Mitt Romney looked Thursday to paint his campaign as offering a "big-change path," drawing an implicit contrast with what the Republican presidential nominee called an obsession with "small things" by the Obama campaign.
The Republican hopeful hit the idea of "big change" several times during his stump speech, the start of a furious day of campaigning across Ohio.
"I commit to you, when Paul Ryan and I go to Washington, we'll bring big changes," Romney said, adding the president only offered more of the same.
"The status quo path says that we're going to have ObamaCare ... the big-change path says we're going to make healthcare more like a consumer market.
"The path we're on, the status quo path, is a path that doesn't have an answer for how to get our economy going," he said.
Romney continues to trail in Ohio, which will likely prove to be the tipping point of the 2012 presidential election, and was looking Thursday to chip away at the president's lead in the Buckeye State. The Republican nominee telegraphed his strategy — depicting the president as resorting to trivialities in an attempt to halt momentum — from the opening of the speech, when he accused Obama of "resorting to saving characters on Sesame Street or playing word games."
"The Obama campaign is slipping because he's talking about smaller and smaller things," Romney continued.
But the Republican nominee repeatedly looked to grasp the mantle of "big change" in his remarks.
"Our campaign is about big things," Romney said. "Because we happen to believe that America faces big challenges. We recognize this is a year with a big choice, and Americans want to see big changes, and I'm going to bring it to this country."
Romney even integrated the "big change" theme into his traditional request for supporters to convince friends and family who might be supporting the president to give him another look.
"Ask them, 'Don't you think it's time for a big change for the country? Or do you like things they way they are?' " Romney said.
The rally was the first of three Romney events in the state Thursday. Three polls were released Wednesday in Ohio:
Time magazine gave the president a 5-point lead there, SurveyUSA favored the president by 3 points and Rasmussen reported a tie.
