Obama pushes for stronger middle class

ELYRIA, Ohio -- President Barack Obama said yesterday that his Republican rivals are sincere, patriotic and absolutely wrong about how to reinvigorate the economy. He said they "don't seem to remember how America was built."

Obama spoke in politically pivotal Ohio before rolling into neighboring Michigan for an evening of fundraising. Pounding home the theme of his re-election run, Obama said the rich should pay higher taxes to support priorities, such as education, that help the entire nation.

"In this country, prosperity doesn't trickle down," Obama told an audience of about 400 people at Lorain County Community College. "Prosperity grows from the bottom up and it grows from a strong middle class out."

"That's why I'm always confused when we keep having the same argument with folks who don't seem to remember how America was built," Obama said.

Meanwhile, Republican Mitt Romney, Obama's likely opponent in November, savaged Obama's handling of the economy in a scorching speech in Charlotte, N.C., delivered across the street from the football stadium where the president will deliver his Democratic National Convention acceptance speech this summer.

Obama built his day around the two hard-hit Midwest states in the epicenter of the economic debate to highlight his policies and contrast them with the proposals of House Republicans -- and by extension, Romney. Obama did not call out Romney by name.

"We have two competing visions of our future," Obama said. "The choice could not be clearer. Those folks running on the other side, I'm sure they are patriots, I'm sure they are sincere in terms of what they say, but their theory, I believe, is wrong."

He began his visit by sitting down in shirt sleeves with unemployed workers-turned-students to hear their stories, empathize and cheer their determination to bounce back. Then, in remarks to the crowd, the president retold the students' words, spoke of their past struggles and their hopes for the future.

In Charlotte, Romney said, "Obama is over his head and swimming in the wrong direction" when it comes to the economy. Even if you like Barack Obama, we can't afford Barack Obama," he declared.

Romney jabbed that unlike four years ago, when Obama walked through stage-set columns at his convention, things would be different this summer.

"You're not going to see President Obama standing alongside Greek columns. He's not going to want to remind anyone of Greece," Romney said, "because he's put us on a road to become more like Greece," where crushing debt has led to an austerity plan and public protests.