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Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan sing along with Janna Ryan as the Oakridge Boys perform during a campaign rally at the Marion County Fairgrounds in Marion, Ohio on Sunday.
Ohio's Republican governor said Sunday that private polls show Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney beating President Barack Obama in the all-important battleground state of Ohio just as auto industry politics assume a dominant role in the closing days of the campaign.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) predicted outright that Romney would win Ohio on "Meet the Press" and, with it, the presidential election — a overall contest which Kasich said wouldn't be that close.
"Right now, I believe we're currently ahead. Internals show us currently ahead," he said, referring to the private polling candidates routinely conduct. "Honestly, I believe that Romney is going to carry Ohio."
The governor's show of confidence comes after a week in which Obama and Romney — along with their respective running mates — barnstormed the Buckeye State in hopes of securing the state's 18 electoral votes, which would greatly enhance either candidate's hopes of winning the presidential election.
A Cincinnati Enquirer/Ohio News poll released Sunday and conducted Oct. 18-23 showed the two candidates tied at 49 percent apiece among likely voters in the state. Two other public polls earlier in the week, by CNN/ORC and TIME magazine, showed Obama leading by a small margin.
Romney was set to spend Sunday touring the Buckeye State after canceling a series of stops in Virginia due to the impending Hurricane Sandy; Obama will make a quick trip to Youngstown on Monday before returning to Washington to monitor the hurricane. The president canceled planned stops in northern Virginia and Colorado in the first half of this week.
Both the president and Romney are battling to turn out their supporters to the polls and shake loose the few remaining undecided voters in a handful of swing states. The Romney campaign has claimed that momentum is on their side, a claim which the Obama campaign argues is a bluff.
The Romney campaign circulated on Sunday several newspaper endorsements — the Des Moines Register and the Cincinnati Enquirer among them — to argue that the Republican ticket had made inroads in crucial swing states. The Obama campaign responded in kind by sending reporters endorsement editorials from the Youngstown Vindicator and the Toledo Blade, both of which referenced the 2009 auto industry bailout as a point in Obama's favor.
The auto bailout — which Romney had opposed, memorably, in a New York Times op-ed entitled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" — has assumed a central role in the closing days of the campaign, especially as the election plays out largely on a Midwestern, industrial and economically-battered playing field.
RELATED: Auto politics haunt Romney in NW Ohio
Kasich argued that the auto bailout hadn't actually boosted Ohio's economy as much as Obama would have the state's voters think.
"We are thrilled that we have a strong auto industry," he argued, "but it doesn't account for the growth of 112,000 jobs in our state."
Reuters, Getty Images
In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.
The Romney campaign also aired a new ad in Ohio touting an endorsement from the right-leaning Detroit News and iconic automan Lee Iacocca, while also making a controversial claim about productions of Jeeps in China.
"Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China," the ad says in reference to plans by the auto company to build a new production facility in China to sell vehicles in that country.
The ad is accurate but plays to misinformation that spread earlier this week — partly because Romney had previously voiced the claims — suggesting that Chrysler was planning to move production of all Jeeps to China. The automaker has strongly disputed those reports, though they could have an impact in battleground corners of Ohio like Toledo, a major hub for Jeep production in North America.
First Read: Romney's Ohio fortunes tied to softening bailout stance
The governors of two other battleground states — John Hickenlooper (D) of Colorado and Scott Walker (R) of Wisconsin — relied on more traditional fare to make the case for and against their candidates.
"What are those deductions and tax credits he's going to get rid of?" Hickenlooper asked of Romney's tax reform plan, seizing on the former Massachusetts governor's refusal to specify which loopholes and deductions he would eliminate to finance his proposed tax cuts.
And Walker, whose contentious collective bargaining reforms sparked a standoff with his state legislature and a recall election which he won, argued that Romney has a track record of working in a bipartisan manner.
"He's proven that he can do it in a state like Massachusetts," Walker said.
But neither Walker nor Hickenlooper seemed as confident as Kasich, who predicted that the fate of Ohio's electoral votes — and the election — would be known early on election night.
"I'm not sure the election's going to be as close as what everybody is talking about today," he said.
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The closed loopholes Romney said he would work at hammering out with Congress, not in an omnipotent manner.
