The President’s remarks at a DNC fundraiser last night

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-morning-plum/2011/03/03/AFiFnPOE_blog.html

Obama finding his voice? Says 2012 campaign will be about our “values”: The President’s remarks at a DNC fundraiser last night, per the White House transcript, are noteworthy: He told his audience that the current battle over government spending and Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposal will be the template for the 2012 campaign.

“These budget debates that we’re having now crystallize the debate that we’re going to be having in this country over the next 18 months about who we are, what we care about, what our values are, what our commitments are to each other,” Obama said.

He added that America should be “a country that is generous and compassionate, that is looking after our children and making sure they’ve got a shot at the American Dream, that is making sure our seniors have dignity and security in their old age, that looks after families who’ve got a disabled child.”

The comments reflect a sense in the White House — first on display with Obama’s speech last week — that the Ryan vision can be used to establish the paramaters of the political debate on terms that are favorable to Obama. White House advisers are betting that Obama can win the argument by establishing credibility on spending and the deficit, while simultaneously making an expansive moral case for a more balanced vision of the proper role and size of government and casting it as a truer expression of American values and identity.