Obama offers contrast with Romney on jobs

Obama gathered consulting professionals and company chief executives at the White House hours after Romney won the New Hampshire primary, despite a blizzard of attacks on Romney\'s professed record as a job creator while working as a venture capitalist.

Unemployment and the direction of the economy as it struggles back after the worst recession since the 1930s Great Depression are shaping up as the key issues of November\'s election in which embattled Obama will seek a second term.

Aides said Obama would in coming weeks propose measures, including tax incentives, to convince US companies which have outsourced jobs offshore to maximize efficiency and profit, to bring those positions back home.

"Today I am meeting with companies choosing to invest in the one country with the most productive workers, best universities, and most creative and innovative entrepreneurs in the world: the United States of America," Obama said in remarks released before the event.

"That\'s exactly the kind of commitment to country we need -- especially now, at this make-or-break moment for the middle class.

"I\'m calling on those businesses that haven\'t brought jobs back to take this opportunity to get the American people back to work."

Top business figures at the event include senior executives from Ford, DuPont, Otis Elevator Company, Intel, Siemens USA and Rolls Royce North America."

White House officials insist Obama is squarely focused on his job and not the looming election battle which will take place in testing economic times likely to challenge him as an incumbent president.

But the timing of Wednesday\'s event, as the Republican nominating race hits a new pitch, hardly seems coincidental. Later in the day, Obama was to fly to his hometown of Chicago for big campaign fundraising events.

Romney easily triumphed in New Hampshire on Tuesday to tighten his grip on the Republican presidential race. But his victory may have come at a price, as his rivals savaged his claims to be a veteran of job creation.

The former venture capitalist was portrayed as a ruthless corporate raider plundering troubled firms and stripping them down for profit, countering Romney\'s claims that his work for equity firm Bain Capital created 100,000 jobs.

The attacks previewed a likely approach that Obama will take against Romney if he wins the nomination, as the president warns Americans that Republicans favor the rich and want to deprive the middle class of a "fair shake."

Bain Capital has also been accused of advising companies about the advantages of outsourcing jobs abroad -- an approach designed to cut costs and maximize profits for investors.

Romney on Wednesday headed to the site of the next Republican nominating contest in South Carolina, vowing to defend American enterprise and repel attacks by foes like rival Rick Perry who branded him a "vulture capitalist."

"I think the people in South Carolina want someone who knows how to work the economy for the benefit of America and could get good jobs back in this country and keep us an opportunity nation," Romney told CNN.

"I think their argument fell flat here in New Hampshire. They tried it very hard -- ran ads here; were up and down the state campaigning.

"And people in the state said, \'Look, we want a guy who spent some time in the private sector, not someone who spent their entire life in Washington.\'"

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