FOXNews (of course), CNN (other than “Ticker”), USA Today, Time, Newsweek and AZ Republic all, without explanation, block me from posting in response to their articles. I never post anything crude and I think I always post in good taste. Whatever I post I do only because I think it should be said and I expect some will agree with me, some won’t, some will ignore what I say and others will think about it and come up with their own opinions, all of that being reasonable and as it should be. I really don’t post looking for credit or recognition and I simply don’t think any site claiming to be an objective news site should discriminate against anyone’s postings just to accomplish biased reporting, no matter how subtle they are. If you agree, feel free to copy my comments and post them where they won’t allow me to - maybe just to create a little bit of people’s justice.
RGiles, you are correct. I found the same thing true about Fox"News". I tried posting on their website, but my posts never showed up. (and they were not inappropriate or off topic) I think they selectively weed out the posts that do not agree with their agenda.
I also tried CNN, but as I recall, they wanted too much personal information, such as my Facebook account. That was a couple of years ago, so it may have changed since then. So I just stick to NBCnews. (formerly MSNBC)
His managed bankruptcy modus operandi = shut the company, fire all union workers, have a crony take over, hire new non-union workers all on minimum wage, get the business going then start outsourcing to China.
All TRUE Americans will get out and vote in Ohio and other swing states and vote Obama out of office. Be sure to vote and get your entire family and all your friends to do the same.
And you believe that changing to Romney will fix all the ills? If so, you should not be allowed to vote. Such myopia is a big problem in this country.
Anyone who thinks everyone who votes for Obama is not a "TRUE American" needs to have his head examined.
Alan, please define "True American". I am curious to see how you define a true American. Could it be a very narrow view that would be anyone who dares to disagree with the great almighty Alan must, somehow be an untrue American.
Well, I happen to be as much a true American as you are. I served our country in war time and have worked hard all my life. I want to share my good fortune with others. Paying forward, and helping those less fortunate is what my Christian faith teaches me and I do that too.
I am voting for the candidates of my choice and how i damn well please on the issues on my ballot. It will be in a voting booth where no one else can see how I voted and will be promptly dropped into the ballot collection box in a manner that does not reveal how I voted. For you, Alan, I will divuldge my presidential choice.........wait for it......wait for it......Obama.
How is that you little right wing nut job Fascist wannabe, true blue (red for Republican ) American, free to vote whoever you want for whatever office you want. The rest of us True Americans will be out in force voting too?
The fact that you think all "true" Americans will vote Republican is a major part of the problem. (I see Adler beat me to it, so I'll let his comment stand--it's roughly what I was going to say.)
We all did, Obama 4 more!
K-Sick is so out of touch he couldn't find his rear with a GPS. OBAMA will take OHIO and we'll all be better for it. Then we ditch K-Sick, the Idiot and our lives continue to improve. VOTE with a PAPER BALLOT. Romney's ownership of the e-vote technology is a Bush-do over....be smart and protect your choice.
Kasich's prediction is spells doom for Romney. You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
Libs, get a head start and begin to practice how to say President Romney, it will ease the pain when you watch the Obama slaughter on the 6th of November.
dmallett, you should start practicing saying "Yes, your blueness!" (That's a Yellow Submarine reference by the way.)
Correction: I meant "NO, your blueness!"
If Willard was for the auto bailout and Obama was against it,the Ditto Heads would be all over Obama.Ditto Heads,it's called political prostitution. Come to think about,Willard flipping so much puts him in that political category.
The encumbent is a lawyer, yes a smart guy, but lacks business skills. His Politics don't embrace Christian
values much. It's being said "there is daylight between America and Israel". He's shown a lack of love
for our Israeli friends. His constuency are special interest groups wanting MORE free free free. And his
other supporters who are singular minded in their support. Even some abortion rights people side with
him and many of their faction who do not support abortion. Mindless in their calculation. Does this contrary disposition convey power and independence. Give me a break. Get over it already.
Romney is a businessman who does embrace Christians, beholds Israel and will attempt to bring stupid
freebies to endless parasites under sane levels. A new "change" is critical.
