(CBS News) If members of Congress hadn't "skipped town" last week, President Obama said in a particularly pointed weekly address, U.S. veterans would be enjoying a strengthened job corps, farmers would have the means to respond to natural disasters like the recent Midwest drought, homeowners would be saving an extra $3,000 a year on their mortgages, and 98 percent of Americans would have peace of mind that their taxes won't be raised on Jan. 1.

"Last week, without much fanfare, Members of the House of Representatives banged a gavel, turned out the lights, and rushed home, declaring their work finished for now. If that frustrates you, it should - because their work isn't finished," the president said. "Apparently, some Members of Congress are more worried about their jobs and their paychecks this campaign season than they are about yours."

For nearly three minutes, the president reprimanded members of the House - Republicans, specifically - for leaving a mountain of unfinished business on their desks when they adjourned Friday after only eight days in session. He cited bills which, if passed, would provide emergency response aid to farmers, help veterans find jobs after returning from service, and allow homeowners to refinance "at historically low rates."

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(CBS News) Mitt Romney's comment that 47 percent of Americans won't vote for him because they consider themselves "victims" in need of government support suggests he hasn't "gotten around a lot," President Obama said of the GOP nominee Thursday during Univision's "Meet the Candidates" forum in Coral Gables, Fla.

Less than 24 hours since Romney took the "Univision" hot seat, attempting to explain away the secretly recorded remarks and convince voters that his campaign "is about the 100 percent," moderator Jorge Ramos took the opportunity to ask the president during his turn about who he thinks is "the real Mitt Romney." After joining the audience in laughing at the question, Mr. Obama said that inquiry "is better directed to Mr. Romney - but I will say this: When you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims - that somehow they want to be dependent on government - my thinking is, maybe you haven't gotten around a lot."

Arguing for the American people as "the hardest working people there are," the president said the reason some end up on government assistance is not because "they're not working hard enough, or they don't want to work, or they're being taxed too little, or they just want to loaf around and gather government checks. We've gone through a challenging time. People want a hand up, not a handout.

"Are there people who abuse the system? Yes - both at the bottom and at the top," he continued. "Because there are a whole bunch of millionaires who aren't paying taxes at all, either." On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested Romney was among those who don't pay income tax.

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Updated 11:07 PM ET

(CBS News) SARASOTA, Fla. - In his latest broadside against President Obama, Mitt Romney on Thursday characterized a remark by the president that "you can't change Washington from the inside" as an acknowledgment of weakness - a charge that Obama's campaign said was "wildly" out of context.

Appearing at a forum sponsored by the Spanish-language network Univision on the heels of Romney's earlier appearance, Obama reflected on his inability to change the tone in Washington.

"I think that I've learned some lessons over the last four years, and the most important lesson I've learned is that you can't change Washington from the inside, you can only change it from the outside," Obama said. "That's how I got elected, and that's how the big accomplishments like health care got done - [it] was because we mobilized the American people to speak out. That's how we were able to cut taxes for middle-class families."

Romney, campaigning in Sarasota, said that his rival "threw in the white flag of surrender again. He said he can't change Washington from inside, he can only change it from outside."

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(CBS News) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Wednesday spent nearly seven minutes on the Senate floor attacking Mitt Romney's "47 percent" remarks and once again demanding the GOP nominee release more of his tax returns. 

A recently released video, taped secretly during a fundraiser in Florida, captures Romney declaring that that 47 percent of Americans consider themselves "victims" and will never be convinced by Republicans to "take personal responsibility and care for their lives." Reciting a segment of the remarks, Reid read Romney's comment that "These are the people who pay no income tax."

"For all we know, Mitt Romney could be one of those who have paid no federal income tax," Reid said Wednesday. "Thousands of families making more than $1 million pay nothing in federal income taxes each year... Is Mitt Romney among those? We'll never know, since he refuses to release tax returns from the years before he was running for president.

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(CBS News) Challenging "economic conservatives and libertarian types who say, 'Oh we don't want to talk about the social issues,'" former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., told the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, "Without the church and the family, there is no conservative movement, there is no basic values in America enforced, and there is no future for our country."

Greeted by a wildly enthusiastic standing ovation, Santorum - considered the "social issues" candidate in the 2012 Republican presidential primary and, until his departure from the race in April, the last serious threat to Mitt Romney for the party's nomination - said that in spite of Romney's proclaimed tunnel-focus on the economy, "there's a lot more at stake than just economics."

Piggy-backing off his former stump speech (during which he often cited a restoration of the traditional family unit as the way to a stronger economy), Santorum tried to make the case Saturday that the church and family are the only dependable backbones of the conservative movement. "We will never have the media on our side - ever, in this country," he said. "We will never have the elite, smart people on our side."

Santorum, who once called Romney the "worst Republican in the country to go up against Barack Obama" because of Romney's health care record as governor of Massachusetts, said he worries Americans, deterred by "such an acrimonious election," won't vote in November. Arguing that President Obama "doesn't believe in families and churches and communities," he called on "fellow believers of America's creed" to get out the vote for Romney.

