Defiant Romney: 'I'm going to win Ohio, become the next president'

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Wednesday he was unconcerned by new polls that showed him trailing by double digits in the crucial swing state of Ohio, and pledged that he would win both the state and the presidency.

"I'm going to win Ohio. I'm going to become the next president, in part because I'm going to have the support of people in Ohio," Romney told NBC News on Wednesday.

A New York Times poll released Wednesday showed President Obama leading his Republican challenger 53-43 percent, but Romney insisted that he didn't "worry about the polls."

"Actually the national polls, Rasmussen and Gallup, have it a tied race," Romney said. "States have numbers that are better or worse than others."

While conservative-leaning Rasmussen does show the race deadlocked nationally at 46-46 percent, Gallup's tracking poll released Wednesday showed the president with a six-point advantage.

The Republican nominee granted interviews to each of the three broadcast networks Wednesday after a packed schedule of three campaign events in the the Buckeye State. It's part of a push to rebound in the crucial swing state, and regain footing in a race polls show could be slipping away.

But at a campaign stop in Toledo Wednesday, Romney proclaimed multiple times that he would emerge victorious November.

"If I'm the next president — when I'm the next president of the United States — I will do everything in my power to keep America strong," Romney told the crowd.

During his interview with NBC, Romney was asked to address concerns that he is not connecting with middle-class voters. According to a Washington Post poll released Tuesday, a majority of Ohioans say Romney does not understand their problems.

Interestingly, Romney cited his Massachusetts healthcare law — the foundation of the president's similar national effort, and something Romney has kept distance from during his national campaign — to argue his compassion.

"I care very deeply about the American people, people of different socioeconomic circumstances, and I think throughout this campaign as well, we talked about my record in Massachusetts, don't forget — I got everybody in my state insured," Romney said. "One hundred percent of the kids in our state had health insurance. I don't think anything shows more empathy and care about the people of this country than that kind of record."

And Romney defended his wife, Ann, who in a radio interview last week told Republican critics of her husband's campaign tactics to "stop it."

"Ann is a very strong character. But I'm very fine, I have broad shoulders," he told ABC News, adding that he didn't anticipate any changes to top staff at the campaign.

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