"Who would have ever thought that the Republicans would embrace the austerity and jobless policies of what they used to derisively call 'old Europe,'" Clinton told donors at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, referring to the Bush administration's umbrage at European allies who didn't embrace its post-Sept. 11 war policies. "I never thought I'd live to breathe and see, here they are saying, let's do the euro zone's economic policy - - they got 11 percent unemployment; we can get up there if we work at it," he said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

European Outcome

Romney, meanwhile, is arguing that that the way to avoid a European outcome is to elect a new president.

"We have two courses we could follow. One is to follow in the pathway of Europe, to shrink our military smaller and smaller to pay for our social needs," he said May 28 in San Diego. "They of course rely on the strength of America and they hope for the best. Were we to follow that kind of a course, there would be no one who could stand to protect us."

Romney last year accused Obama of taking his political inspiration "from the socialist democrats in Europe."

Obama has been citing the economic impact of the crisis in the 17-nation euro zone, as signs of a U.S. slowdown pose a bigger threat to his re-election. In separate phone calls yesterday and today, Obama spoke with Merkel, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti.

They talked about the importance of strengthening "the resilience of the euro zone" to bolster growth in Europe as well as globally, White House press secretary Jay Carney said. He refused to say whether they agreed on any specific steps.

Europe's 'Cloud'

After the Labor Department reported on June 1 that U.S. payrolls expanded by 69,000 in May, fewer than the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of private economists, Obama said that Europe's leaders haven't done enough to dispel "the cloud that's hanging over from the Atlantic."

Treasury 30- and 10-year yields reached record lows of 1.4387 percent and 2.5089 percent after the Labor Department report. They rose for a second day yesterday on speculation the slide won't be sustained and conjecture European leaders may move to stem the debt crisis damped demand for safety.

Borrowing Costs

The benchmark 10-year note yield climbed eight basis points, or 0.08 percentage point, to 1.65 percent at 2:08 p.m. in New York, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. The 30- year bond yield increased seven basis points today to 2.71 percent.