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(CBS News) As the United States mourns the deaths of four Americans killed in Libya this week, President Obama said that the United States "must also send a clear and resolute message to the world: those who attack our people will find no escape from justice."

In his weekly address Mr. Obama saluted the four killed Tuesday as representing "the very best of our country." The president individually acknowledged each of the four American diplomats, who were honored at a ceremony at Joint Base Andrews on Friday, following what Mr. Obama called an "outrageous attack" on a U.S. consulate in Libya earlier this week.

Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, both former Navy SEALs, "died as they lived their lives - defending their fellow Americans, and advancing the values that all of us hold dear," Mr. Obama said. Sean Smith, who formerly served in the Air Force, went on to work for the State Department, "always answering his country's call." And Ambassador Chris Stevens, the president continued, "died a hero in two countries": the United States and Libya, "a country that he helped to save, where he ultimately laid down his life."

"This tragic attack takes place at a time of turmoil and protest in many different countries," Mr. Obama said. "I have made it clear that the United States has a profound respect for people of all faiths. We stand for religious freedom, and we reject the denigration of any religion - including Islam. Yet there is never any justification for violence. There is no religion that condones the targeting of innocent men and women. There is no excuse for attacks on our Embassies and Consulates."

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(CBS News) She may have been "fiery" and "electric" on stage at the Democratic National Convention last week, but as a contestant on "The Dating Game" in 1978, former Michigan governor-turned-talk show host Jennifer Granholm was described as "cute and curvaceous."

Newly unearthed video shows a 19-year-old Granholm - now host of the liberal show, "The War Room with Jennifer Granholm" on Current TV - sporting the decade's signature Farrah Fawcett-inspired mane and a pair of suspenders. After introducing the then-aspiring actress as a lover of "theater, the ice, and the great outdoors," the host, Jim Lange, asks, "Is it crazy time?" Granholm: "Oh, you betcha!"

Granholm has recently risen to the tops of news feeds for her animated - perhaps overly so, some political consultants have said - and passionate address to the DNC in Charlotte, N.C., last week, during which she lambasted GOP nominee Mitt Romney and championed President Obama's actions during the Detroit auto industry bailout. Her wild arm gestures and often thunderous volume immediately drew over 500,000 people to YouTube to watch replays of the speech, which has been compared to the scream that foiled Howard Dean's White house dreams in 2004.

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(CBS News) Ahead of the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Obama in his weekly address cited Osama bin Laden's killing, New York's new One World Trade Center, and the end of the war in Iraq as examples of "just how far we've come as a nation."

Remembering the nearly 3,000 Americans who died that day, and the emergency first responders who leapt to action, the president said, "This anniversary is about them."

"On that clear September morning, as America watched the towers fall and the Pentagon burn and the wreckage smoldering in a Pennsylvania field, we were filled with questions," Mr. Obama said. "Where had the attacks come from, and how would America respond? Would they fundamentally weaken the country we love? Would they change who we are?

"The last decade has been a difficult one, but together, we have answered those questions, and come back stronger as a nation."

Nodding to "the courage and skill of our intelligence personnel and armed forces," Mr. Obama noted the death of the al Qaeda leader who orchestrated the attacks, which was carried out last year by a Navy SEALs team, on the president's order. "Osama bin Laden will never threaten America again," he said.

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(CBS News) No matter what Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan says about the nation being "in decline," President Obama said Saturday, "there's not a country on Earth that wouldn't gladly trade places with the United States of America."

"When our opponents say this nation is in decline, they are dead wrong - this is America," the president said, drawing cheers from a spirited rally crowd in Seminole, Fla., the first stop of his two-day bus tour through the critical battleground state.

Earlier this week, Ryan said the growing federal debt renders the United States a country "in decline."

President Obama refuted Ryan: "No matter what the naysayers may say for political reasons, no matter how dark they try to make everything look, we still have the best workers in the world and the best entrepreneurs in the world. We've got the best scientists and the best researchers. We've got the best colleges and the best universities. We are a young nation with the greatest diversity of talent and ingenuity from every corner of the globe."

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(CBS News) CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Mitt Romney had Clint Eastwood, Jon Voight, and skeet shooting Olympic gold medalist Kim Rhode; President Obama has Scarlett Johansson, Kim Kardashian, and Olympic gymnastics all-around champion Gabby Douglas.

During his headline-dominating GOP convention speech in Tampa last week, Eastwood tried to make the case that despite conventional wisdom, a lot of Hollywood veterans vote Republican - they just "do not go around hot-dogging it." Indeed, during the course of his nominating ceremony, Romney scored stage appearances by a handful of other former Olympic athletes, including Rowdy Gaines, Scott Hamilton, and Mike Eruzione. Former Saturday Night Live cast member Victoria Jackson roamed the halls of the Tampa Bay Times Forum, peddling a conservative take on the Rep. Todd Akin controversy.

