This time, Obama deflected criticism of a national economy still staggering under his watch and told a much smaller crowd that Wall Street’s “culture of anything goes” prompting the nation’s record debt are the factors that continue to threaten the future of the middle class.

“We are here today because we recognize that this basic bargain, this essence of who we are …is at risk like never before,’’ he said. “What’s standing in our way is not technical solutions…what’s standing in our way is our politics.’’

In his 27-minute speech, delayed by an hour because of bad weather, he appealed to the cheering crowd to work for him, saying the opposition “will spend more money than we’ve ever seen in our lifetime on ads that same the same thing:…the economy is not where it should be and it’s all Obama’s fault.”