Obama Tells America 'Up Your Game'

The president, under steady pressure to bolster a sluggish economy, is showering attention on manufacturing as an American story of adaptation. He chose the setting of Alcoa Davenport Works, an aluminum factory whose products are exported around the world and used for such high-tech applications as the wings for the presidential jet Air Force One.

The plant has re-hired the workers it laid off during the recent recession and is eying an expansion, said Obama, who pushed a broader theme of American resilience.

"You had to up your game," Obama said to the workers. "And that's what we've got to do as a country as a whole. I want the cars and planes and wind turbines of the future to bear the proud stamp that says 'Made in America.'"