"Former" celebrities were the name of the game for Romney, and they embodied "the very definition of the word, 'conservative,'" said Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University's pop culture center.

"I'm sure the question of the week for a lot of people was: Is this the best the Republicans can do - asked with multiple question marks and maybe an exclamation point," Thompson said. "Their lineup certainly didn't seem like forward thinking, but then again that's not how they framed their message. There are a lot of things they voted on in their platform that some would argue doesn't reflect forward thinking, either."

On the other hand, the guest list for speaking slots and after-parties at the Democratic convention in Charlotte this week has boasted names from Kal Penn to Eva Longoria to Pitbull to Ashley Judd, who's attending as a Tennessee delegate. America Ferrera and Rosario Dawson cruised the convention floor Thursday. Riding the hype of last month's Olympic games, Gabby Douglas was invited to lead the session Wednesday in the Pledge of Allegiance, after appearing with other 2012 Olympic gold medalists in a kids' health event down the street that was "unaffiliated," if opportunely timed, with the DNC.

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(CBS News) CHARLOTTE, N.C. -Vice President Joe Biden suited up his familiar attire as attack dog Thursday night, leaving nothing to the imagination on the "completely different value set" and "vastly different visions" between President Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

After officially accepting the nomination for a second term, Biden blew past his allotted 30 minutes to speak and said he wanted to use his speech to "take you inside the White House," where he said he's seen the president demonstrate incomparable courage in his decision-making, just as the "average American" makes "equally as consequential" decisions at his or her kitchen table. On everything from the auto industry bailout to the hunt for Osama bin Laden to Medicare to the DREAM Act, Biden tried to make the president's case as more qualified than Romney because of his "profound concern for the average American."

While Romney and Mr. Obama are "both loving husbands, both loving fathers," Biden, in signature tongue-in-cheek style, said he "found it fascinating last week, when Gov. Romney said that as president, he'd take a jobs tour. Well with all his support for outsourcing, it's going to have to be a foreign trip," he continued to an eruption of laughter and applause, alluding to Romney's former company Bain Capital's history with shipping jobs overseas. But Mr. Obama, Biden continued, "knows that creating jobs in America, keeping jobs in America, and bringing jobs back to America, is what the president's job is all about."

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(CBS News) CHARLOTTE, N.C - As part of a Democratic effort to portray Mitt Romney's former company Bain Capital as an enemy of the working class, three former employees of companies owned by the private investment firm took the stage at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday to criticize the Republican presidential nominee's business record.

"When Mitt Romney talks about his business experience, remember - it's not experience creating good-paying jobs; it is experience cutting jobs," said Cindy Hewitt, a former employee of Bain-shuttered company Dade Behring. "It is experience shutting plants. It is experience making millions by making life tougher for hard-working Americans."

"Of course I understand that some companies succeed and others are not - that's the way our economy works," she continued. "But it's wrong when dedicated, productive employees feel the pain while folks like Mitt Romney make profits."

Romney has staked his campaign in part on his experience in the private sector. But his controversial history with Bain, including a muddied timeline at the company and its involvement with shipping jobs overseas, has made that record a target for President Obama's reelection campaign.

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(CBS News) Democrats shouldn't follow Michelle Obama's lead when it comes to paying attention to the Republican National Convention proceedings in Tampa, Fla., the first lady said in an appearance Wednesday on CBS' "Late Show" with David Letterman.

"I, as the wife of the guy they're running against, I tend not to watch it," she said in the interview, which aired shortly after Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., accepted the GOP presidential nomination. "But I think it's important for everyone to watch these conventions, because this is the time you get to know the party, you understand the platform, you understand the candidates.

"You know, this is technically where the campaign begins," she continued. "So I think it's very important for everyone to watch as much of both conventions as possible to make their decisions."

Just days before her own party's convention kicks off in Charlotte, N.C., Mrs. Obama said she's "one of the few people" who's not yet been worn down by the campaign season. "Being out there really does pump me back up," she said.

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(CBS News) TAMPA, Fla. - Former President George W. Bush will be remembered fondly for his handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, members of the Bush family said in a tribute video shown here Wednesday at the Republican National Convention. Mr. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush - the country's last two GOP presidents - did not make the trip to Tampa for convention festivities.

"I hope people remember George, and I think they will, for having the determination and the toughness and the persistence to be able to see... our country through such a very difficult time after the [9/11] terrorist attack," Laura Bush said of her husband, whose image, polls show, has gradually begun to improve after he left office with the worst public approval rating since Watergate. The former first lady was seated in the video next to her mother-in-law and another former first lady, Barbara Bush.

"There was never a taint of scandal around his presidency," Bush 41 said of his son. "And I think we forget the importance of that. But they'll remember him for being a good, honest president that got a lot of things done, but I think the thing I take pride in is integrity."

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