President Obama returned to the Elkhart area not for a town hall meeting, but for an announcement related to the Recovery Act on investing in renewable energy, specifically advanced battery technology.

The president broadly defended his economic strategy, while also promising to pass health care reform "by the end of this year." Acknowledging the tough fight ahead, he played up a message that was successful in his campaign for the office, attacking the culture of Washington.

"There are those who want to seek political advantage, they want to oppose these efforts. Some of them caused the problems that we got now in the first place, and then suddenly they're blaming other folks for them," he said. "They don't want to be constructive. They just want to get in the usual political fights back and forth. And sometimes that's fed by all the cable chatter on the media."

He also said it is easy to be cynical "when you see politicians say one thing and then do another. or say one thing and then do nothing. When you've seen decades of broken promises from broken politics," he continued. "But this is a rare moment in wheh we're called upon to rise above the failures of the past. this is the chance to restore that spirit of optimism and opportunity which has always been central to our success."

As the Democrats target the so-called "manufactured outrage" at town hall meetings, Obama simply spoke from a podium to workers at the RV factory. Press secretary Robert Gibbs said earlier that Obama simply wanted "to share that news with a county in Indiana that's been hit tremendously hard."