ZANESVILLE, OH – With a mere 10 days before Election Day, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan kicked off a two-day bus tour in Ohio, arguably the biggest battleground state of all.
"As Ohio goes, so goes America. I think you know that,"Ryan told the crowd inside Zanesville High School at his second stop on the ‘Victory In Ohio’ Bus Tour.
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Mitt Romney’s running mate is helping illustrate the GOP ticket’s final argument going into Election Day on his 400-mile tour of Ohio.
"As you look at the closing arguments, we’re talking about what it’s going to take to get people back to work. We’re talking about the kind of leadership that Mitt Romney has provided throughout his life, at running at problems to solve problems,” Ryan said shortly after the “Momentum” web video played on screens in the gymnasium. “There have been hundreds of millions of dollars of negative advertising from the spring on trying to disqualify Mitt Romney. But what we learned at the debates is that this is a man of integrity, this is a man of principle, this is a man who knows how to create jobs, this is a man we would be proud to call our president.
The seven-term Wisconsin congressman, who attended college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, also tried to make a personal appeal to Ohioans on a rainy Saturday in Big 10 Country.
"We come from Big 10 country," Ryan said to applause at Gradall Industries in New Philadelphia, Ohio. "I'm just happy the Badgers and Buckeyes play after the election."
The latest TIME poll shows President Barack Obama with a 5-point lead in the Buckeye State, ahead of Romney 49 percent to 44 percent.
Both the Romney and Obama camps have been campaigning in the state frequently plus being up on the airwaves with ads in order to try and secure Ohio’s 18 electoral votes. Obama beat Sen. John McCain in Ohio during the 2008 election by 4 percent points.
Speaking before nearly 1,000 people at his first stop of the day in New Philadelphia, Ryan tried to fire up the crowd in the homestretch of the campaign: “The debate is going to last for about 10 more days. The choice is yours on November the sixth. Think about November the seventh. Think about how you will feel the next morning when you wake up and turn on the TV….Are we gonna wait four more years before we have real change or are we just gonna wait ten days? We can turn this around.”
Ryan has three more events Saturday in Circleville, Yellow Springs and Sabina. He has another three events Sunday. As a result of the impending weather conditions on the East Coast, Romney will join Ryan for the final event of the bus tour tomorrow evening at the fairgrounds in Marion, Ohio.
