Ohio Heats Up As Obama Slams Romney Over Jeep Production Ads

By Eric Brown | November 02 2012 9:45 PM

In the days leading to the U.S. presidential election, the swing state of Ohio has become a battleground as Mitt Romney has begun airing ads there accusing Barack Obama of planning to outsource Jeep production jobs to China.

Reuters

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama appear at the final U.S. presidential debate Oct. 22 in Boca Raton, Fla. In the days leading to the U.S. presidential election, the swing state of Ohio has become a battleground as Mitt Romney has begun airing ads there accusing Obama of planning to outsource Jeep production jobs to China. Now, in rallies across the state, Obama is firing back, claiming Romney's ads are completely untrue.

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Now, in rallies across the state, Obama is firing back, claiming Romney's ads are completely untrue.

The ads aired by Romney’s campaign focus on the automotive industry, which has strong roots in Ohio, as well as in Michigan, where the ads are also running.

The ads accuse Obama of damaging the American auto industry, either through incompetence or a desire to outsource jobs. More specifically, they claim that, under Obama, General Motors has laid off nearly 15,000 employees.

The ads also claim that, due to the Obama administration, Chrysler plans to outsource Jeep production to China to save on costs.

In recent campaign appearances in Ohio, Obama directly fired back at Romney’s ads, accusing the Republican candidate of "scaring hard-working Americans to scare up votes,” according to USA Today.

"You got folks who work at a Jeep plant who have been calling their employers worried, asking, 'Is it true that our jobs are being shipped to China?''' Obama said at a rally at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Hilliard. "The reason they are making these calls is because Gov. Romney ran an ad that says so. Except it's not true. Everybody knows it's not true. The car companies themselves told Gov. Romney to knock it off."

And Obama is right. Chrysler has repeatedly denied that American Jeep production will be moved to China, USA Today reported

Across the state, Obama continued to blast Romney’s rhetoric. However, while Obama spoke repeatedly of bipartisanship, he added that he would not cave in to each and every Republican demand related to budget-deficit reduction.

"I'm not just going to cut a deal that kicks students off of financial aid, or gets rid of funding for Planned Parenthood, or lets insurance companies discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, or eliminate health care for millions on Medicaid who are poor or elderly or disabled," Obama said. "If that's the price of peace, then I'm not going to pay that price. That's not bipartisanship."