Published on the front page of The Plain Dealer. Print version (PDF) PAGE 1 and PAGE 2.
Also published online at Cleveland.com: http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/07/president_obama_xxxxx_in_parma.html
By Henry J. Gomez and Casey Capachi
PARMA, Ohio — President Barack Obama’s speech in Parma on Thursday night capped the first day of a two-day push through the battleground of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In Parma, as at an ice cream social in Sandusky, Obama repeated from his campaign speech about the economy three weeks ago at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland. Obama said a vote for GOP challenger Mitt Romney and other Republicans is a vote to return to the policies of former President George W. Bush.
“Mr. Romney and his allies in Congress, they’ve got a particular view,” Obama said in Parma. “They believe if we cut taxes, especially for the wealthiest Americans [at the expense of education, Medicare and other programs] that somehow all this is going to benefit you.”
“I’ve got a different theory,” Obama continued. “I think they’re wrong.”
And hence the Betting on America theme. Obama presented himself as a president who has invested in working Americans, citing his support of the federal loans to Chrysler and General Motors.
The U.S. auto industry’s subsequent rebound has been key across northern Ohio’s car manufacturing belt between Toledo and Youngstown.
The president will complete what he has dubbed the “Betting on America Tour” on Friday with campaign stops in the Youngstown area in Pittsburgh. He carried both states in 2008, and both are expected to be competitive this November.
Obama also celebrated last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold his Affordable Care Act, the 2010 health care law that Republicans are campaigning against with gusto.
“We fought so hard to make that happen,” he said of the law during his speech at Washington Park in Sandusky. “We don’t need to re-argue the last two years.”
For the first time while in Parma, Obama met Natoma Canfield, the Medina woman who became the face of his push to pass the health care law.
Canfield, a breast-cancer survivor, wrote to Obama on Dec. 29, 2009, describing how she went into debt trying to pay health insurance premiums. The president invited her to join him at a rally in Strongsville a few months later but she was unable to make it. She had been diagnosed with leukemia. Obama cited her again last week, after the court’s ruling.
“It was amazing to get to meet him,” Canfield told reporters after the Parma speech. “A very proud moment.”
In Parma, the crowd began gathering at James Day Park as early as 8:30 a.m.
“I am here because I think this president has brought back dignity and honor to the office,” said Jean McCormick, 67, of Shaker Heights “I’m very proud that he took his stand on health care with everyone against him.”
Samantha Martin, 22, a recent college graduate from Garrettsville, came with her mother, Judi Gyulai. Martin helped with Obama’s 2008 campaign.
“One of the reasons why I’m here is to hear what he has to say about education,” Martin said. “Everybody’s been saying we need more jobs but we also need an education.”
Throughout the day,Obama kicked off the first bus tour of his re-election year by eating, drinking and shopping his way across Democratic-rich northern Ohio.
He ate a cheeseburger in Oak Harbor, bought some fresh produce in Danbury Township and stopped for a couple of beers with former Gov. Ted Strickland at an Amherst tavern.
Along the way, Obama continued an attack he has sharpened in recent weeks, one that contrasts his administration’s values with those of his presumptive Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.
Not to be outdone, Romney dispatched two top surrogates, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, to cover roughly the same swing-state ground and press their own case against the president.
It was another dose of the political theater Ohioans have seen since Romney tightened his grip on the GOP nomination and will continue to see for another four months.
“I know you’re probably already sick of all the comercials, and all the nastiness and foolishness and the reporting of my polls,” Obama told about 1,000 supporters who turned out at James Day Park in Parma, his final stop of the day. “But, look, I want you to understand that nothing could be bigger right now than the choice you’re about to make.”
“It’s about two fundamental different visions and how we move forward.”
Obama started his bus tour in Maumee, near Toledo. There, while speaking at the Wolcott House Museum, he briefly alluded to the Obama administration’s announcement Thursday that it would go to the World Trade Organization to challenge tariffs that China has imposed on more than $3 billion in U.S. auto exports.
It is the latest in a series of trade disputes with China over products including steel, chickens, tires and rare earth metals.
China last year imposed duties ranging from 2 to 21.5 percent on U.S. cars and SUVs with an engine capacity of 2.5 liters or larger. China contended the U.S. government’s bailout of several auto makers unfairly subsidized the U.S. auto industry.
Jeeps made in Toledo and Acuras made in Marysville are among the vehicles affected by China’s tariffs. The duties disproportionately fall on Chrysler and GM products.
Between Maumee and Sandusky, Obama visited Kozy Corners in Oak Harbor, where he greeted customers and ate a cheesburger. He also stopped at Bergman Orchards in Danbury Township, west of Sandusky, to buy a dozen ears of corn, peaches and cherries.
After Sandusky, on the way to Parma, his bus made an unannounced detour into Amherst, where the president and Strickland stopped at Ziggy’s, a popular restaurant.
Obama ordered two draft pints of Miller Lite, one each for him and the former governor. A few moments later someone handed him a bottle of Bud Light, which he nursed while posing for pictures with families and striking up casual conversations with other patrons.
“It’s not every day the president comes to your city,” said Parma City Council President Sean P. Brennan, who was wearing an Obama “Yes We Can” campaign T-shirt and who said he attended the president’s inauguration in January 2009.
“Parma, I always say, is the biggest little city in Ohio,” he said. “When you drive through you don’t realize you are in seventh largest city in Ohio. We’re main street America and people are very concerned about economy.”
“Many of my constituents are unemployed or their hours have been slashed and they’re looking to the president for leadership in the economy. I believe that many people believe in his message and what he’s trying to do.”
Kimberly Mansi, 36, of Parma Heights, a social worker who is now disabled, said she came to hear Obama speak about health care. She said her father , 61, is a small-business owner in Strongsville who had to drop his health care coverage because it cost him more than $1,000 a month.
“So he doesnt have health care for the next six months until he can qualify for Obamacare,” she said. “So I’m interested to hear Obama speak.”
She said her mother is also disabled: “So he’s the main breadwinner so if something happens to him it’ll be difficult for them to survive.”
Plain Dealer reporter Sabrina Eaton and White House pool reports contributed to this story.