President Obama and Bruce Springsteen today. (Photo: Getty)

In a conference call this afternoon, President Barack Obama's re-election campaign had one central message for their supporters when Election Day arrives tomorrow: They should "keep calm," even if they hear snippets of information favoring Republican Mitt Romney.

"My warning, we need to stay calm for much of the day," Stephanie Cutter, Mr. Obama's deputy campaign manager, said, touting thousands of early ballots already submitted by voters. "We've already banked a pretty big portion of our vote."

The fear, she explained, was early numbers leaking before voters have finished going to the polls, creating unnecessary panic and pessimism among Democrats.

"Keep calm and tweet on," Ms. Cutter said. "So, no matter what you hear tomorrow about turnout in Republican counties or exit polls, particularly early in the day, please remember and remind your readers that, because of early votes, we're where we need to be to win....I don't think there's going to be official exits until the end of the day, but if things leak out that aren't validated or weighted, please stay calm."

Paul Ryan. (Photo: YouTube)

With the vice presidential debate set for tonight in Danville, Ky., the Obama campaign waged a pre-emptive strike on Paul Ryan this morning. In a memo to reporters and a new web video out this morning, the Obama campaign has highlighted "misleading" statements Mr. Ryan has made in the past and asked whether he will use a "dishonest strategy" in tonight's debate or if he will be frank about the "extreme" conservative positions he advocated in Congress before being tapped for the Republican presidential ticket.

"We now know that Mitt Romney will say anything to win, even if it’s not true – just like he did in Massachusetts and in the boardroom," Obama for America Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter wrote in a memo to "interested parties." "The question now is whether Ryan will adopt the same dishonest strategy or if he’ll stand by the very extreme positions he’s taken as the 'intellectual leader' of the Republican Party."

In the memo, Ms. Cutter highlighted a series of "false claims" she said Mr. Ryan has made in the past, including: that President Barack Obama cut $716 billion from Medicare, that the president shut down a GM plant in Mr. Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wis., the Romney campaign's repeated denials that their tax plan involves a $5 trillion cut and Mr. Ryan not mentioning he opposed the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan while accusing President Obama of dismissing the same plan.

Ms. Cutter framed her characterization of Mr. Ryan as a "dishonest" politician by taking note of his most high-profile and inarguable fib--his false claim that he ran a marathon in under three hours.

"As we’ve already seen in everything from his fact-free convention speech to his exaggerated marathon time, Ryan isn’t afraid to skirt the truth," she wrote.

The Obama campaign doubled down on its attack on Mr. Ryan with a video entitled "Paul Ryan and His Many Methods of Misrepresentation" mocking the Republican vice presidential for engaging in "The Seven Habits of Highly Misleading People." This two-pronged assault accusing Mr. Ryan of dishonesty is a clear effort by the Obama campaign to head off any potential attempt by Mitt Romney's running mate to tack toward the center as Mr. Romney did in his successful presidential debate appearance last week. In various statements this week, the Obama campaign has maintained Mr. Romney was only able to accomplish this more moderate pitch by being dishonest about his past positions and campaign platforms.

Watch the Obama campaign's video about Mr. Ryan below.

President Obama (Photo: Getty)

This morning, the Romney campaign began what they described as a weeklong offensive accusing President Barack Obama of trying to "gut" President Bill Clinton's 1996 welfare reform plan. Team Obama fired back this afternoon by bringing out Obama For America Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter and President Clinton's former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta for a press conference call in which they described the Romney campaign's welfare attack as "completely false." Mr. Podesta also said he spoke to President Clinton about the situation and they were both in agreement that President Obama's policies are "consistent" with the original vision for welfare reform.

The accusation President Obama is attempting to reverse President Clinton's welfare reform stems from a directive issued last month by the Department of Health and Human Services that allowed states to apply for waivers lowering the requirements for people to qualify for assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. These requirements include things like job training programs and attendance in secondary school. A Romney campaign ad focusing on the issue argued these waivers amount to "a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements" and end President Clinton's vision of "requiring work for welfare."

“Under Obama’s plan, you wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check and welfare to work goes back to being plain old welfare,” a narrator says in the ad.

On this afternoon's call, Ms. Cutter argued the waivers merely allow states flexibility to find the "welfare to work programs that are best for them" in the difficult economic climate. She also said "the waivers can't be used to weaken welfare reform" because "states that get waivers have to increase job placement by 20 percent."

