With only 23 days left until election day, Ohio has again emerged as one of the most important swing states for President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. As the two criss-crossed the state this week and weekend, the importance of the state dubbed "the modern mother of presidents" became all the more clear.
However, this weekend, while Romney and his running mate Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan hit several cities in the Buckeye state, Obama holed himself up for intense debate prep ahead of Tuesday's second match-up against the former Massachusetts governor.
Ryan arrived in Ohio on Friday, meeting up with his ticket-mate for a speech in Lancaster. Ryan then continued onto Vienna where he spoke at the Youngstown Warren Regional Airport.
On Saturday, both men gave speeches in the vital state, Romney at Shawnee State University, where he appeared with country music artist Jamie O'Neal, and Ryan at Youngstown University.
Both Romney and Obama also spent Tuesday of last week in the state, the latter speaking to students at Ohio State University. Romney then stayed on for Wednesday, attending a town hall with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
But, even though the president has comparatively less time to spend on campaign stops in Ohio - currently splitting his time between prep for Tuesday's debate at Long Island's Hofstra University and carrying out the myriad of responsibilities that befall him as leader of the free world - he is not neglecting the state in the final days of this election cycle.
In the past week, Obama has released no less than five television ads that will air in Ohio in the coming weeks. The ads focus on everything from Romney's "severely conservative" positions on women's health issues, to Medicare and Medicaid, tax policy and foreign affairs.
So what's the big deal with Ohio? Why is the state so imperative to deliver a win for either man in November? This week, new polling data from Rasmussen showed the race for Ohio was nearly neck-and-neck, with Obama holding a negligible one percentage point lead.
These numbers, and other recent Ohio polls that have corroborated them, are especially surprising considering only last week the president held a eight point lead over Romney in the state, according to an NBC News/Marist/Wall Street Journal poll from October 3.
The sudden turn around has worried Obama supporters and staff, especially in light of Romney surges in other swing states like Florida and Colorado, where RealClearPolitics polls put the GOP candidate ahead.
Altogether, where Obama once comfortably boasted the support of every swing state except North Carolina, he now holds 57 to Romney's 53 swing state electoral votes.
And thus the importance of Ohio - in electoral votes, it is second only to Florida among the swing states, with 18. Likewise, the symbolic importance of winning the state is not lost on the two men.
The last man who won the presidency without winning Ohio was John F. Kennedy over 50 years ago. The state is also an accurate barometer for the final winner - Ohioan voters have only chosen the non-winner once - also in 1960 with JFK's win over Nixon.
Obama won the state in 2008 by a fairly healthy five percent margin over Arizona Senator John McCain. But, 43rd president George W. Bush took the state in the election previous to that, helping him win the presidency by electoral college but not popular vote.
The president, perhaps acknowledging the need to pull out the big guns, announced former president Bill Clinton and rock legend Bruce Springsteen will appear in Parma, Ohio just two days after the debate this week.
Meanwhile, Romney and Obama will meet in the decisively non-swing state of New York for the second presidential debate Tuesday. The debate moderator, CNN's Candy Crowley, will focus her questioning on domestic issues.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News