Romney launches, warning U.S. 'inches away from ceasing to be a free market' – Greenberg poll: Dems gain on economy – Obama camp sets $60M quarterly goal – Palin heads to N.H.

(jhohmann@politico.com ) and (aburns@politico.com )

THE ROMNEY ANNOUNCEMENT – T MINUS 6 HOURS – Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will brand himself as the GOP’s jobs candidate when he announces for president today, kicking off his 2012 campaign with a warning that the United States is “only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy.” In prepared remarks shared with Morning Score, Romney pledges: “Government under President Obama has grown to consume almost 40% of our economy … I will cap federal spending at 20% or less of the GDP and finally, finally balance the budget … From my first day in office my number one job will be to see that America once again is number one in job creation.”

MORE FROM THE SPEECH – ENGAGING OBAMA: “A few years ago, Americans did something that was, actually, very much the sort of thing Americans like to do: We gave someone new a chance to lead; someone we hadn't known for very long, who didn't have much of a record but promised to lead us to a better place. At the time, we didn't know what sort of a President he would make. It was a moment of crisis for our economy, and when Barack Obama came to office, we wished him well and hoped for the best. Now, in the third year of his four-year term, we have more than promises and slogans to go by. Barack Obama has failed America.”

AND TACKLING HEALTH CARE: “I will insist that Washington learns to respect the constitution, including the 10th amendment. We will return responsibility and authority to the states for dozens of government programs – and that begins with a complete repeal of Obamacare.”

THE TAKEAWAY – A senior Romney adviser explains what the folks in Boston are driving at: “When President Obama was elected, we wondered what it would be like to elect a president with no experience, and now we know. Mitt Romney, from a lifetime spent in the private sector, has the skills and the ability to lead an economic turnaround.”

JMART RAISES THE CURTAIN – “New Hampshire: Mitt Romney’s must-win state” – “Like McCain, who defeated him there four years ago, the former Massachusetts governor has a gold-plated organization stocked with New Hampshire primary veterans, enjoys universal name identification and owns a bank full of political goodwill … Such strong positioning, however, is accompanied by high expectations.” http://politi.co/ip7576  

DEMS ATTACK – PREEMPTIVE STRIKE – The Democratic National Committee has prepared a video hitting Romney as a candidate who can’t stick to his positions … on health care, the stimulus, the bank and auto bailouts and more. The tag line: “Romney 2012. Same candidate. Different positions. Again.” Watch the 100-second hit here: http://bit.ly/juKRUU  

As Andy Parrish moves, Wolf Blitzer comes prepared and you take your best shots at explaining Sarah Palin’s week, here’s POLITICO’s Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.

FIRST IN SCORE – TOSS-UP ON THE ECONOMY – Democrats have reclaimed the narrowest of edges with voters when it comes to jobs and the economy, according to a presentation prepared by Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg. Greenberg’s holding a conference call at 1 p.m. to outline results from a new national poll his firm – Greenberg Quinlan Rosner – conducted for Democracy Corps. Some early takeaways: 

(1) Between April and May, Democrats gained 9 points against the GOP on who voters trust to handle the economy, going from a 38-46 percent disadvantage to a 42-41 percent statistical tie. On handling the deficit, Republicans still have a 9-point advantage. 

(2) Contrary to the GOP’s belief, Democracy Corps numbers will make the case that the political debate isn’t all about fiscal conservatism: Voters also care about the squeeze on the middle class (rising costs, declining incomes.) 

(3) Greenberg will argue that Democrats need a forward-looking message for 2012, and can’t try to relitigate 2008: “Paradoxically, Democrats must forget the past and the financial crisis. That is counter-intuitive and painful because conservative policies were so destructive and Democrats did right and brave things. Voters understand this more than you appreciate, but that is at least three years ago now, and voters think a focus on that misses the country’s urgent current reality. They want to serious plans, not triumphalism about jobs reports.”

SNEAK PEEK AT GREENBERG’S PRESENTATION: http://politi.co/lgvIok  ; full results and memo coming this afternoon at www.democracycorps.com  

POPPING OVERNIGHT – POLITICO editor-in-chief John Harris writes: “The spotlight’s hitting something that’s been known to change the weather: It is our new 2012 Live politics blog, co-authored by two people who were born for this assignment: Maggie Haberman and Alex Burns … Its mission is to provide the best running narration of the 2012 presidential coverage anywhere on the Web, with a regular flow of reported items and analysis … Maggie's a veteran of the New York Post, where she was New York's dominant political reporter before bringing her deep understanding and extraordinary source network to POLITICO last year. Alex, who joined us in 2008, has distinguished himself repeatedly as the first editor of the 44 and 2010 pages, and as the creator of Morning Score.” Find it here: http://www.politico.com/2012-election/  

OBAMA’S QUARTER – $60 MILLION? The president’s finance team is aiming to bring in $60 million before the second quarter ends this month – an expectations-setting number that’s likely to swamp the GOP field. AP had the news: “Two people familiar with the fundraising goal said it was part of a presentation in Chicago on Wednesday to top Democratic fundraisers … Obama raised $750 million in 2008, and his advisers have privately told donors that they hope to match the amount or exceed it.” http://bit.ly/iXzIOT  

THE PALIN TOUR – COLLISION COURSE – Mitt Romney is going to have some company in New Hampshire today, the Union Leader’s John DiStaso reports: “Palin's staff has reached out to a number of New Hampshire Republicans for a clambake on New Hampshire's Seacoast … It will be Palin's first visit to the Granite State, home of the first-in-the-nation primary, since the fall of 2008, when she was running for vice president.” http://bit.ly/lEDJeL  

ASKED AND ANSWERED – SORTA: We wondered yesterday if any Morning Score readers could make the case that Palin is helping herself, politically, with this bus tour. A few of you rose to the challenge and we’re grateful for all the responses, including …

- New Hampshire RNC Committeeman Steve Duprey: “If she decides to run she will certainly have revved up her base and gotten people excited- let's face it- she is interesting and refreshing and unorthodox. Just by taking the tour she forced Representative Bachmann to spend her entire last week explaining how she and Governor Palin were not competitors or fighting for the same base of voters. Her tour quickly started to drown out the serious news and very successful announcement by Tim Pawlenty.”

