Obama assails Romney on Jeep ads in Ohio

President Obama kicked off the final weekend of his reelection campaign at a rally in Ohio, where he continued to slam Mitt Romney for claiming Jeep was sending jobs to China. At the first of his four campaign rallies Saturday, Obama said that Romney was not offering “real change,” and accused Romney of running misleading attacks with his campaign’s Jeep ads. “Changing the facts when they’re inconvenient to your campaign, that’s definitely not change,” Obama said at the rally in Mentor, Ohio. “But that’s what Gov. Romney’s been doing these last few weeks right here in Ohio.” The fight over Jeep jobs in the state has pushed the auto bailout to the center of the campaign in Ohio in the past week, as it shapes up to become the pivotal battleground in the presidential election.Romney seized on reports last month that Chrysler is planning to build Jeeps in China as a way to push back against Democratic attacks over his position on the auto bailout, and his campaign put ads up in Ohio on the China jobs. The Obama campaign has assailed Romney over the Jeep ads, saying the ads suggest U.S. jobs are being moved overseas when the China jobs are new. The Obama campaign released its own ad in Ohio saying Romney’s ad was false. Obama said Saturday that “everybody knows” Romney’s ads aren’t true, saying that “the car companies themselves told Gov. Romney knock it off.” “They don’t want this to become some political football in Gov. Romney’s TV ad,” Obama said. Obama has seen a polling advantage in Ohio in the past week, including a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released Saturday that gave him a 51-to-45-percent advantage over Romney. The Real Clear Politics polling average gives Obama a 3-point edge in Ohio, at 49 to 46 percent. The state will see a flurry of campaign rallies in the final days. Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, had a rally this morning in Ohio, and all four candidates will be back in Ohio on Sunday. After speaking in Ohio, Obama is headed to rallies in Wisconsin and Iowa Saturday before joining President Clinton at an event in Virginia in the evening. During his speech Saturday, Obama trotted out his “don’t boo, vote,” line once again, but did not mention “revenge” as he did Friday. His comment that voting was “the best revenge” at a rally Friday drew a rebuke from Romney and a new ad from his campaign assailing the remark.