COLUMBUS, Ohio — President Barack Obama, stumping Wednesday in the first of two of the most crucial states for his reelection campaign, mentioned Iraq for the first time on his three-day trip.
“We are keeping the promise I made when I began my campaign for the presidency,” Obama said at a fundraiser at the Columbus Anthenaeum. “By the end of this month we will have removed 100,000 troops from Iraq and our combat mission will [end].”
Obama wasn’t technically in Ohio for himself, or to tout his own successes. He was there to raise money for the state party and Gov. Ted Strickland’s reelection bid — “The main reason I’m here,” Obama said.
But the significance of Ohio — a swing state with 20 electoral votes that has changed hands between Democratic and Republican presidents — was unmistakable.
“We delivered the presidency for Barack Obama!” Strickland exclaimed in his introduction of the president.
Moments later Obama told the estimated 700 donors that he might not be standing at the podium as president if it weren’t for them. “You were there when we were up. You were there when we were down,” he said.
In a sign of how much of a toss-up Ohio is, demonstrators lined the blocks around the Anthenaeum. Obama supporters — many organized by the state party — chanted “Yes we can!” while protesters hoisted anti-abortion signs and others that said “Stop spending now” and “FAILURE.”
Obama, who won Ohio with 52 percent of the vote in 2008 but now has an approval rating in the low 40s, continued to attack Republicans as a party with “an attitude of, ‘What’s good enough for me is good enough.’ ”
“We tried this philosophy for eight years — and it didn’t work out very well,” Obama said.
He mocked “the naysayers in Washington” and criticized the economic policies of the Bush administration, while urging Ohioans — most of whom disapprove of his job performance — to turn away from the GOP.
“I know times are tough and when times are tough, it can be easy to give into cynicism and to give into fear,” Obama said.
