Obama hits Republicans for protecting the rich

* Obama hits Republicans for protecting the rich: Obama’s statement on the vote leaves little doubt that drawing a sharp contrast between the parties’ priorities in stark class-based terms will be central in 2012.

“Tonight, Senate Republicans chose to raise taxes on nearly 160 million hardworking Americans because they refused to ask a few hundred thousand millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share,” the statement said. “Now is not the time to put the economy and the security of the middle class at risk.”

The reference to middle class “security” will be central to the Dem message, and is an effort to speak directly to the public’s shifting perceptions of the economy outlined above.