There is only one real issue in this election. Jobs, economy, deficit, immigration, Medicare, Social Security, education, foreign policy and more are challenges for both sides and the only question is will they be resolved to satisfy “the money” or to satisfy “the people”? With the subterfuge set aside “the money” or “the people” is the only one real issue. The Republican / Tea Party is owned and controlled by “the money” and over the last twelve years they have shown their total concentration is on serving only “the money”, without conscience for “the people”. The Democrats are really dependent on “the people” for their support and power and, while obviously imperfect, are actually working to serve those interests. In everything, without exception, with the deception put aside, this one issue is at the base of everything and is evident in all they do. The ironic thing is that both need to sway “the people” in order to have their way. The Republicans are cocky confident that with the power and influence of “the money” they will be able to con “the people” and manipulate public opinion, to literally use the voters as “pawns”. The Democrats are always fighting to keep up and to get their messages across to “the people”. In the end it is up to “the people”; will they vote for their own interests or be duped into voting for “the money’s”?
First, to say “big government” is at fault and the cause of our problems is actually a deception, an intentional distraction. Reducing government spending and the deficit are important goals but they aren’t what caused our problems and focusing there won’t ever solve our problems. What really caused our problems is permissive, co-responsible politicians catering to “the money”, their strong supporters, who then exploited their advantages and who with run-away greed, gross dishonesty and self-indulgence caused repeated crises in savings and loans, banks, dot.coms, manufacturing, the mortgage, investment and financial industries, as well as corporate corruption (like Enron) and with costly industrywide failures, always with “the few” having enormous gains and leaving the costs and lost jobs to the majority. Any objective viewing of reality totally substantiates that and recognizes it as what brought us to crisis point several times. The simple truth is that Romney, Ryan, Boehner and the rest of the Republican / Tea Party are owned and controlled by “the money” and their focus is totally on serving the 1%, which just can’t ever help the 99% and will only return us to “more of the same”, Bush-Cheney style.
Romney and Ryan are aggressive and even cocky in their presentations and attacks but what people need to understand is that having bold and aggressive liars is not an asset but rather a liability. Recognizing all of their actions makes the arrogant deception clear to any objective and concerned viewer. Bush-Cheney are the example of what the Republicans want to return to and they simply spent eight years stubbornly pursuing their private agenda totally focused on benefiting only the few, their strong supporters, while dependent on their subterfuge to con the people - those actions cost the majority greatly. Boehner, Cantor, Ryan, McConnell, Bachmann and others have spent the last four years belligerently committed to only their political ambitions and to serving only the 1%, their masters, as they withheld bipartisanship and faulted and blocked all efforts, without any concern for the costs to the people. ...
... Norquist, Cheney, Rove, the Koch brothers and others have consistently worked at intimidating their own to squelch individual consciences and assure unity behind “the money’s” interests and then to propagandize the country with their biased subterfuge. The Republican / Tea Party consistently offers “puppets”, ready to perform as “their strings are pulled”, for their candidates - Norquist even said that “the next Republican president will only have to sign the bills sent him”, arrogantly assuming they will gain control. We have seen their successful manipulations with the “conservative” Christian, the Swift-boat propaganda, the Tea Party movement and the mega-millions poured into the Wisconsin recall elections, all being well designed, well controlled and well funded efforts to sway voters in the same single direction - they shouldn’t ever be underestimated.
Those who are blindly loyal, who are committed to the Republicans will have rationalizations to answer all of this and to fault Obama and the Democrats. I don’t consider myself a Democrat but rather an Independent who actually converted from being a long-term registered and loyal Republican - all of the above and their insultingly taking for granted that they can just dupe, use and abuse the people totally alienated me. I know there is plenty of room for improvement with the Democrats and I still believe in Republican philosophies but I recognize the Republicans have no interest in serving the 99%, only in manipulating and controlling them with their subterfuge, and I see the only current hope for the majority is in voting for the Democrats. I think anyone who can be rational, objective and honest with themselves will clearly see the truth in everything stated here. The only way to avoid the Republicans further pushing this country into being a two-class society, continually feeding the insatiable “more” (never enough) appetite of the 1% while the 99% continues to struggle, always loosing more, is to firmly reject what the Republicans have become and thereby encourage them to return to being the Grande Ole Party with a honest conscience and real concern for the people.