This isn't the first time the Romney campaign has tried to pit President Obama and President Clinton against each other. Because of this, on this afternoon's call, Mr. Podesta was asked whether he felt Mitt Romney has more in common with President Clinton than President Obama does. He said he thinks President Obama's welfare policies are "quite consistent" with President Clinton's vision of welfare reform.

"I'm always happy when people embrace the new Democratic policies of Bill Clinton, I just wish they'd tell the truth when they do that," said Mr. Podesta. "I think that the Obama administration is trying to administer this program in a way--in tougher economic conditions, in fact--in a way that's trying to accomplish that goal, which is to give people the dignity of a job. And in that context, I think it's quite consistent with President Clinton's, kind of, theory of the case."

Mr. Podesta also assured the reporters on the call that his defense of President Obama had President Clinton's blessing.

"In advance of this call, I did have the opportunity to...check in with the president and he completely agrees with my analysis of this," Mr. Podesta said.

Mitt Romney (Photo: Getty)

This morning's edition of the Boston Globe contained a report that "government documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital say Romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control" bolstering the Obama campaign's argument that Mr. Romney was responsible for outsourcing that occurred at Bain. The Globe article came just as the Romney campaign released a new ad describing the outsourcing claims as "dishonest." Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith responded with a statement saying, "Romney’s False Ad Is Based On His Big Bain Lie."

"Mitt Romney’s ad is based on the false premise that he left Bain Capital in February 1999, an assertion that today’s Boston Globe and official documents filed with the SEC and the State of Massachusetts demonstrate is just not true," Ms. Smith said. "The fact is that Romney, despite his big Bain lie, served as president and CEO of his corporate buyout firm until three years later and is responsible for the American jobs that were shipped overseas during that period."

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul countered the Globe article with a statement of her own labeling the Globe story "inaccurate."

"The article is not accurate.  As Bain Capital has said, as Governor Romney has said, and as has been confirmed by independent fact checkers multiple times, Governor Romney left Bain Capital in February of 1999 to run the Olympics and had no input on investments or management of companies after that point," Ms. Saul said.

Ms. Saul's statement didn't specifically address the documents uncovered by the Globe, which include documents Bain Capital filed with the SEC and a "Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002."

Obama for America Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter also issued a statement on the Globe story saying it put Mr. Romney "at the center of responsibility for troubling investments involving outsourcing and bankruptcies" that he claimed it was "dishonest" for the Obama campaign to tar him with in his ad. Ms. Cutter also said the report raises questions about another one of the Obama campaign's favored topics--Mr. Romney's failure to disclose more than a year of his tax returns.

"It also raises serious questions about why he misrepresented the date of his ‘departure,’ and whether he is concealing his tax returns because there is still more about this period and beyond that he doesn't want people to know," Ms. Cutter said. "It's time for Mitt Romney to come clean so that the American people can make their own judgments about his record and his motivations."

Barack Obama (Photo: Getty)

President Barack Obama's deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, released a statement in response to Mitt Romney's statement today he'd "get rid of" Planned Parenthood as part of his efforts to reduce the debt. Ms. Cutter said Mr. Romney's pro-life positions prove "American women cannot trust Mitt Romney to stand up for them."

"Mitt Romney’s comments today that he would 'get rid of' Planned Parenthood show how low he is willing to go to pander to the most extreme elements of the Republican base," Ms. Cutter said. "Planned Parenthood is a vital health care provider for millions of American women, giving them affordable access to life-saving services like mammograms and cervical cancer screenings. Even more offensive is that he would justify on fiscal grounds the elimination of Planned Parenthood, which represents 0.01% of the federal budget, even as he proposes a $5 trillion tax plan that would give massive tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires."

Mr. Romney supported Planned Parenthood during his career in Massachusetts, but on the campaign trail, he has repeatedly said he wants to cut government funding from the sexual and reproductive health organization. Ms. Cutter said Mr. Romney's pro-life positions on the campaign trail prove he should not be trusted by American women.

"Whether it’s his support for the Blunt Amendment, which would allow any employer to drop coverage for health care services like contraception because of personal beliefs, or these extreme comments today, it’s clear that American women cannot trust Mitt Romney to stand up for them," Ms. Cutter said.