Surrogates Return to Valley Following Final Debate
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Surrogates for President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, plan to stump in the Mahoning Valley today on behalf of their respective candidates today following last night’s final debate between the two.
This afternoon local auto workers will join U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio, United Autoworkers National President Bob King and UAW Region 2B Director Ken Lortz to cast their votes early for Obama at the Mahoning County Board of Elections here. Earlier in the day, Kansas Gov. Sam. Brownback will campaign on behalf of Romney and urge voters to cast their ballots early at both the Mahoning County and Trumbull County boards of elections on the “Commit to Mitt Early Vote Express Bus Tour.”
The visits, including an expected return trip by Obama to the Mahoning Valley next week, reflect an increased intensity and focus by the campaigns on Ohio, which is increasingly seen as the key state for winning the presidential election in two weeks.
The chairman of Ohio’s two major political parties both responded to their respective candidates’ performances following last night’s debate, ostensibly on foreign policy but during which both candidates repeatedly steered toward the domestic issues. On several issues the two debaters agreed on the current course of policy.
Bob Bennett, Ohio Republican Party chairman, issued a statement praising Romney. “Mitt Romney showed us tonight that he's fit to be commander-in-chief and that he has the ability to recast and strengthen our foreign policy abroad. This stands in stark contrast to President Obama's foreign policy failures, which have been very visible in recent weeks,” he said. “A Romney-Ryan foreign policy will have a clear resolve and no hesitations about our position in the world.”
Bennett’s Democratic counterpart, Chris Redfern, said the president “clearly dominated” the debate. Obama outlined “a clear vision to make America safer” while Romney showed “a naïve, unsteady, reckless view of the world grounded 30 years in the past,” he remarked.
“Simply put, Mitt Romney is not ready for primetime, not by a long shot,” Redfern said. “President Obama’s showed tonight, yet again, that his vision would build on all the progress we’ve made these past four years, honor our veterans, and move our country forward, not back.”
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.