I told you earlier.. Italy bought Gm.. you dummies.. you arent American.. And, you know they will build in China.. Dont let them fool you.. If the gov. knows about it then it must be.. He would lose his run if he lies about that.. He was trying to be in the middle this whole time but Obama kept lying about what he had done for Gm and now you know.. Once again Obama is lying.. GM is owned by Italy..
I heard Bain is owned by China.
Only way that would be possible is if there's voting machine hanky panky-- is the GOP planning to steal Ohio as they did in '04???
A vote for Romney will send woman's rights back to 1950
And, based on the polls, only half of America cares about women's rights. Sad, but true.
I live in Ohio and I do not believe Romney will win here.
Not from what I have seen and heard living here in OHIO.
Big scoop! Stop the presses! This is big, really big.......REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR EXPRESSES WISHFUL THINKING AND PREDICTS GOP CANDIDATE FOR POTUS WILL WIN IN HIS STATE
What would one expect?
Makes me wonder how many elections the democrats have lost in the past, due to republican cheating in Ohio?
The only "cheating" here is that ALL Americans are getting screwed by the SYSTEM of government. Changing the guy at the top does next to nothing, other than change the type of mess we're in.
None but I am glad you are already admitting to an Obama defeat and already setting it up as to why.
Stupid comment. Congratulations. It's the democrats that don't want voter ID laws passed in their states. Did you ever wonder why? It's so they can CHEAT and vote for their dead parents or other people. Everyone can easily to get a voter ID. Those that are too frikin lazy should not be voting in the first place. They are useless members of society.
Alan, stupid people are a bigger problem than lazy people. I don't care who you vote for as long as you know what the h3ll you're talking about.
Read this article from Thomas Sowell before you even consider to vote this November. Forward it to your family and friends:
*********
If Obama wins, "then the fate of America -- and of Western nations, including Israel -- will be left in the hands of a man with a lifelong hostility to Western values and Western interests.
President Obama is such a genial man that many people, across the ideological space, cannot see him as a danger.
For every hundred people who can see his geniality, probably only a handful see the grave danger his warped policies and ruthless tactics pose to a whole way of life that has given generation after generation of Americans unprecedented freedom and prosperity.
The election next November will not be just another election, and the stakes add up to far more than the sum of the individual issues. Moreover, if reelected and facing no future election, whatever political constraints may have limited how far Obama would push his radical agenda will be gone.
He would have the closest thing to a blank check. Nothing could stop him but impeachment or a military coup, and both are very unlikely. A genial corrupter is all the more dangerous for being genial.
Who the hell is Thomas Sowell and what paddy wagon did he escape from? Just because someone is able to write an article, doesn't make it gospel. Sorry, but there are a bunch of crackpots out there and I think you are following one. Maybe you should change to Limbaugh, at least we all know he is crazy.
.... YOU WANT TO BLAME OBAMA FOR WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MIDDLE EAST? Not to discount the American loss of those four men killed ... May God bless them and their families ....
THIS IS WHAT BUSH DID or DIDN'T DO ON AMERICAN SOIL ....
What Bush Knew Before Sept.11
"We were trying to figure out what they (al Qaeda) would do. We never had specifics about time, place, MO (method of operation)."
U.S. intelligence official, commenting anonymously.
President Bush was told in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network might hijack U.S. passenger planes - information which prompted the administration to issue an alert to federal agencies - but not the American public.
CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin says the warning was in a document called the President's Daily Brief, which is considered to be the single most important document that the U.S. intelligence community turns out. The document did not, however, mention the possibility of planes being flown
into buildings.
An agent in the FBI's Arizona office did, however, speculate about that, writing in his case notes about Zacarias Moussaoui that Moussaoui seemed like the type of person who was capable of flying an aircraft into the World Trade Center.
It was the observation of an agent taking notes as he thought about his case - an observation whose significance simply did not register at the time.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says that while President Bush was told last summer that bin Laden's al Qaeda network might hijack planes, he did not receive information suggesting that airplanes might be used as suicide bombs, as they were on Sept. 11.
Fleischer emphasizes that "until the attack took place, I think it's fair to say that no one envisioned that as a possibility."
The revelation about the president's security briefing comes as House and Senate Intelligence Committee investigators prepare for public hearings beginning next month on whether an intelligence community which spends $30 billion a year should have been able to provide a more specific warning in advance of Sept. 11.
