Golfing great Jack Nicklaus said Mitt Romney would ignite “a real recovery” as he introduced the GOP presidential nominee at a campaign event in the critical battleground state of Ohio on Wednesday.
Nicklaus, an Ohioan, said Romney would return the country to “the America we were.”
Romney called the introduction “touching,” and referred to Nicklaus as “the greatest athlete of the 20th century.”
In 1999, Sports Illustrated named Nicklaus the “Best Individual Male Athlete” of the 20th century.
“I didn’t have that great an athletic career,” Romney quipped upon taking the stage inside the gymnasium at Westerville South High School.
In his speech, Romney focused on the debt and the deficit, where polls suggest he has an advantage over President Obama. Just off-stage, a debt clock showed the country’s more than $16 trillion in debt growing and growing.
“What’s a trillion? It’s a thousand billions,” Romney said. “An unimaginable amount.”
“If [Obama] were reelected, I can assure you it would be almost $20 billion,” he added.
Polls show Romney trailing the president in Ohio, a critical battleground that no Republican presidential candidate has lost while winning the general election.
A Quinnipiac University/CBS News/New York Times poll released Wednesday showed Obama up by 10 percentage points in Ohio.
"I know there are some people who want 4 more years," Romney said, "but we don't want four more years like the last four years."
