MENTOR, Ohio — President Obama bounded onto the stage of a high school gymnasium here Saturday like a man with the wind at his back.
With rolled-up sleeves and a hoarse voice, Obama stood before a packed gym of 4,000 energized supporters and dismissed Mitt Romney as “a very talented salesman.”
“Refusing to answer the details of your policies until after the election, that’s not change. That’s the oldest trick in the book,” he said, ridiculing Romney’s attempt to seize the battle cry of “change” that Obama used to great effect four years ago.
“Changing the facts when they’re inconvenient to your campaign, that’s not change,” Obama said.
This Cleveland suburb was the first stop in a daylong blitz that would take Obama to Wisconsin, Iowa and Virginia. Celebrity supporters such as Katy Perry, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews gave those later rallies a rock concertlike feel.
But Obama’s lower wattage in Mentor was arguably his most important stop of the day. Obama’s path to reelection becomes much clearer if he can capture Ohio’s 18 electoral votes. And that means Obama needs Mentor – which calls itself the City of Choice – to choose him. It’s a mostly white community with a mix of white-collar and factory workers in Lake County, which backed Obama in 2008 after choosing George W. Bush in 2004.
His hopes depend on voters like Katie Cook, 28, and Jason Reho, 30, who came to the rally with their two young children.
Cook had a quick response when asked why she supports Obama: “Women’s rights.”
“Pay, equality,” she ticked off, “the fact that if I get raped I can have an abortion.”
Planned Parenthood and birth control, added her husband.
“I want those rights for my daughter,” Cook said.
She defended the President’s economic performance. “He needs more time after that Bush administration,” Cook said. “No one could fix it that quick.”
Jobs and the economy figured heavily in Obama’s pitch to the faithful here. He slammed Romney for an ad that claims a Jeep plant is moving jobs to China.
“You don’t scare hardworking Americans just to scare up some votes. That’s not what being President is all about,” he said.
Obama also recalled the devastation left along the East Coast by superstorm Sandy.
He made a point of saying that he is talking with governors and other officials in the battered states on a daily basis — no doubt aware of the growing criticism by Republicans that the destruction and suffering back East demanded that he stay off the campaign trail.
It was Obama’s fourth rally in Ohio in 24 hours. On Friday, he visited Hilliard, Springfield and Lima. He’s set to return twice before Election Day for events in Cincinnati and Columbus.
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With rolled-up sleeves and a hoarse voice, Obama stood before a packed gym of 4,000 energized supporters and dismissed Mitt Romney as “a very talented salesman.”
“Refusing to answer the details of your policies until after the election, that’s not change. That’s the oldest trick in the book,” he said, ridiculing Romney’s attempt to seize the battle cry of “change” that Obama used to great effect four years ago.
“Changing the facts when they’re inconvenient to your campaign, that’s not change,” Obama said.
This Cleveland suburb was the first stop in a daylong blitz that would take Obama to Wisconsin, Iowa and Virginia. Celebrity supporters such as Katy Perry, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews gave those later rallies a rock concertlike feel.
But Obama’s lower wattage in Mentor was arguably his most important stop of the day. Obama’s path to reelection becomes much clearer if he can capture Ohio’s 18 electoral votes. And that means Obama needs Mentor – which calls itself the City of Choice – to choose him. It’s a mostly white community with a mix of white-collar and factory workers in Lake County, which backed Obama in 2008 after choosing George W. Bush in 2004.
His hopes depend on voters like Katie Cook, 28, and Jason Reho, 30, who came to the rally with their two young children.
Cook had a quick response when asked why she supports Obama: “Women’s rights.”
“Pay, equality,” she ticked off, “the fact that if I get raped I can have an abortion.”
Planned Parenthood and birth control, added her husband.
“I want those rights for my daughter,” Cook said.
She defended the President’s economic performance. “He needs more time after that Bush administration,” Cook said. “No one could fix it that quick.”
Jobs and the economy figured heavily in Obama’s pitch to the faithful here. He slammed Romney for an ad that claims a Jeep plant is moving jobs to China.
“You don’t scare hardworking Americans just to scare up some votes. That’s not what being President is all about,” he said.
Obama also recalled the devastation left along the East Coast by superstorm Sandy.
He made a point of saying that he is talking with governors and other officials in the battered states on a daily basis — no doubt aware of the growing criticism by Republicans that the destruction and suffering back East demanded that he stay off the campaign trail.
It was Obama’s fourth rally in Ohio in 24 hours. On Friday, he visited Hilliard, Springfield and Lima. He’s set to return twice before Election Day for events in Cincinnati and Columbus.
[email protected]