President Obama to visit Cleveland to deliver address on economy

President Obama will fly to Cleveland hours after the Iowa caucuses for an address on the economy, the White House announced Monday.

Obama will travel to the Ohio city aboard Air Force One on Wednesday and will deliver remarks on the economy at Shaker Heights High School.

The Ohio Republican Party was quick to blast Obama's planned trip, saying "political pep rallies ... don't create jobs."

“Try as he might, Barack Obama can’t change history and make voters forget that he spent the last three years pursuing failed policies which have slowed our state’s economic recovery, threatened our domestic manufacturing base, and placed tens of thousands of Ohio jobs at risk," Ohio GOP communications director Christopher Maloney told The Hill in an email.

"Political pep rallies and swing-state speeches don’t create jobs," he said. "The students at Shaker Heights High School and all Ohio families deserve a president who will place their needs and opportunities for a brighter future before the focus of his own reelection.”

Economic issues continue to rank as most important in every poll of likely voters.

As what's left of the GOP field pivots toward New Hampshire, site of the next primary after Iowa, the president will be speaking in Ohio, a perennial swing state in presidential elections. Then-President George W. Bush won Ohio in 2004; Obama took the state by 4.6 points in the 2008 presidential race.

The president conducted two campaign-style bus tours earlier this year, traveling to swing states in an effort to pressure congressional lawmakers to pass elements of his jobs plan.

— This post was first published at 1:54 p.m. and has been updated.