Obama offers vigorous defense of his presidency CLEVELAND - President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney both traveled to Ohio on Thursday to deliver dueling speeches about how best to lead the nation back to prosperity, reflecting a new urgency on the campaign trail as both candidates intensified efforts to define the election - and each other - in economic terms. Speaking in the wake of a dismal two weeks of economic and political news, Obama tried to reframe the election as a stark choice between his own economic stewardship and an alternative that he said would return the country to policies largely responsible for the downturn. Campaigning in Cincinnati, presumed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney hammered President Obama's handling of the economy and said that Obama's administration isn't helping employers. Emily Heil Obama offered the most vigorous defense to date of his presidency, denying Romney's argument that Obama has been a poor leader and offering a litany of actions, such as investments in schools, energy and infrastructure, that he has taken to strengthen the middle class and grow the economy over the long term. Romney, Obama said, would cut taxes, cut spending and eliminate regulations - an outcome that history has already shown won't lead to the prosperity the Republican has promised. "This election presents a choice between two fundamentally different visions of how to create strong, sustained growth, how to pay down our long-term debt and, most of all, how to generate good, middle-class jobs so people can have confidence that if they work hard, they can get ahead," Obama said. This isn't some abstract debate. This is not another trivial Washington argument. I have said that this is the defining issue of our time, and I mean it. I said that this is a make-or-break moment for America's middle class, and I believe it.  Obama also blamed partisan politics in Washington for the lack of progress in reviving the American economy. He blamed the policies of former president George W. Bush for deepening the recession and accused Romney of offering the same vision. The president worked extensively on Thursday's speech - a telling indication of its importance to him. The address will be followed by a blitz of surrogate appearances in key battleground states. Although aides denied that the speech was a response to a spate of bad news for the president - including a disappointing May jobs report and Obama's gaffe, on Friday, in which he said "the private sector is doing fine" - Obama made a reference to that gaffe at the top of his speech. Romney was of no mind to let Obama own the spotlight for the day. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee moved his own remarks, at a Cincinnati factory, ahead of Obama's in an effort to eclipse the president's message. In addition, a Romney campaign bus circled Obama's event at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, honking its horn, and a few dozen protesters milled on street corners nearby. Competing head-to-head with Obama for air time in a critical swing state, Romney expanded on his plans for cutting regulation and spending and overhauling the tax system, arguing that the president is stifling the free market's ability to create jobs.