- Democratic media strategist Rich Davis: “If the other GOPers could command this kind of attention merely by hopping on a bus and putting it on cruise control, I-95 would look like a Greyhound terminal. P.T. Barnum said, ‘Without promotion, something terrible happens: Nothing!’ And with ‘frontrunner’ Romney at a whopping 17%, Palin's betting something is better than nothing.”

- Washington attorney and Palin friend John Coale: “To answer your snarky question about Palin's bus tour, it sucked all the oxygen out of the rep. contest over memorial day. The rest of the field were buried by her. But I guess you inside the b-way boys get your news from each other at the latest book party you attended thinking reporting is coming up with the snarkious comments you can.”

PLUS – AT THE MOTHERSHIP – Palin stopped at Fox News for about 90 minutes in New York yesterday, according to CNN’s Peter Hamby. In a statement after the meeting, Fox’s executive vice president for programming, Bill Shine, confirmed: “Right now there is no change in her status with Fox News.” http://bit.ly/kdGiRA  and http://politi.co/lyHvQ0  

PAWLENTY HEARTS N.H. – COMMITS TO DEBATE: Tim Pawlenty has announced that he’ll participate in the June 13 WMUR/CNN/Union Leader debate, calling it another opportunity to “tell the hard truths necessary to restore American prosperity.” And he officially rolled out his New Hampshire campaign team, featuring state director Sarah Crawford Stewart, political director Peter Towey, field reps Luke Kraus, Robert Simpson, Nick Trainer and Elissa Voccola. Erin Lamontagne – as in Ovide – is office manager. http://politi.co/iGXbDD  

MINNESOTA TWINS – WHO’S THE SPOILER? Your Morning Score correspondent takes stock of the emerging tension between Pawlenty and his fellow Minnesotan, Michele Bachmann, reporting: “Privately, inside Pawlenty’s orbit there’s a sense that the former governor is the methodical tortoise to Bachmann’s flashy hare. ‘There’s not a fatalistic sense, but she’s sure a pain in the ass,’ one Pawlenty insider said. ‘Three months ago we were hoping Michele was just a flash in the pan so, no doubt, we’ve had to sober up around the possibility that she could get in and beat him; … ‘She gets frustrated with Tim, that he’s not as much “charge from the seat of your pants,” and Tim looks at Michele and thinks she’s too seat of her pants,’ said former Bachmann chief of staff Ron Carey, who chaired Minnesota’s Republican Party during four of Pawlenty’s years as governor … ‘Her emotionally charged campaign is going to steal enough votes early in the process that it opens a pathway for someone like Romney.’” http://politi.co/l7eoFd  

ON NYT FRONT, AGAIN – Pawlenty gets another extended treatment from Jeff Zeleny, who writes that in Iowa there’s “a growing sense among party activists interviewed here over two days that the presidential campaign needed to be treated with a greater seriousness and urgency.” http://nyti.ms/jxKGXe  

AND – BACHMANN PREPS: In what the Star Tribune calls the “clearest sign yet that [she] is going to run for president,” Michele Bachmann is moving her chief of staff into a new, as-yet-unannounced role. From the paper: “[Andy] Parrish, in an e-mail to Bachmann staffers, did not come out and say what his new position would be, but it’s likely he will become campaign manager for Bachmann’s presidential bid. ‘I will be able to tell you more about what I am doing in the near future,’ he wrote.” http://bit.ly/lumkHy  

THE CALIFORNIA SPECIAL – WHERE PELOSI HELPS: The former House speaker will publicly embrace Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn at a low-dollar fundraiser next Wednesday, as Hahn campaigns for the open 36th District House seat. Democrats have been rallying around Hahn since Republican Craig Huey unexpectedly edged out Secretary of State Deb Bowen for a place in the runoff in the deep-blue coastal district. Sen. Barbara Boxer became the latest prominent Dem to back Hahn on Wednesday. Hahn’s event with Pelosi is also notable since the two have notably different relationships with former Rep. Jane Harman – Hahn is close to the woman she’s aiming to the replace, while Pelosi is famously not.

THE ONE YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR – WEINER, TWISTING IN THE WIND: The New York Post whips out the “embattled” label for Rep. Anthony Weiner, wrapping up another set of disastrously bad interviews: “Asked in several TV interviews [Wednesday] afternoon whether he could confirm or deny if the crotch shot was his, Weiner said, ‘I can't say with certitude’ … Weiner's Twitter followers were exposed last Friday to a below-the-waist image of an aroused man's boxer-briefs [that] had been sent to 21-year-old Gennette Nicole Cordova of Seattle … At one point, [Wolf] Blitzer showed him a picture of the crotch shot several times when asking him about the incident. ‘I appreciate you flashing that at me,’ Weiner deadpanned. Weiner refused to say whether he sent personal messages to Cordova.” http://nyp.st/jnZWWu  

CODA – QUOTE OF THE DAY: “How much shadenfreude is happening because of this? A lot.” – A Democratic staffer, on Anthony Weiner, to POLITICO’s Ben Smith http://politi.co/lJqA5f