Washington:  Portraying himself as a champion of the middle class, President Barack Obama invoked the threat of outsourcing to India and China to launch the populist themes of his 2012 re-election campaign.

"Today, even higher-skilled jobs, like accountants and middle management can be outsourced to countries like China or India," he said in Osawatomie, Kansas, as he delivered a wide-ranging indictment of the growing economic disparity in America taking up some themes of the Ocuupy Wall Street movement.

"And if you're somebody whose job can be done cheaper by a computer or someone in another country, you don't have a lot of leverage with your employer when it comes to asking for better wages or better benefits, especially since fewer Americans today are part of a union," Obama said.

Invoking Theodore Roosevelt's progressive agenda, he said: "This isn't just another political debate. This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting
to get into the middle class."

At stake, Obama said, is the fundamental American principle "that this is the place where you can make it if you try."

Obama spoke in the same small town where Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States and a leader of the Progressive movement, outlined his vision for a "New Nationalism" over a century ago.

Although "Roosevelt was called a radical, a socialist, even a communist," Obama said we are a "richer nation and a stronger democracy" because of his vision of economic fairness and equal opportunity.

Obama also accused Republicans of suffering from "collective amnesia" about the financial crisis. "Their philosophy is simple: we are better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules," he said. "Well, I'm here to say they are wrong."

"This country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share and when everyone plays by the same rules," Obama said appealing for a strong governmental role through tax and regulation to level the economic playing field.