Obama Strikes Populist Chord With Speech in Heartland

By A. G. SULZBERGER
NYT

OSAWATOMIE, Kan. — Venturing into the conservative heartland, President Obama on Tuesday delivered his most pointed appeal yet for using taxes and regulations to level the economic playing field.

“This country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, and when everyone plays by the same rules, ” he told a crowd packed into a school gymnasium.

Infusing his speech with the type of populist language that has emerged in the Occupy protests around the nation, Mr. Obama warned that growing income inequality meant that the United States was undermining its middle class. He said it “gives lie to the promise that’s at the very heart of America: that this is the place where you can make it if you try.”

“This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class,” Mr. Obama said as he sought to make an economic case for his re-election next year. “At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement.”

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