The New York Times reports that an FBI agent in Arizona warned his superiors last summer that bin Laden might be sending students to U.S. flight schools.
Investigators have since Sept. 11 suspected bin Laden's al Qaeda network of masterminding the terror attacks on America, which killed more than 3,000 people.
Republicans don't want to see the bigger picture .... the middle east has been at war since forever ... the attacks on the embassy happened in the middle east .... Bush was for-warned too ... and did nothing and they attacked us AMERICAN SOIL .... HUGE DIFFERENCE .....
MIDDLE EAST - 4 KILLED
AMERICAN SOIL - 3000 KILLED .... YES REPUBLICANS EXPLAIN THAT ONE .....
MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA .... AND AMERICA VOTE FOR OBAMA 2012
I don't even know who this clown is and I am supposed to believe him. If every tom dick and harry can go out and give their opinion, then here's mine. Anyone who deserts a ship that has been floundering and is now being righted by the captain, deserves the same fate as the rats that left early. If you are stupid enough to change to something that is completely unknown from something that is working, then I hope you don't change your diet, or your route to work or your wife after a fight.
Obama just can't pass out enought free cell phones to win this election because more work than don't and buy their own phones. He hasn't been a good President the last 4 years at all and he won't be the next 4 years.
I do not want a woman's right to contraceptives and in vitro fertilization to be taken away.
Not entirely happy with obama, and consider myself right of center, but if you think things will get worse with Obama back in, I think it will even be worser with the Far right wing fasicts. The middle class is going to get hit big time, while the wealthy get all the benefits, the debt will continue to go up, while increase the defense budget, we can save money by closing alot of those over 700 overseas bases, we have to stop being the worlds policeman. The Republican party is not the party of Reagan, Eisenhower, not even Nixon
Disagree with you with closing any military bases. That would be the most stupidest thing we could ever do. Having put 15 years in the military I would never ever want the military to be down sized. I was a Democrat for 40 years now I have no affiliation to any party. Voted already and it was for neither O or R. Because both parties I despise some of there believes. But the two things I agree with is a stronger Navy with maximum amount of ships and marriage is between a man and woman. But on the other side I agree with most of the Democrats ideas. I disagree with about 99.9% of what the Republicans stand for. So with my heart I can not agree with Democrats or Republicans so I am a no party voter.
Now this is a typical idiot Republican governor. Had the auto idustry not been bailed out you stupid idiot you would not have had that 112,000 jobs growth. Of course you are so blind to see that. What does it take to wake these Republicans up. They are stuck in the 17th century and need to get into the 21 century really badly. Sick puppies they are.
I wonder if the Governor is banking on those Romney owned voting machines-It won't work,Attorney General has a petition of over 200,000 to investigate !!!! Buckeye's are not stupid,it will go to Obama but if it makes the Governor feel better to say otherwise,oh well !! I lived there for 32 years and still have relatives there,they are SICK of Romney/Ryan being there,and they have heard the flip flopping first hand.
lol, Romney owned voting machines. Is that almost like the Bush hurricane machine he unleashed on New Orleans? Libs believe anything but the truth.
dmallett ....some will believe anything they told to believe...lolololol
And in life, you're probably umbrageous in general. So, who cares.
LOL...did you look up "umbrageous." We all know you didn't have a clue what it meant.
Trouble, you ARE the sideshow!! Don't worry--he's not YOUR president, he is OURS.
Like you said, nine days. Then you can go back to denying evolution.
It all comes down to a few days from now. I just wonder regardless of who wins ,will these folks be able to take it. Are will it be same old crap,but a different day.
History clearly says that changing the guy at the top only changes the type of mess we're in. We will still be in a mess.
The system is the problem. You can't polish a piece of sh1t.
I don't know Troy. Romney is a piece of sh*t and he looks polished. Just saying...
LOL...so true.
I think that it will matter who wins. I think that none of us will have a break down over the winner. But I do think that some of us may have serious difficulties in our lives if one wins over another.
The only way it matters of who wins is what mess we will be in at the end of the next 4 years. Will it be back to the way it was before 4 years ago or will it be how we are today?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BXoNbB9J-Fk