'The president is standing on the side of consumers and the middle class,' said Plouffe. Plouffe: Obama on side of protesters

The White House wants to make it clear that President Barack Obama is on the same side as the Occupy Wall Street protesters – and that Republicans are not.

“If you’re concerned about Wall Street and our financial system, the president is standing on the side of consumers and the middle class,” Obama’s senior adviser David Plouffe said on “Good Morning America” Tuesday morning when asked about the demonstrations. “And a lot of these Republicans are basically saying, ‘You know what? Let’s go back to the same policies that led to the great recession in the first place’.”


Plouffe warned that “most Republicans in Congress” as well as “all of the Republicans on the stage tonight in New Hampshire” – the GOP presidential candidates who will participate in a Washington Post/Bloomberg debate Tuesday – want to simply “unwind Wall Street Reform.”

Taking the same message to the “The Early Show,” Plouffe also argued that before the Obama administration’s financial reforms kicked in, ”Wall Street was able to write too many of its own rules.”

“Taxpayers won’t be on the hook for a bailout any more, we’ll be more transparent,” he said. “Consumers will be protected on hidden fees on mortgages and credit cards.”

“The president stands squarely with the middle class in terms of trying to protect consumers and make sure that happened doesn’t happen again,” Plouffe added.

Obama’s senior adviser also offered his two cents on the Republican primary race and Tuesday’s debate at Dartmouth College, saying he believes it’s still only the “first or second inning” and that he expects many more twists and turns between now and early January.

“What I do think … you will see on the stage in New Hampshire tonight, is all of the candidates subscribing to the same economic policies that led to the great recession,” Plouffe said on ABC News. “They want to let Wall Street write their own rules, huge tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations, not invest in things like education and rebuilding the country.”

Plouffe spoke cautiously about the challenges facing Obama’s reelection efforts, predicting a “a very close election.”

“I mean, some things aren’t going to change between now and next November. We’re obviously in a tough economy. We’re going to have a very close election, as most presidential elections are. So we’re going to fight for every vote and that’s what we intend to do,” he said.