Obama makes economic pitch in Wisconsin

MANITOWOC, Wis. - President Barack Obama campaigned vigorously for his revamped economic message yesterday, warning that other countries have been grasping for first place in the global marketplace as the United States fell down on the job.

The president delivered the argument in Wisconsin, a state that will be critical to his re-election prospects, a day after a State of the Union address in which he contended that the United States has to step up its spending on innovation and infrastructure to compete globally and create jobs at home.

Obama said yesterday that while China invested in clean-energy technologies, "we fell down on the job. We weren't moving as fast as we should have."

"We're going to need to go all in. We're going to need to get serious about winning the future," Obama said at Orion Energy Systems, a power technology company in Manitowoc. Obama showcased Orion as a leader in solar power and energy-efficient technology, the kind of technologies he argues are key for America's future competitiveness.

The president is calling for a new Sputnik moment, like the one in the 1950s when the Soviet Union beat the United States by sending a satellite into space, spurring higher investments in U.S. science and technology programs and, eventually, the moon landing.

The challenge resonated in Manitowoc, a small city on Lake Michigan known best as the place where a 20-pound chunk of the Sputnik satellite crashed in 1962, an event marked by an annual "Sputnikfest."

Obama said he hadn't known of the Sputnik connection when he picked Manitowoc as the first audience for the themes of competitiveness and innovation he will push through his 2012 re-election campaign. But it gave him a fitting backdrop.

"It was part of a satellite called Sputnik that landed right here and that set the Space Race in motion," Obama said. "So I want to say to you today that it's here, more than 50 years later, that the race for the 21st century will be won."

Orion was the first of three factory visits Obama made in Manitowoc. He also touted his small-business initiatives at Skana Aluminum Co., which took out a $5-billion Small Business Administration loan in December, and at Tower Tech Systems, where he traded his suit coat for a black company fleece and was shown a plate roller that shapes steel into wind tower and turbine structures.

The White House shortened Obama's Wisconsin visit so that Air Force One could beat a gathering storm back to Washington.