President Barack Obama worked on Tuesday to portray Republicans as catering to millionaires over the middle class while trying to energize young voters ahead of Nov. 2 congressional elections.
"I need you fired up," Obama told a rally at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "We need you to stay fired up. Because there is an election on November 2nd that is going to say a lot about the future — your future and the future of our country."
Obama is on a four-state tour this week looking to drum up support from young voters who helped send him to the White House two years ago and who may be crucial in helping Democrats hold on to their congressional majorities in November.
He is visiting New Mexico, Wisconsin, Iowa and Virginia — all states he won in 2008 and likely will need again in his expected re-election campaign in 2012.
The message Obama carried at his first event, in a family's backyard in Albuquerque, was that his Republican opponents want to extend all Bush-era tax cuts that expire this year, even for incomes above $250,000 a year.
He continued that theme in Madison, telling a crowd of more than 26,000 in a hoarse voice, "We cannot sit this one out."
Obama says the end result could be damaging to the middle class who depend on government assistance to go to college and other programs. Obama wants to extend the tax cuts only for less wealthy Americans.
Obama earlier used a question from the sobbing son of a military veteran — who said his father was not getting the care he needs from a Veterans Administration hospital — to push his attack.
"This is again an example of where come November we've got to start making some choices because if for example we give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires that cost us $700 billion that we don't have, that money has to come from somewhere," he said at an event in Albuquerque.
Obama was to spend the night in Des Moines, Iowa, after headlining the event in Madison.
Obama was so popular in 2008 that musicians wrote him into songs, movie and television stars flocked to endorse him and tens of thousands of people turned out for his events. Republicans derided him as "the world's biggest celebrity."
That momentum carried Democrats to majorities in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate two years ago.
But support and enthusiasm for Democrats has waned, dampened by political squabbling with Republicans and an economy still too weak to reduce the 9.6 percent jobless rate.
'Republican bashing'
"It's in his best interest to bash Republicans as much as he can and the more he makes this a heated partisan mess, the less he has to defend the Democrats' failures on the issues for the last two years," Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said on a press conference call.
Analysts said Obama was risking his reputation by campaigning on the road.
"Usually midterms go poorly for first-term presidents and right now his approval ratings are not good," said Julian Zelizer, a public policy expert at Princeton University. "This means the results could be the same in November, and he would give fodder for a storyline about how he was ineffective."
Obama also appealed to young voters in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in which he said it is "inexcusable" for Democratic voters to stand on the sidelines in the Nov. 2 elections and urged them to shake off their lethargy.
"The idea that we've got a lack of enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that people are sitting on their hands complaining, is just irresponsible," Obama said in New Mexico.
The rally in Madison, featuring singer Ben Harper, is to be the first of a series that organizers hope will generate enthusiasm reminiscent of 2008. But that could be difficult with only five weeks before the elections.
Obama's approval ratings have dropped to about 45 percent in recent months from more than 60 percent 18 months ago.
Republicans, benefiting from the burgeoning conservative Tea Party movement, have generated far more enthusiasm this election season than Democrats.
Last week, Republican congressional leaders unveiled a new "Pledge to America" campaign plan to create jobs, cut taxes and shrink government, including rolling back Obama's signature healthcare overhaul.
