President Obama is ramping up his assault against Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital, accusing him today of being "an outsourcing pioneer."

Speaking at a campaign rally in Tampa, Fla., the president seized on today's Washington Post piece detailing how Romney's former private equity firm helped send jobs overseas, using it as a springboard to launch a new line of attack.

"The companies his firm owned were 'pioneers' in the outsourcing of American jobs to places like China and India. Pioneers!" Obama told the crowd of 2,500 at Hillsborough Community College's Dale Mabry Campus.

"Let me tell you, Tampa, we don't need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office. We need a president who will fight for American jobs and American manufacturing. That's what my plan will do," he said, as the enthusiastic crowd burst into chants of "four more years!"

The president said he would stop giving tax breaks to businesses that ship jobs overseas and instead would "reward companies that create jobs and manufacturing right here in the United States of America."

The Obama campaign steadily stepped up its attack against Romney as an "outsourcer in chief" throughout the day. The campaign's argument was highlighted in a conference call with reporters this morning and later underscored in a campaign Web video posted this afternoon.

In response to today's speech, the Romney campaign accused the president of trying to divert attention from his own "abysmal economic record."

"As affirmed by prominent Democrats like President Clinton, Mitt Romney had a 'sterling' business career," a Romney spokeswoman said in a written statement. "If President Obama had even half of Mitt Romney's record on jobs, he'd be running on it. But President Obama has the worst record on jobs and the economy of any president in modern history, which is why he is running a campaign based on distractions, not solutions."