President Barack Obama stridently revived his early rhetoric of national unity in Ohio on Wednesday, as his campaign denied that its strong position in the polls was leading to a sense of complacency.
Speaking before an adoring crowd of university students, Mr Obama reprised the language of “red states and blue states” that eight years ago won him national attention as a young politician who promised to rise above America’s partisan divide.
In his speech he tried to draw a contrast with Mitt Romney, who he accused of “writing off half the nation” in his secretly-filmed remarks to donors at a Florida fundraiser.
Mr Obama arrived in Ohio as a New York Times/Quinnipiac poll put him ten points ahead of his rival in this most crucial of swing states.
Jen Psaki, the President’s campaign spokeswoman, denied that Democrats were “spiking the football” in light of their strong polling numbers. “We don’t get too whipped up when we’re up, or too whipped up when we’re down,” she said. “If we need to pass out horse blinders to all of our staff, we will do that.”
However, Mr Obama himself seemed to revel in the Romney campaign’s difficult past two weeks, telling the crowd at Bowling Green State University that his opponents economic plans would not work “no matter how many times they promise to ‘reboot’ their campaign”.
Democrats hope to capitalise on Ohio’s early voting programme, which allows residents to begin casting their ballots on Tuesday, more than a month ahead of the November 6 six election.
The early voting system is seen to generally benefit Democrats, whose core voters among the young and minorities are less likely to turn up on Election Day than the older people who tend to back the Republicans.
Reminding students that voting opens in just six days, Mr Obama urged them to cast their ballots and choose “between two fundamentally different paths for America”.
The Obama campaign sees widespread early voting as so crucial to its efforts in Ohio that it is dispatching First Lady Michelle Obama back to the state next week to remind Obama supporters to take advantage of the opportunity.
Bowling Green is a common stop for American political candidates and staff at the Campus Pollyeyes pizza restaurant were not surprised as the presidential motorcade rolled past.
“They all come here,” said one staff member. “I remember Reagan speaking on the court steps when he was campaigning for Bush senior. Reagan was beloved here.”
