with people, we're here to play ball, and we believe in very, very specific things," Benton said in a conference call with reporters. "And we're going to continue to fight for ideas. And moving forward, we're going to continue to become an even stronger voice in the party." At the convention, he said, "We're emphasizing decorum."

Another goal, he said, is to arrive in Tampa with as many delegates as possible to influence the debate and to "vote on party rules and allow us to shape the process for future liberty candidates." As National Journal/CBS News reported last week, the Texas congressman's campaign is paving the way for his son, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to take over the libertarian reigns and in a possible 2016 presidential bid.

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(CBS News) Reminded that he once said his presidency would be a "one-term proposition" if he didn't turn the economy around, President Obama now says he can't give himself a letter grade on the economy.

"I think it's still incomplete. We've still got work to do," Mr. Obama said in an interview on ABC's "The View," which aired Tuesday morning.

In 2009, the president told NBC that he'd be held accountable for the economy after his first term.

Responding specifically to a question about the 2009 stimulus, he said, "One nice thing about the situation I find myself in is that I will be held accountable. You know, I've got four years. And, you know, a year from now I think people are going to see that we're starting to make some progress. But there's still going to be some pain out there. If I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition."

Three years later, Mr. Obama told the hosts of "The View," "We still have some headwinds out there."

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UPDATED 5:05 p.m. ET

(CBS News) DES MOINES, Iowa -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney took aim Tuesday at President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package, blaming it for a soaring federal debt that he likened to a prairie fire.

"President Obama started out with a near trillion-dollar stimulus package - was the biggest, most careless one-time expenditure by the federal government in history," Romney said. "And remember this: the stimulus wasn't just wasted - it was borrowed and wasted. We still owe the money, we're still paying interest on it, and it will be that way long after this president's out of office."

In a speech at the Hotel Des Moines to about 200 people, including some prominent Iowa politicians, Romney said that the federal debt is "not solely a Democrat or Republican problem." But he placed the blame for it squarely on Obama, saying he had increased the debt by $5 trillion - or $520,000 per average American household.

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UPDATED 4:10 p.m. ET

(CBS News) For anyone listening to House Speaker John Boehner this afternoon at the Peterson Foundation Fiscal Summit in Washington, DC, his words might have sounded familiar.

According to the speaker's remarks, Boehner said that when the time comes for President Obama to ask for another increase in the nation's legal borrowing limit, "I will again insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase."

Boehner made this same demand before the great debt limit showdown last summer. The requirement that the increase be matched dollar for dollar with spending cuts led to months of wrangling between, and within, the two parties over which cuts should be made and whether a "grand bargain" was something the Mr. Obama and the speaker could achieve to cut trillions from the deficit.

Ultimately, a grand bargain was out of reach. Boehner said today that the president "moved the goalposts, changed his stance and demanded tax hikes."

"We ended up enacting a package with cuts and reforms larger than the hike," Boehner added. "But it could have been so much more. The letdown was considerable. And, in turn, our nation's credit rating was downgraded for the first time."

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(CBS News) Third party groups have been heavily backing a conservative candidate in Nebraska's Republican Senate primary -- and they may manage to take down the establishment pick today. However, their candidate could lose, too.

For some time, the GOP Senate primary looked like a fight between Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, the establishment favorite, and State Treasurer Don Stenberg. In recent days, however, a third candidate -- State Sen. Deb Fischer -- has gained traction.

It appears as if the expensive mud-slinging between Bruning and Stenberg could have helped Fischer. And in the final days of the primary campaign, Fischer has secured her own wealthy backer, as well as the support of big names like Sarah Palin.

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(CBS News) In 1994, Mitt Romney was a political rookie and the economy was booming -- a far cry from today's political and economic conditions. Still, President Obama's re-election campaign is turning to tactics used against Romney in 1994 to attack the Republican candidate in this year's presidential race.

The Obama campaign on Monday launched a multi-pronged attack against Romney's record as the head of Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded. The line of attack is not surprising: It strikes at the heart of Romney's chief selling point -- his business experience and economic expertise.

Romney's record at Bain was subject to attacks during the Republican primary, but the candidate has been facing similar attacks since his 1994 Senate race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts.

In the ad the Obama campaign launched today, workers from GST Steel criticize Bain Capital for its takeover of the company. "It was like a vampire. They came in and sucked the life out of us," Jack Cobb says in the ad.

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