Video: Obama portrays GOP as disconnected from mainstream

>>> now to the race for president playing out tonight on multiple fronts in three gop primaries. and what is called a full frontal assault today by the president on the republicans. our political director and chief white house correspondent chuck todd with us from our d.c. newsroom tonight. chuck, good evening.

>> reporter: with mitt romney on the verge of wrapping up this republican nomination, possibly as early as tonight, president obama decided today was the day to step into the fray in a big way. as mitt romney spent this primary day in wisconsin campaigning with paul ryan , the architect of the gop's budget proposal, president obama took to a washington d.c. hotel ballroom filled with america's newspaper editors to eadvice rate the ryan plan.

>> an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. thinly vailed social darwinism .

>> reporter: and the president used rhetoric and sarcasm, not just to attack the budget plan, but romney personally for supporting it.

>> and he even called it marvelous, which is a word you don't often hear when it comes to describing a budget. it's a word you don't often hear generally.

>> reporter: even tried to capitalize on the divisive republican primary campaign.

>> renowned liberal newt gingrich , first called the original version of the budget radical, and said it would contribute to right wing social engineering .

>> reporter: the entire speech was a verbal blueprint of how the president this election year will attempt to paint the entire republican party as out of the mainstream.

>> if we had been having this discussion 20 years ago or even 15 years ago would have been considered squarely centrist positions. what's changes is the center of the republican party .

>> reporter: ryan compared the speech to what he called the president's reckless budgets, adding was as revealing as it is disappointing. and romney said the president was unwilling to take responsibility for his own mistakes.

>> and so today, instead of standing up and saying, as the president's policies have not worked, he will look for someone else to blame.

>> reporter: late today, newt gingrich said the president took his criticisms of ryan out context. big picture for a second, let's remember what this fight is about for the two parties, whether a big chunk of deficit reduction money will come from tax increases on the wealthiest or existing government programs.

>> since the president threw down over the word marvelous. our political department did a search and found three uses from him on the word.

>> romney 's campaign is defiantly saying even if they lose tonight, it's on to pennsylvania on april 24th . does he want to risk losing his home state the next three days, he loses tonight? could be tough ones for rick santorum and he could be thinking a lot of things.

>> our political director chuck todd from our d.c. newsroom tonight. thanks as always.

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