Romney, Obama...

It increasingly looks as if the old saying "as Ohio goes, so goes the nation" will hold true in 2012.

If Republican Mitt Romney wins the Buckeye State, he probably becomes the 45th president of the United States. If he loses Ohio, Romney still may win the election, but in will be much more difficult. 

Karl Rove says Romney can win it. Rove says requests from Democrats in Ohio for early or absentee ballots are down more than a quarter, but requests from Republicans are up about 20 percent. He says Republicans' get-out-the-vote operation is larger and more enthusiastic; Republicans have a 12,600 to 9,500 advantage among millennials who have requested early ballots; and independents have gone for Romney in nine of the last 13 polls in Ohio.

So why can't Romney put this state away? Because President Barack Obama has both taken credit for "saving" the auto industry—the source of one in eight jobs in Ohio—and, from early on, has painted Romney as indifferent or actively hostile to the needs of the auto industry and its thousands of employees.

Neither claim is true. President Obama didn't "save" the auto industry, and Romney would not have destroyed it. The bailout began under President George W. Bush, although it was President Obama's idea to protect union pensions and buy large blocks of now-severely depressed GM stock—which was far and away the worst decision associated with this entire debacle.