Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney meets with a group of Pittsburgh area residents in Bethel Park, Pa., Tuesday, April 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)NANCY BENAC, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – In an election season when the economy is king, the central debate between President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney comes down to what is enough. Enough growth in the economy. Enough job creation. Enough help for those still struggling to get back on their feet.
Obama travels to two Midwest states at the epicenter of that debate, hard-hit Ohio and Michigan, on Wednesday to highlight his economic policies and place them in pointed contrast to the sharp budget-cutting proposals of House Republicans – and by extension Romney.
In Ohio, Obama will visit a successful job-training program of the type that the White House says would face steep cutbacks in federal financing under the House-passed budget, which Romney supports. And in Michigan, the president will scoop up more campaign cash to help him combat Romney’s efforts to frame his presidency as an economic failure.
Beyond job training, the president is making the broader case that while more remains to be done to boost the economy, he’s successfully brought the country back from the brink of financial collapse and done what he should to help Americans weather the storm. For Obama, there’s no more critical place to make that argument than Ohio, always an electoral battleground, and a general election bellwether since 1980.