By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

President Obama’s total assets in 2011 were as high as $8.3 million in 2011, according to an annual financial disclosure filing released by the White House Tuesday. Much of the president’s wealth is in the form of US Treasury bills and notes, which total between $1.6 million and $6.25 million. The Obamas also have $500,001 to $1 million in a checking account at JPMorgan Chase, the bank currently under FBI scrutiny for a $2 billion trading loss.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

Mitt Romney cast President Obama as an enemy of capitalism Tuesday in a speech at Drake University, calling the president an “old-school liberal whose first instinct is to see free enterprise as the villain and government as the hero.” They were new words set to a familiar tune. Romney repeated an earlier promise to cap federal spending at 20 percent of GDP, vowed again to repeal Obama’s signature health care law and said he would reform Medicare and Social Security.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

Americans Elect, the well-funded nonprofit that in 27 states obtained a ballot position for a third-party presidential candidate, was forced to admit Tuesday that it has no candidate. The group’s plan was for voters to pick an independent candidate -- or one with a running mate from the opposite party -- via the Internet. Americans Elect chief executive Kahlil Byrd indicated in a statement that the group may seek to nominate a candidate in some alternative fashion.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

A day after the Obama campaign released an ad attacking Mitt Romney’s business record, a super PAC supporting the president’s reelection unveiled a similar ad Tuesday focusing on the same Missouri steel company and running in four of the same states. But the 30-second spot produced by Priorities USA Action relies, in part, on the dubious assertion that Bain Capital always turned a profit, no matter what happened to the businesses in which it invested.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

Mitt Romney has taken a slim lead over President Obama, with two-thirds of Americans believing Obama endorsed same-sex marriage for political reasons, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll published Tuesday. Romney holds a 46-percent-to-43-percent advantage over the president, but the Republican’s 3-point edge is within the survey’s margin of error. The monthly poll showed the two candidates tied in April, after Obama led in February and March.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Speaking to state and national audiences, Governor Deval Patrick today defended the idea of government ensuring near universal health care, even as he called on lawmakers, health care providers, and the business community to work jointly on controlling its cost. The twin targets reflected his role both as leader of the state and a top surrogate speaker for President Obama. The Democratic incumbent is defending his federal health care overhaul from criticism by Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

His friendship with President Obama has sparked talk of a Cabinet appointment should the Democrats retain the White House this fall. His travel to presidential primary states and book-writing have prompted speculation about his own presidential candidacy in 2016 should Obama lose. And some time away from the office has fueled the opinion he’s lost interest in his current job. An amused-but-exasperated Governor Deval Patrick today has an answer for all the chatter: “I’m not going anywhere.”

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Elizabeth Warren, trying to ride her reputation as a Wall Street enforcer to the US Senate, today released a new radio ad calling for enhanced government regulation in the aftermath of JPMorgan Chase’s $2 billion trading loss. “I stood up to big banks. I took on their army of lobbyists and help win the fight for a consumer protection agency,” the Democrat says in the new spot. “Wall Street isn’t going to change its ways until Washington gets serious.”

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

The Obama campaign Monday unleashed its first ad attacking Mitt Romney’s record as Bain Capital executive. The two-minute ad -- to begin running in the key battleground states of Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Virginia -- is coupled with a six-minute video featuring the story of GST Steel, a 105-year-old steel mill in Kansas City, Missouri that Bain purchased in 1993, saddled with debt, and shuttered eight years later after Romney and his partners reaped handsome profits.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, discussed as a potential Republican vice presidential pick, chided presumptive nominee Mitt Romney when she knocked his immigration strategy in an interview published Monday. “ ‘Self-deport?’ What the heck does that mean?” Martinez said, referring to a plan Romney outlined in January. “The answer is self-deportation, which is people decide they can do better by going home because they can’t find work here,” Romney said at the time.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

Ron Paul announced Monday that he will not spend money campaigning in upcoming primary states, focusing instead on building an influential presence at the RNC in August. Paul recently earned sympathetic delegates by blitzing state conventions in Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada with supporters. Many of the delegates are obligated to vote for Romney at the national convention but support Paul’s libertarian principles. Paul said these delegates will “carry a strong message ... that liberty is the way of the future.”

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren today called on JPMorgan Chase chief executive officer Jamie Dimon to resign from New York Federal Reserve Bank board after his company’s $2 billion trading loss. Three top traders at the firm are being replaced today. Warren spoke with CNN and CBS about the latest Wall Street crisis, calling it a symptom of a destructive attitude. She said that banks should get back in the business of old fashioned banking, rather than the complex business transactions.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

President Obama’s endorsement of legal same-sex marriage is likely to resonate with young voters and women, two blocs where Obama is already strong, a new Gallup poll indicates. Support among voters between the ages of 18 and 34 is at 66 percent -- 19 points higher than in the 35 to 54 age group. The gap between men and women is 14 points, with 56 percent of female voters saying they support legal same-sex marriage.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

Governor Deval Patrick and Representative Barney Frank on Sunday downplayed the politics of President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage last week. The assertions of the Massachusetts Democrats are contested by some observers who believe Obama’s announcement was dictated by political strategy and that it could make a difference in certain states on Election Day. But Romney and other Republicans have minimized the gay marriage debate, perhaps sensing that it ranks lowly on most voters’ priority lists.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

Governor Deval Patrick praised President Obama for his “clear and principled position” Sunday, four days after Obama became the first president to endorse same-sex marriage. “It’s about convictions; it’s not about politics,” Patrick said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Patrick also tried to undermine Romney’s number one selling point -- that he would manage the nation’s economic recovery better than the president.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

The Romney campaign on Sunday released a Mother’s Day video tribute to the candidate’s wife, Ann. While the four-minute video features all five Romney sons praising their mother’s patience and love, in spite of their boisterousness, it does not include comments from Mitt Romney or any stories about the presumptive Republican nominee’s rambunctious behavior. The campaign is no longer highlighting Mitt Romney’s pranks, after The Washington Post reported Thursday that as a teenager Romney bullied a gay schoolmate.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick’s much-vaunted surrogate speaking on behalf of President Obama has largely been limited to the kind of party activist speeches he will deliver tonight when he addresses a Democratic dinner in South Carolina. But his higher value may be on display Sunday, when he appears on the CBS program “Face the Nation” to discuss President Obama’s gay marriage switch this week. He leads Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage. His predecessor, Mitt Romney, opposes it.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Mitt Romney on Saturday is giving the commencement address at the conservative Liberty University, offering him a chance to woo social and religious conservatives who have long been skeptical of him. “I’m not sure quite why, but lately I’ve found myself thinking about life in four-year stretches,” he plans to say, according to several excerpts released by the Romney campaign this morning. Romney advisers said on Thursday that Romney was unlikely to dwell on the gay marriage debate

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

The Obama campaign plans to release a new television ad in New Hampshire this week that highlights how the resurgence of the American auto industry has helped retore economic security to middle class families in the state. The campaign, citing statistics from the Center for Automotive Research, said the auto industry supports over 23,000 jobs in New Hampshire, a full 2.7 percent of the state’s workforce.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

A day after President Obama became the first holder of the Oval Office to endorse same-sex marriage, presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney is being accused of bullying a student believed to be gay during the 1960s. The Washington Post -- citing five of Romney’s fellow students at the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. -- reported Thursday that Romney led a posse that pinned down another boy while Romney, himself, cut the boy’s bleached-blond hair, which usually draped over one eye.