Obama champions fairness for middle class

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama channelled President Theodore Roosevelt last night, embracing a mantle of economic fairness for the nation’s middle class that drew parallels to the progressive reformer’s calls for a “square deal” for regular Americans more than a century ago.

Obama used a speech in small town Osawatomie, Kansas — where Roosevelt delivered his “New Nationalism” address in 1910 — to lay out economic themes of giving middle-class workers a fair shake and greater financial security, concepts the president will probably return to repeatedly during the 2012 campaign.

Only a month before Republican voters begin choosing a presidential nominee, the White House said now is a “make-or-break moment” for the middle class and those hoping to join it.