Obama says election will determine course of economy

President Barack Obama cast his re-election battle with Mitt Romney as a clash between starkly contrasting philosophies and charged that his Republican rival would hollow out the middle class in a high-stakes speech on Thursday that could set the tone for months of intense campaigning.

Standing at a podium that bore the motto "Forward," Obama accused Romney of wanting to resurrect the Republican economic policies that preceded the 2008 crisis that plunged the United States into a recession from which it has not fully recovered.