WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he understands the struggles of working families and has the know-how to alleviate them as he sought to counteract fallout from a secret video that President Barack Obama won’t let him live down.
With polls showing the president ahead in key swing states that will decide the race, the White House expressed confidence. “As time progresses, you know, the field is looking like it’s narrowing for them,” campaign spokesman Jen Psaki said aboard Air Force One as Obama headed for his own rallies in Ohio. “And so in that sense we’d rather be usthan them.”
Obama was stopping at two college campuses in the hunt for the state’s 18 electoral votes, while Romney was there for a second straight day on a busemblazoned with “More Jobs, More Take-Home Pay.” Losing the state would dramatically narrow Romney’s path to the 270 Electoral College votes it takes to win the White House. No Republican has ever lost Ohio and won the presidency.
Romney campaigned at a factory that makes commercial spring wire, touring the plant floor in goggles alongside the Discovery Channel’sDirty Jobs host Mike Rowe. The pair spoke later from a stage set with hard hat-wearing workers, giant coils of steel wire, open metal cross beams and yellow caution signs in the background.
The economy during Obama’s presidency has been especially hard on male bluecollar workers. But secretly recorded video of Romney telling donors he doesn’t need to worry about the 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay income taxes and “believe that they are victims” has distracted from his argument that blue-collar men should throw Obama out over his fiscal record.
Obama continued to remind voters of Romney’s secretly recorded remarks in television ads and a speech at Bowling Green State University.
“Look, I don’t believe wecan get very far with leaders who write off half the nation as a bunch of victims who never take responsibility for their own lives,” Obama said. “I’ve got to tell you, as I travel around Ohio and as I look out on this crowd, I don’t see a lot of victims. I see hardworking Ohioans.”
Later, at Kent State University, Obama was building to his argument for keeping jobs in the United States when he stumbled on a familiar line before recovering at Romney’s expense.
“First thing is, I want to see us export more jobs, uh, exports more products. Excuse me. I was a channeling my opponent there for a second.”
At an earlier stop outside Columbus, Romney touted his business experience as the reason he can do better. “I care about the people of America.The difference between me and President Obama is I know what to do and I will do what it takes to get this economy going,” Romney said to a standing ovation from supporters.
Romney also released a 60-second television ad with a new, softer approach than the negative ads dominating the airways. It’s unclear how much the commercial will air on television, but it echoed Romney’s compassionate pitch from the campaign trial. The candidate speaks into the camera about the struggles of living paycheck to paycheck and trying to pay for necessities like food and gas on falling incomes.
“President Obama and I both care about poor and middle-class families,” Romney says. “The difference is my policies will make things better for them.”
Asked about his ability to empathize with ordinary Americans, Romney cited the healthcare law he championed while governor of Massachusetts. It’s a topic he usually doesn’t raise because Obama cites the initiative as the basis for his own health-care overhaul.
“Don’t forget - I got everybody in my state insured,” Romney said. “One hundred percent of the kids in our state had health insurance. I don’t think there’s anything that shows more empathy and care about the people of this country than that kind of record.”
At his morning rally, Romney stood in front of a running national debt clock and focused on Obama’s handling of the debtand the interest piling up.
Introducing Romney at the event was golfing great Jack Nicklaus, an Ohio native. Nicklaus, 72, said he likes the Republican nominee because of his free-market views.
Also Wednesday, a conservative political action committee said it is launching a $10 million campaign to sway voters who backed Obama four years ago to now support Romney.
The Ending Spending Action Fund, bankrolled by billionaire Joe Ricketts, is airing 30-second ads on national cable and television in Virginia, Ohio, Iowa and Wisconsin. The ads with former Obama supporters are coupled with radio and online advertising, direct mail and door-to-door voter contact programs led by former Bush White House political director Sara Taylor Fagen.
Ending Spending Action Fund President Brian Baker said Wednesday the television ads would begin today.
Information for this article was contributed by Nedra Pickler, Kasie Hunt, Steve Peoples, Ben Feller, Beth Fouhy, Dan Sewell, Jennifer Agiesta, Jack Gillum, Stephen Braun, Kelvin Chang and staff members of The Associated Press and by John McCormick of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 09/27/2012