Friday, January 22, 2010
CLEVELAND (AP) — President Barack Obama is telling voters in Ohio, wracked by high unemployment, that investments in clean-energy technologies will help boost the nation's economy.
Obama planned to use his visit Friday to test-drive an aggressive populist push on jobs, a top concern for voters across the country. The White House is shifting its message to emphasize the economy heading into fall elections expected to be difficult for Democrats.
Before Obama landed in Cleveland Friday, the state reported that its unemployment rate climbed even higher in December, to 10.9 percent from 10.6 percent the month before.
Obama was meeting with voters in the northeast part of Ohio, where steel mills have given way to rust.
A town hall session was on Obama's public schedule at Lorain County Community College, near Cleveland. He was last in the county before the state's March 2008 presidential primary, when he delivered a speech on the economy at a drywall factory that closed two months later.